By most accounts, the miraculous boner-inducing pill does not taste good, but the popular erectile dysfunction drug Viagra isn’t really prescribed for its flavor profile.
Still, that hasn’t stopped ice cream makers from using its iconic shade of blue to sell gelato—and capture the imagination of the Internet.
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A picture of bright blue Viagra gelato emerged on Reddit’s /r/mildlyinteresting subreddit yesterday, leading to a barrage of puns like, “I don’t think that’s soft serve,” “OP has a hard decision to make,” “I think he’s gonna get stiffed,” “Knock on wood,” and so on and so forth, to the delight of Redditors.
Dad jokes aside, little information is available about the photo, other than it appears to have been taken in Italy, as all of the other flavor names are written in the language of gelato. Needless to say, the cerulean dessert aroused quite a lot of curiosity, including this crucial question: Does this blue pill-flavored gelato have the same physical effects as its pharmaceutical counterpart?
The answer to that is “maybe.”
Back in 2014, reports emerged of gelato ice cream being created by UK “food inventor” Charlie Harry Francis that tasted like Champagne and was developed for an unnamed “celebrity client.” Called Arousal, the ice cream actually contained 25 milligrams of the erectile dysfunction medication. But given the caché (and confidentiality agreement) surrounding this product, it’s probably not the same one being served in the run-of-the-mill gelateria from the Reddit photo.
However, one Italian travel site mentions “a new gelato developed in Italy using African herbs to act as an aphrodisiac,” warning consumers to “proceed at your own risk.” And the flavor seems to be pretty common throughout Rome. So, who knows? Maybe this ice cream does have the potential to excite more than your taste buds.
The only way to really know for sure would be to try a couple of scoops of the blue stuff, and maybe not around your mother.