Hark, “moon melon!” Doesn’t it sound so exotic and absolutely delicious by name alone? But wait, there’s more. Not only is it impressively blue in color but it also changes flavor like something straight out of Willy Wonka’s factory. It has to be real too because it even has a scientific name: “asidus.” Can you believe it? Isn’t it awesome? Won’t it be the absolute tastiest? Too bad it’s just the newest hoax to circulate the Internet.

While it would be amazing to try an exotic Japanese fruit that looks like a watermelon, is the color of a deep Caribbean sea and hits every flavor profile on the human tongue, it’s still just a made-up food. A picture of a watermelon was digitally altered, The Daily Dot wrote in July 2012, and one of the reasons the phony fruit began to make waves on the Web again could be because the Twitter account Weird Hacks & Facts, which has nearly 2 million followers, posted a picture of the moon melon.

The caption on Pinterest and Twitter, which has been fooling people across the world, reads: “This fruit grows in some parts of Japan, and is known for its vibrant blue color. What you probably don’t know about this fruit is that it can switch flavors after you eat it. Everything sour will taste sweet, everything salty will taste bitter, and it gives water a strong orange-like taste.”

It’s also apparently really expensive too. “This fruit is very expensive, and it costs about ￥16000 JPY (which is about 200 dollars)."

On Twitter, it generally looks like for every person who says he wants to try the fruit, there is another person debunking the rumor and labeling it as fake.

For those who are still holding out hope for the “moon melon’s” authenticity, there are various different websites like Nourish Interactive and The Best of Raw Food, which do not include the phony food on their lists.

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