Grape-nuts are neither a cautionary example of the side effects of GM food, nor an unfortunate-sounding testicular affliction, but are in fact a breakfast cereal.

Their origin is proudly emblazoned on the rear of each packet¹, drawing attention to the fact that the world has thrilled to the joy of eating a breakfast cereal that resembles gravel in milk for over a century. Charles W Post had the bright idea of baking a wheat and barley loaf in a gas-fired oven, then breaking the resulting brick into small granules in a coffee-grinder in 1898 in the town of Battle Creek, Michigan.

Along with Weetabix and other more arcane examples, Grape-nuts are one of the most versatile of cereals. They can be taken with cold or warm milk, they can be baked into bars à la the infamous chocolate Corn-flake cupcakes, they can be eaten with fruit, yoghurt or honey, and they can even be eaten dry as 'nibbles' for the particularly sadistic or stoic.

Grape-nuts enjoy what must amount to the cereal equivalent of 'cult status', being of relatively limited availability in the British Isles, and having little apparent merit apart from vitamin fortification, fibre in spades and a density that makes a half-bowlful seem like a banquet. Yet they still retain a curiously affectionate status, much like Shredded Wheat, in that they are such a chore to eat that they must be doing one's digestion some good.