Grape Nuts
It’s not made from grapes and it contains no nuts. So what’s up with Grape-Nuts cereal? It all goes back to C. W. Post’s ideas about what was wrong with the average human diet.
In 1892, Charles William Post, then only 38 years old, was concerned about his health, especially his chronically upset stomach. So he checked himself into the Battle Creek Sanitarium (run by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, of Kellogg Cereals fame) in Michigan. During his stay, Post became convinced that Kellogg’s “pure food” theories were correct, and after leaving the sanitarium set up his own medical boarding house and farm and set about developing a line of healthy grain-based foods.
Post’s first product was Postum, a wheat-based coffee substitute, followed in 1897 by Grape-Nuts, a blend of wheat and malted barley cereals (that just happened to make use of the wheat bran removed in the manufacture of Postum). Post marketed both Postum and Grape-Nuts under the slogan “There’s a Reason,” and though he never specifically explained what that reason might be, he did include a copy of his healthy-eating tract “The Road to Wellville” in each box of Grape-Nuts. Post’s pamphlet, not surprisingly, advised people to drink lots of Postum, fill up on Grape-Nuts, and think positive thoughts.
Though Postum has remained largely a niche product in the years since, Grape-Nuts have been a consistently strong seller in the highly competitive breakfast cereals market. As for the odd name, Post once explained that “grape sugar” was formed during the baking process, and the finished cereal had a “nutty” taste. Voila (more or less), “Grape Nuts.”