Grape-Nuts
Encyclopedia
Grape-Nuts is a breakfast cereal
Breakfast cereal
A breakfast cereal is a food made from processed grains that is often, but not always, eaten with the first meal of the day. It is often eaten cold, usually mixed with milk , water, or yogurt, and sometimes fruit but sometimes eaten dry. Some cereals, such as oatmeal, may be served hot as porridge...

 developed by C. W. Post
C. W. Post
Charles William Post , also known as C.W. Post, was an American breakfast cereal and foods manufacturer and a pioneer in the prepared-food industry.-Biography:...

 in 1897. Post was a patient and later competitor of the 19th-century breakfast food innovator, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg
John Harvey Kellogg
John Harvey Kellogg was an American medical doctor in Battle Creek, Michigan, who ran a sanitarium using holistic methods, with a particular focus on nutrition, enemas and exercise. Kellogg was an advocate of vegetarianism and is best known for the invention of the corn flakes breakfast cereal...

. Despite its name, the cereal contains neither grape
Grape
A grape is a non-climacteric fruit, specifically a berry, that grows on the perennial and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten raw or they can be used for making jam, juice, jelly, vinegar, wine, grape seed extracts, raisins, molasses and grape seed oil. Grapes are also...

s nor nut
Nut (fruit)
A nut is a hard-shelled fruit of some plants having an indehiscent seed. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts in English, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts...

s. The cereal is actually made from wheat and barley, in later years, whole wheat so that the cereal could boast the nutritional value. Mr. Post believed that sucrose
Sucrose
Sucrose is the organic compound commonly known as table sugar and sometimes called saccharose. A white, odorless, crystalline powder with a sweet taste, it is best known for its role in human nutrition. The molecule is a disaccharide composed of glucose and fructose with the molecular formula...

 (which he called "grape sugar") formed during the baking process. This, combined with the nutty flavor of the cereal, is said to have inspired its name. Another explanation originates from employees at Post, who claim that the cereal got its name due to its resemblance to grape seeds, or grape "nuts." The cereal originally prepared by C. W. Post when he was developing the product, was a batter that came out of the oven as a rigid sheet. He then broke the sheet into pieces and ran them through a coffee grinder to produce the "nut" sized kernels.

Marketing

Grape-Nuts was initially marketed as a natural cereal that could enhance health and vitality, and also as a "brain food." Its lightweight and compact nature, nutritional value, and resistance to spoilage made it a popular food for exploration and expedition groups in the 1920s and 1930s. Just before World War II, Grape-Nuts was included as a component of the lightweight Jungle ration
Jungle ration
The Jungle Ration was a dry, lightweight United States military ration developed by the U.S. Army in World War II for soldiers on extended missions in tropical regions.-Origins, development, and use:...

 used by some U.S. and Allied forces in wartime operations before 1944.

A 1939 ad campaign by cartoonist Walter Hoban
Walter Hoban
Walter C. Hoban was an American cartoonist best known for his comic strip Jerry on the Job.Born in Philadelphia, Hoban came from a newspaper family...

 continued his Jerry on the Job
Jerry on the Job
Jerry on the Job was a popular comic strip by cartoonist Walter Hoban which was set in a railroad station. Syndicated by William Randolph Hearst's International Feature Service, it ran from 1913 into the 1930s....

comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

 in Woman's Day
Woman's Day
Woman's Day is aimed at a female readership, covering such subjects as food, nutrition, fitness, beauty and fashion. The magazine edition is one of the "Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines....

magazine and daily newspaper comics pages.

During the 1960s, advertising for the brand promoted Grape-Nuts as the cereal that "fills you up, not out." Brand users, particularly mother/daughter look-alikes, were shown engaged in fitness activities such as tennis, horseback riding, skiing, and swimming. Also appearing during the "fills you up, not out" campaign were Andy Griffith and Don Knotts as their characters from "The Andy Griffith Show," Sheriff Andy Taylor and Deputy Barney Fife. In hindsight, Grape-Nuts having a glycemic index
Glycemic index
The glycemic index, glycaemic index, or GI is a measure of the effects of carbohydrates on blood sugar levels. Carbohydrates that break down quickly during digestion and release glucose rapidly into the bloodstream have a high GI; carbohydrates that break down more slowly, releasing glucose more...

 of 71, which is higher than of table sugar (sucrose, GI 60), so it makes you take up fat ('fills you out') easier than most other sweetened foods.

This ad campaign produced at least one television commercial featuring a catchphrase that became a target for numerous sketches and satires in other media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...

. Spanning the ensuing two decades, "Oh no, Mrs. Burke! I thought you were Dale!" was parodied in the film The Kentucky Fried Movie
The Kentucky Fried Movie
The Kentucky Fried Movie is an American comedy film, released in 1977 and directed by John Landis. The film's writers were the team of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker. This same team would go on to write and direct Airplane!, Top Secret! and the Police Squad! television series and its...

and continued to appear in comedy routines. This line is remembered most today by those who saw the 1968 through 1970 commercial.

A subsequent ad campaign generated another catchphrase, as Euell Gibbons
Euell Gibbons
Euell Theophilus Gibbons was an outdoorsman and proponent of natural diets during the 1960s.He was born in Clarksville, Texas, on September 14, 1911, and spent much of his youth in the hilly terrain of New Mexico during the dust bowl era. His mother taught him about foods available in the wild...

 became the spokesperson for the brand, promoting Grape-Nuts as the "Back to Nature Cereal." The line "Ever eat a pine tree?" proved to draw increased attention to the product from consumers, as well as from comedians of all sorts.

Grape-Nuts is credited with being the first widespread product to use a coupon in sales promotion when C.W. Post Company offered a penny-off coupon to get people to try their cereal in the late 1890s.

At one time, Grape-Nuts was the seventh most popular cold cereal, but sales declined as Post was sold from one company to another. Circa 2005 it held less than 1% of the market. About this time the formula was changed, grinding the grain husks into the flour so it could be pitched as "whole grain." The addition of vitamins and minerals allowed it to qualify for food-stamp programs. Ralcorp
Ralcorp
Ralcorp Holdings is a manufacturer of various food products, including breakfast cereal, cookies, crackers, chocolate, snack foods, mayonnaise, pasta and peanut butter. The company is based in St. Louis, Missouri. The majority of the items Ralcorp makes are private label, store brand products. It...

, the current owner of Post, has undertaken new advertising campaigns to try to revitalize sales of the Post cereals.

Ice cream

Grape-Nut ice cream
Ice cream
Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...

 is a popular regional dish in the Canadian Maritimes and New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

. One origin story is that it was created by chef Hannah Young at the The Palms restaurant in Wolfville, Nova Scotia
Wolfville, Nova Scotia
Wolfville is a small town in the Annapolis Valley, Kings County, Nova Scotia, Canada, located about northwest of the provincial capital, Halifax. As of 2006, the population was 3,772....

 in 1919. She created it when she had run out of fresh fruit to add into the ice cream, and instead decided to throw in some of the cereal. It proved popular at the restaurant and the Farmers Dairy company began mass producing the ice cream variety, and it spread across the region.

External links

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