Grape-Nuts

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A box of Grape Nuts.

Grape-Nuts is a breakfast cereal developed by C. W. Post in 1897. Post was a patient and later competitor of the 19th-century breakfast food innovator, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. Neither grapes nor nuts have ever been ingredients in the cereal. The original formula for Grape-Nuts called for grape sugar, which is composed mostly of glucose unlike most other sugar sources and food sweeteners which are principally sucrose. This, combined with the "nutty" flavor of the cereal inspired its name. But some employees at Post claim that the cereal got its name because the tiny nuggets resemble grape seeds or grape "nuts".

Grape-Nuts was soon marketed as a natural cereal that could enhance health and vitality, and also as a "brain food." 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.

This ad campaign produced at least one television commercial featuring a "catch-phrase" that became a target for numerous sketches, comics, riffs, and take-offs in other media. Spanning the ensuing two decades, "Oh no, Mrs. Burke! I thought you were Dale!" continued to appear in comedy. This line is remembered today by most who saw the 1968 through 1970 commercial, while it is also familiar to many people too young to have seen the original TV spots.

An ad campaign following the above utilized a similarly catchy phrase, as Euell Gibbons 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. Gibbons made the TV ads until he died on December 29, 1975.

The cereal is now produced by Post Cereals.

1 Trivia
2 See also
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Trivia

"Grape-nuts pudding" is a regional New England dessert.

Grape-Nuts is accredited with being the first 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.

Grape-Nuts were mentioned on Mad TV in a sketch where Will Sasso was acting as Arnold Schwarzenegger who imitates Jerry Seinfeld and says: "What is the Deal with Grape-Nuts? They’re not grapes, and they’re not nuts. What is the deal?"