Comment by tzs
5 years ago
How it came to be called Grape-Nuts when it is neither is explained on grapenuts.com [1]:
> Grape-Nuts actually contains neither grapes nor nuts. It’s made from wheat and barley. So, why is it called Grape-Nuts? As with many great emblems in history, there are two versions of the story. One says that Mr. Post believed glucose, 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 claims that the cereal got its name from its resemblance to grape seeds, or grape “nuts.”
Btw, the German word for glucose is Traubenzucker, which literally translates to "grape sugar". I'm not sure if it's also common in English.
My father's hometown, in the United States, had a total of five German language daily newspapers when he was a boy. This was a bit after C.W. Post died, but I expect that either it was German influence or at the time both Americans and Germans (and German-Americans) referred to dextrose as grape sugar and that usage just faded among the English speaking populations.