Prices are exploding in every corner of the country, leaving shoppers expecting higher prices for groceries. However, the shocker this time is a bag of Penny Pound Ice branded “Ballz” that is causing a stir with its high price. It is sold at Erewhon, the supermarket known for its high prices and celebrity customers. The luxury grocery store has been the subject of ridicule for charging exorbitant prices for the most basic and everyday items. On its shelves, you can find raw milk for $20, a bottle of “oxygenated” water for $26 and hot sauces that cost up to $40, among other things.

A bag of eight large frozen scoops costs a whopping $32. “That was the biggest hurdle: trying to explain and, I think, justify in some ways the difference in product and price,” Gordon Bellaver, partner at Penny Pound, told Eater.

He defended the product, saying that people should look at the product the same way they look at luxury items. “If you spend $50, $60, $100 on a bottle of whiskey, mezcal or rum, but you put regular ice in it, to me that’s the equivalent of buying a Lamborghini and putting regular gasoline in it – you’re not doing the product you spent so much money on any favors,” he added.

The viral “Ballz” are sold directly by Penny Pound for $28, which is less than the price at Erewhon. Bellaver claimed that it is not the same ice that you get by freezing water at home. This is mainly because the water in our homes contains minerals like calcium and magnesium that make the ice cloudy.

Penny Pound Ice, on the other hand, uses water in which impurities cannot settle. Instead, they rise to the top and are later removed. What remains is a “300-pound block of ice” which is cut into smaller cubes.

Then those cubes are sawed into shape, which in turn requires further steps to form perfect spheres. “To get a perfect two-and-a-half-inch diameter sphere, we usually have to start with a three- or three-and-a-half-inch diameter cube,” he explained. “The raw material that goes into the product is already more than the cubes.”

However, the consensus online was that the price was just too high for something as simple as ice cream. In a video posted by @lizziedushaj on TikTok, the creator showed off the size of the ice cream balls and the fact that they looked like crystals when wet. “It’s supposed to be made from very special water,” the TikTok creator says in the video.

“I really like the look of it and apparently when it gets wet it turns crystal clear,” she said, before licking the ice ball and announcing to her viewers, “It tastes exactly like water.” People in the comments section had plenty to say: “Glad you tried it before mixing it with low-quality water,” writes @turtlesanwich, while another comment read, “I’m convinced we’re in Black Mirror. This is the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”