For most cereals, you can buy a “store brand” version rather than the branded cereal. For instance, if you like “Rice Krispies”, you can buy a non-Kellogg knockoff, rather than the real thing endorsed by “Snap, Crackle and Pop”. It will probably taste about the same, and cost about half the price.
Where are the knock off Grape Nuts? The stores I frequent don’t seem to have any. You have to pay Post’s price for them.
Suggestions that I go to Home Depot and buy a bag of fine gravel will be ignored.
There are a lot of “niche market” cereals that don’t have store-brand equivalents, simply because the manufacturers and managers don’t believe it’s worth removing one line of cereal to replace it with what they think will be a less profitable variety.
Of the four main supermarket chains around here, only one of them ever carries the store brand of Wheaties, although I can buy generic corn flakes anywhere.
I’ve gotten store-brand Grape-Nuts before, but I can’t remember where. Probably either Stop & Shop or Shop-Rite. Didn’t like them quite as much as Post’s, though. They seemed to get soggy too fast.
The Washington Post just posted an article on the most popular breakfast cereals in America (Cheerios is #1, with more than double the sales of the next most popular brand). They list the top 21, and Grape Nuts didn’t make the cut. No one wants to make a knockoff of something that isn’t popular to begin with.
I also get “Crunchy Nuggets” from Wal Mart. I never seem to encounter “Nutty Nuggets” any more, and even the standard (non-flake or flavored) “Grape Nuts” is becoming hard to find in stock.
Well, OK, there are some. Just not ones that have a presence in my area, as of yet. To get to a WalMart, I’d have to go out of my way. This is Target territory. Safeway / Lucky are the large chain supermarkets. Trader Joe’s, which knocks off most cereals without selling the originals, doesn’t have a Grape Nuts knock off (and it would probably disappear on a whim if they did - TJ is known for aggressively discontinuing anything which doesn’t sell well enough, on a store-by-store basis).
I wonder how much damage it might do to the enamel of my teeth to eat Grape Nuts. They always tell us that chewing on ice cubes is bad, right? Soaking Grape Nuts in milk for any finite length of time makes only a minimal difference.
HOWEVER, Grape Nuts make excellent cooked cereal. My recipe: 1 c Grape Nuts + 2 c 2% milk. Nuke in μwave oven for several minutes, stirring frequently, watching closely to prevent boil-over. (I’ve never tried it with fine gravel. Maybe this recipe works for that too.)
Several others above have mentioned that generic no-name brands of various cereals get soggier faster. I’ve noticed that too with several kinds of no-name cereal, and likewise with the bulk-food varieties that you scoop out of a big bin.
I’ve tried Grape Nuts several times, and can’t get past the fact that it looks exactly like something we used to make at the feed mill I used to work at. However, I recommend Grape Nuts Flakes- those are quite tasty.
