Some have Grape-Nuts thrust upon them
November 9, 2024 1:27 PM Subscribe
But making a breakfast cereal was not the original intention of Charles William Post, the founder of the Postum Cereal Company (better known these days as Post). After a stint at the Kellogg sanitarium in Battle Creek, Post started his own local company to sell health drinks, namely the caffeine-free coffee substitute called Postum. Grape-Nuts were actually intended to become a beverage, as well. But Post decided that Grape-Nuts would instead be marketed as the most super of all superfoods. from The Unlikely Popularity of Grape-Nuts Ice Cream [Atlas Obscura]
More on bisque ice cream
More on bisque ice cream
I like the aquarium gravel texture of Grape Nuts, but as I get older I fear it breaking a tooth.
posted by LindsayIrene at 1:43 PM on November 9 [3 favorites]
posted by LindsayIrene at 1:43 PM on November 9 [3 favorites]
Just came in to congratulate on the A+ post title.
posted by notoriety public at 1:48 PM on November 9 [13 favorites]
posted by notoriety public at 1:48 PM on November 9 [13 favorites]
I love Grape-Nuts! I eat them every morning with yogurt and frozen berries.
They're an excellent source of fiber. And as processed, packaged breakfast foods go, they are one of the best available options. They have 3 ingredients: whole wheat flour, salt, and dried yeast. I don't know of any other cereal with such a simple ingredients list (nor any other that doesn't contain sugar).
I do also enjoy sprinkling them over vanilla ice cream occasionally. I have a harder time imagining them blended into the ice cream when it's made -- I don't think they'd retain their crunchiness as well.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 1:50 PM on November 9 [4 favorites]
They're an excellent source of fiber. And as processed, packaged breakfast foods go, they are one of the best available options. They have 3 ingredients: whole wheat flour, salt, and dried yeast. I don't know of any other cereal with such a simple ingredients list (nor any other that doesn't contain sugar).
I do also enjoy sprinkling them over vanilla ice cream occasionally. I have a harder time imagining them blended into the ice cream when it's made -- I don't think they'd retain their crunchiness as well.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 1:50 PM on November 9 [4 favorites]
"An erection is a flagpole on your grave."
-Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, from the move Road to Wellville.
probably the funniest movie Anthony Hopkins did in America.
now what does this have to do with ice cream and grape nuts. being from Michigan I've never heard of this. my great-grandfather worked for Post cereal 2 years after it formed as a clerk and accountant.
it was the first white collar job in the family before that they were farmers for a thousand years.
My grandmother gave me her Post cereal stuff, pens, stationary, some rare boxes, advertisements, tokens etc. luckily enough, I sold the collection for about 5000 times what it cost to make . he left post after about 4 years and started selling electric cars this would have been about 1899.
but yeah, the ice cream and the mixture itself... I wonder if within the process the grape nuts get softened a bit because I think there's this face that you make when you take a bite ice cream, it's melting and you're kind of rolling around the grape nuts in your cheek a squirrel with a waffle cone.
posted by clavdivs at 2:02 PM on November 9 [1 favorite]
-Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, from the move Road to Wellville.
probably the funniest movie Anthony Hopkins did in America.
now what does this have to do with ice cream and grape nuts. being from Michigan I've never heard of this. my great-grandfather worked for Post cereal 2 years after it formed as a clerk and accountant.
it was the first white collar job in the family before that they were farmers for a thousand years.
My grandmother gave me her Post cereal stuff, pens, stationary, some rare boxes, advertisements, tokens etc. luckily enough, I sold the collection for about 5000 times what it cost to make . he left post after about 4 years and started selling electric cars this would have been about 1899.
but yeah, the ice cream and the mixture itself... I wonder if within the process the grape nuts get softened a bit because I think there's this face that you make when you take a bite ice cream, it's melting and you're kind of rolling around the grape nuts in your cheek a squirrel with a waffle cone.
posted by clavdivs at 2:02 PM on November 9 [1 favorite]
Grape-Nuts Ice Cream
Euell Gibbons would be all over that.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:10 PM on November 9 [1 favorite]
Euell Gibbons would be all over that.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:10 PM on November 9 [1 favorite]
"They have 3 ingredients: whole wheat flour, salt, and dried yeast. I don't know of any other cereal with such a simple ingredients list (nor any other that doesn't contain sugar)"
Shredded wheat normally consists of only wheat and a preservative such as vitamin E. Simple as a worm. Tasty too...
posted by jim in austin at 2:15 PM on November 9 [1 favorite]
Shredded wheat normally consists of only wheat and a preservative such as vitamin E. Simple as a worm. Tasty too...
posted by jim in austin at 2:15 PM on November 9 [1 favorite]
One of the more pleasant discoveries of my 40s was that Grape-Nuts are, in fact, pretty dang good for breakfast, and filling too. But they’ve gotten up to $6 or $7 a box and I can’t hang.
posted by Countess Elena at 2:18 PM on November 9 [2 favorites]
posted by Countess Elena at 2:18 PM on November 9 [2 favorites]
Yeah, I love Grape Nuts, but they've gotten really expensive, and the store brand Nutty Nuggets no longer exist. Maybe it's because they're all in ice cream now.
posted by hydropsyche at 2:23 PM on November 9 [1 favorite]
posted by hydropsyche at 2:23 PM on November 9 [1 favorite]
Grape-nuts are the best! These days I like to eat them warmed up with some milk and molasses.
My 7yo kid likes them too, he gets a real kick out of there being no grapes or nuts about it. The real reason for the name ofc is they have "the sweetness of grapes, and the crunchiness of nuts" .
posted by SaltySalticid at 2:30 PM on November 9 [1 favorite]
My 7yo kid likes them too, he gets a real kick out of there being no grapes or nuts about it. The real reason for the name ofc is they have "the sweetness of grapes, and the crunchiness of nuts" .
posted by SaltySalticid at 2:30 PM on November 9 [1 favorite]
He may have been whacky, but, Grape Nuts…
Let them soak in the milk for a while, plop some sugar on top.
So good
posted by Windopaene at 2:31 PM on November 9 [2 favorites]
Let them soak in the milk for a while, plop some sugar on top.
So good
posted by Windopaene at 2:31 PM on November 9 [2 favorites]
When I was a kid in New Hampshire, I don't remember seeing Grape-Nuts ice cream but a lot of restaurants had Grape-Nuts pudding, which was sort of vanilla-y with the Grape-Nuts mixed in, getting slightly soggy in the process. Never understood the appeal personally. But why are they called Grape-Nuts when they contain neither grapes nor nuts? Apparently because they resemble grape seeds. That well-known, delicious snack food that everybody spit onto the ground before the glorious invention of seedless grapes.
posted by Daily Alice at 2:42 PM on November 9 [3 favorites]
posted by Daily Alice at 2:42 PM on November 9 [3 favorites]
They still make Grape Nuts? They disappeared from the shelves here years ago.
The US ones used to be darker. They're now identical to the generic ones (which we also can't get here)
posted by scruss at 2:43 PM on November 9 [1 favorite]
The US ones used to be darker. They're now identical to the generic ones (which we also can't get here)
posted by scruss at 2:43 PM on November 9 [1 favorite]
I miss Grape Nuts badly. It is the unlikely American foodstuff that I lament my lack of access to.
posted by Kitteh at 2:47 PM on November 9 [1 favorite]
posted by Kitteh at 2:47 PM on November 9 [1 favorite]
The upward spiralling cost of Grape Nuts has driven me to the store brand Bran Flakes to these days. I wasn't even aware that there were store brand Grape Nuts alternatives (I have not seen them in any of the 6 different grocery store chains they have around me.
posted by KingEdRa at 2:50 PM on November 9 [1 favorite]
posted by KingEdRa at 2:50 PM on November 9 [1 favorite]
Grape Nuts are not flakes...
posted by Windopaene at 3:10 PM on November 9 [1 favorite]
posted by Windopaene at 3:10 PM on November 9 [1 favorite]
This thread reminds me of the movie "Unfrosted". I highly recommend. Silly and many ,60s references.
posted by Czjewel at 3:27 PM on November 9 [1 favorite]
posted by Czjewel at 3:27 PM on November 9 [1 favorite]
They have 3 ingredients: whole wheat flour, salt, and dried yeast.
4 ingredients - there’s also malted barley flour.
posted by zamboni at 3:47 PM on November 9 [3 favorites]
4 ingredients - there’s also malted barley flour.
posted by zamboni at 3:47 PM on November 9 [3 favorites]
When I would visit my dad and stepmom down in Virginia as a kid, I would be given grape nuts in skim milk for breakfast pretty much every morning. I later realized that my stepmom didn't really like food very much.
posted by grumpybear69 at 3:51 PM on November 9 [2 favorites]
posted by grumpybear69 at 3:51 PM on November 9 [2 favorites]
4 ingredients - there’s also malted barley flour
I realized that during the period when my homebrewing hobby overlapped my Grape-Nuts eating period.
posted by mollweide at 3:58 PM on November 9 [3 favorites]
I realized that during the period when my homebrewing hobby overlapped my Grape-Nuts eating period.
posted by mollweide at 3:58 PM on November 9 [3 favorites]
The few times I've eaten Grape Nuts it's triggered a deep fear in me, as they have that horribly unyielding crunch that feels suspiciously close to how I imagine chewing on my own teeth would feel (having all fallen out in the midst of eating said Grape Nuts).
posted by worpet at 4:19 PM on November 9 [2 favorites]
posted by worpet at 4:19 PM on November 9 [2 favorites]
Simple as a worm.
Boy, old advertising slogans were something else.
posted by mittens at 4:35 PM on November 9 [2 favorites]
Boy, old advertising slogans were something else.
posted by mittens at 4:35 PM on November 9 [2 favorites]
An incomplete list of places in Massachusetts where one can buy Grape Nut ice cream.
- Toscanini's in Cambridge
- Crescent Ridge Dairy Bar (In Sharon Ma and Boston Public Market)
- Cabots in Newton
- Richardsons in Middleton
- Lizzy's Ice Cream in Waltham and Harvard Square
- Rons Ice cream in Hyde Park and Dedham
« Older Second Sunrise over New Mombasa
posted by Czjewel at 1:38 PM on November 9 [1 favorite]