National Granola Bar Day – January 21, 2027

Expected National Granola Bar Day Deals

While we await official 2027 promotions to drop, history shows that National Granola Bar Day often brings tempting deals from major brands and retailers. Look for discounts on popular brands like Nature Valley, Quaker, Kind Snacks, and Clif Bar at grocery stores like Whole Foods Market and Target. Expect buy-one-get-one offers, digital coupons, and possibly new flavor launches. Keep an eye out for local cafes and health food stores offering specials on their homemade granola bars. We will update this page with confirmed live deals as January 21 approaches.

History of National Granola Bar Day

The first granola variant, granula, was invented in 1863 by Dr. James Caleb Jackson. The doctor ran a health spa, Jackson Sanitarium, which operated on a hillside in Dansville, New York. Jackson made granula by crumbling Graham flour and baking it. He later formed Our Home Granula Company to sell the cereal and trademarked the name Granula. 

In the late 1870s, somewhere in Michigan, John Harvey Kellogg formulated a recipe like the Jackson’s Granula. Kellogg was also running a sanitarium and was looking to reinvent the whole grain diet into something more appealing for his patients. Kellogg made the cereal from wheat and oat flour, then hammered it into chunks and soaked it in milk. He named this cereal granula but later changed it to granola to avoid a lawsuit with Jackson.

A few years later, granola faded off the scene before it was revived in the 1960s. The revival was made possible by Charles W. Post, who reinvented the original granula recipe and introduced grape nut as an ingredient.

However, other individuals, around the same time, attributed the revival and reinvention to their efforts. One such individual is the renowned hippie Wavy Gravy, who used granola to feed a large festival attendee. Another such individual is Layton Gentry, the person behind Layton Gentry’s Original Crunchy Granola, which was made using oats as the main ingredient. 

With the growing success of granola, companies started making their variants and selling them commercially. The first company was Pet Incorporated, which introduced the first major commercial granola, Heartland Natural Cereal, in 1972. Quaker Oats Company quickly followed in its Pet Incorporated footsteps by introducing Quaker 100% Natural Granola. But the company had to change it to Harvest Crunch after Gentry threatened a lawsuit. A year later, Kellogg and General Mills introduced Country Morning and Natural Valley, respectively.

The first person to invent granola bars — basically, granola in compact form — is Stanley Mason. The variant of granola has become the most dominant and most popular among outdoorsy people and sports enthusiasts.