Foreplay is essential to a great sexual experience. But what happens when you've tried all the 'regular' warm-ups? What can you do to spice up sexual encounters with your long-term partner? What if you only have limited sexual experience and want to explore trying something new?

One thing many people use to expand their sexual horizons is to involve food in foreplay. In this article, we explore how food can come into play during foreplay and sex. We’ll look at a couple of tamer options, and a little from the more adventurous side.

To start with, any sexually experienced person will tell you foreplay is essential to sex. Without it, the whole experience changes, often for the poorer. Foreplay is an essential part of building arousal, which is the major ingredient in great sex.

But why food?

As a starting point, you need to ask yourself if you think you’d be turned on by something a little different during one of your next sexual experiences. You may think that it’s a little strange, but if you are willing to try it out, you might discover a new way to expand your love life. If it sounds like something you or your partner might enjoy, just keep an open mind and give it a try. Many people have found it exotic and rewarding.

On the other hand, it could sound like a good idea at first, but once you get into actually trying it, it may feel a little too strange for you, or for your partner. It’s important to stay honest with yourself and with your partner about it. If you're feeling too odd, just say so! Something like "you know Honey, this isn't really doing it for me; how about you?" It's important to ask how your partner feels, because if you're feeling odd, they might be too. If it doesn’t work for you, don't push it and ruin an otherwise great night of sex!

Eating before foreplay

Many people have used food in their foreplay before without realizing it. Ever share a fruit and cheese platter at bedside on a romantic evening? Maybe with the added touch of a little champagne?

Probably the tamest of possibilities, eating sweet fruit and exotic cheeses as a lead-up to a sexual encounter is a fairly common experience. Although not considered a part of foreplay by many, the act of eating just prior to sex is, in fact, the first stages of foreplay. The food taste of food enhances a person’s awareness of their body, and can for some create feelings of comfort and even wealth, which can be a turn-on for many people. It tends to have a mood enhancing, almost aphrodisiac effect for many men and women.

Try setting up a snack of fruit and cheeses along with a beverage as a way to seduce your partner. Grapes, strawberries, kiwi fruit, pineapple, mango, orange and apple slices, and small pieces of honeydew or watermelon all make good choices. For cheeses, try using thinly sliced cheddar or mozzarella, or if you're into more sophisticated flavors, ask the person at your local deli about more exotic cheeses like bree or smoked guerre. Impress your partner with a little knowledge of your subject at the same time. The fact that you’ve spent the time to prepare the snack, and even to learn a little about cheese, can be an extra turn-on for many.

Talking about how good things taste is a great way to get your partner attuned to their senses, which can act to heighten states of arousal.

Using food on your partners skin

We’ve seen it in some of Hollywood's hotter love scenes – the ice cube run over naked skin. But have you ever thought of using a piece of fruit? This is the next step in exploring food foreplay.

Try this simple sexual game with a piece of your favorite fruit. Take a piece of watermelon, strawberry, mango or any other juicy fruit and run it slowly over the erogenous zones of your partners’ body. Run the fruit slowly along lines that follow the contours of their body. Then use your tongue and follow the same path. It is sweet for you, and sensual and arousing to your partner. Again, if this sounds like a good idea, and you think your partner might enjoy it also, suggest it to them some time and gauge their interest.

Using food in fellatio or cunnilingus

Moving up on the ‘adventurous scale’, using food along with oral sex can also be an exciting new experience. The most popular items are whipped cream and strawberries, but many variations have been tried. Another common one is chocolate syrup. More than one woman have been known to keep a bottle of chocolate syrup next to their beds for just that purpose, giving their partners an added incentive to perform oral sex.

However, it is very important not to place items with high sugar content into the vagina, which has a finely balanced environment that can be badly upset by the introduction of sugars, potentially resulting in unpleasant yeast infections.

As a note – as the whipped cream, syrup, or fruit sugar begins to dry, things have the potential to get sticky. You may want to work a shower into the mix, or have a warm damp cloth near at hand.

You can try a variety of different sweet substances to find the stuff that works just right. One piece of advice it that you might think about keeping the food items (fruit or what have you) out of the refrigerator at least an hour ahead of time to let them warm up to room temperature before use to avoid discomfort. Unless of course your partner likes the whole ice thing...

Masturbation of self or partner with food items

At the top of the ‘sexually adventurous scale’, for this article at least, is the actual use of food in masturbation. This often involves long, thin vegetables such as zucchini or cucumber, used in all the same ways you would use a penis or dildo. Care should be used with carrots, as they are fairly rough skinned, and must be used with care so to avoid abrasions. At the same time, many find the new texture exceptionally arousing, gaining them new heights of stimulation and orgasm.

Here again you should consider warming the items up before actually using them in sex. Try letting them sit in a jar of warm water (not hot – we’re not making a stir fry here!) for five or ten minutes. Also, consider using some form of lube. Lube can improve the experience greatly, especially if it is flavored.

We hope that these ideas have been helpful. If you think you might like it, go ahead and give it a try! Many people find that using food in foreplay has made a very sensual addition to their sexual repertoire.