Grape-Nuts cereal. Created in Battle Creek, Michigan by C.W. Post. It contains no grapes. It contains no nuts. So why call it ‘Grape-Nuts’?
It’s made from barley, salt, wheat, and yeast – no grapes or nuts in sight.
One excuse – er, reason – says that Post thought glucose was formed. He referred to glucose as ‘grape sugar’ and the final product had a ‘nutty’ taste. Another reason – and one I’ve always believed – is that the cereal does indeed look like the seeds – or nuts – of grapes.
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Grape-Nuts made its appearance in 1897. It was originally baked into a stiff sheet, which was broken into pieces and put through a coffee grinder. Of course they needed to promote this weird new cereal, but how? Post marketed Grape-Nuts as a medicinal food to help health and energy and to enhance “brain and nerve centers”…