Flavoured Condoms

We have all heard of flavoured condoms before. Bollywood movies would show chemists smile wide as they asked the main character if he wanted ‘strawberries or chocolate’, just so they could allude to condoms without using the word.

This feeling of scandal and promiscuity was not limited to movies alone. 

As a teenager on the verge of having their first sexual experience (despite knowing very little about sex), I was baffled by the packet of grape-flavoured condoms my then partner was waving at me.

It felt so…raunchy? 

So wrong, so titillating and deviant— to have sex for the first time ever with something that was ever so slightly more exciting than a regular condom.

I nearly let him use those horribly synthetic tasting condoms for penetrative sex with me.

I’m so glad I didn’t.

Flavoured condoms are your usual latex condoms with flavouring agents added to the lubes that your condoms are packed with. 

The latex itself remains the same and is as effective as a mode of contraception as regular, unflavoured latex condoms are.

Does that make them safe enough for penetrative sex?

Not even slightly.

Flavoured condoms were meant to make the act of giving oral sex more pleasurable for the giver. Instead of engaging in unprotected sex or recoiling at the taste of latex, flavoured condoms allowed you to access safety during oral sex while also having a fun time.

From generic ones like chocolate, strawberry, orange, pineapple and grape to somewhat niche ones like butterscotch, litchi, bubblegum or pina colada— the world of flavoured condoms has something for everyone.

And that’s exactly why it cannot be used for penetrative sex.

The sugars used in standard flavoured condoms to achieve these flavours were never meant to be introduced into your vagina or anus. They are easy to wash off of penises and the lube is safe for consumption in small amounts.

But sugars inside a vagina can only lead to one thing— an imbalanced pH with a disrupted immune system, leaving you more vulnerable to yeast infections. Over time, these disruptions to your pH could even increase your vulnerability to STIs.

This is why flavoured lubes also need to be used as an exciting addition to oral sex alone. When used on penises and vulvas with or without latex barriers, flavoured lubes should be washed off before engaging in penetrative play.

Ask your partner to take their flavoured condom off, wipe their penis and wear a regular condom before switching from oral play to penetrative sex.

This is also important to remember if you are someone who likes mixing food with sex.

Chocolate syrup or honey or ice cream may seem erotic and exciting to eat off of your partner, but try to avoid areas near the hip or butt where these sugary fluids could drip down towards the genitals and lead to sugar playing a part in your penetrative play session.

But not all hope is lost. Condom brands like Durex have brought sugar free strawberry condoms to the market so people can engage in oral sex and seamlessly transition to penetrative sex without pausing to change condoms. While they currently seem to be available only in Europe, it’s promising to see brands put customer safety and awareness on the same level as the desire to make sexual products look and feel raunchy.

Of course sex can be whimsical, playful, messy and spontaneous.

But why should that make it any less practical?