Monday, October 29, 2007

Big Mo’ Bars: Peanut Butter & Creamy Caramel

Big Mo' Bar - Dale Earnhardt Jr.I’ve never made any secrets of my dislike of the cheap Palmer candies that are so ubiquitous at Easter. The one thing they’ve always had going for them, though, is that they’re cute.

Well, Palmer didn’t even capitalize on attractiveness in their new candy bar line called Big Mo’. I mean, why bother when you have Dale Earnhardt, Jr. on the package. The packages seem to have some sort of woodgrain on the lettering, which lends itself to an association with NASCAR especially well. I wasn’t going into this with high hopes, but really, this statement from Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in this article is really too much.

“At one point or another everyone has had their own idea of making the perfect candy bar, and this was my chance to do it,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “It’s really cool to have my name on a candy bar, and it’s a pleasure to partner with R.M. Palmer Company in putting this product on the shelves. I think Big Mo’ will be widely accepted, not just by racing fans but by everyone who enjoys a good candy bar.”

The bars come in two varieties at the moment: Milk Chocolate with Peanut Butter and Milk Chocolate with Creamy Caramel. If you pay special attention to the wrapper you’ll notice that the words milk chocolate are in teensy lowercase letters and the Creamy Caramel part is huge all caps about five times the size. See, they’re being responsible and telling you that it’s not about the chocolate.

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The Big Mo’ Milk Chocolate with Peanut Butter is a large, king sized bar clocking in at 2.5 ounces. It’s divided into 10 sections, each filled with a smidge of roasted peanut butter filling.

I have to admit that the chocolate was far better than I expected. Smooth and very sweet and lacking a bit of chocolate bunch, it wasn’t waxy and complemented the darker flavors of the peanut butter very well. There’s not quite enough peanut butter in there for my tastes, but this isn’t about replicating the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, I think it’s about creating a new bar.

The portion is far too huge for me (as are most king sized), and they do call the whole 2.5 ounces a single portion which clocks in at 380 calories.

The Big Mo’ Milk Chocolate with Creamy Caramel also sports two different designs on its ten sections. The top row has the Dale Jr signature and the bottom says Big Mo’.

The Creamy Caramel bar breaks well at the section lines without any oozing, as is often the hazard with Caramellos. There were a lot of voids in this bar, little holes from air bubbles. There’s not a lot of caramel in each little section, which means that the proportions are heavy on the mediocre chocolate. In this case there’s no salty peanut butter to balance it out. Instead it’s a strange goo they call creamy caramel. It’s not glossy, instead it looks more like a thick gravy.

It has a strong woodsy taste to it, not in the slightest bit buttery as the description “creamy” would have indicated. A little on the nutty side of flavor and not a bad texture really, but not enough to balance out the super-sweet chocolate.

While I had some trepidation at the brand and a little irritation with Dale Jr for teaming up with them, I don’t think they’re bad bars. They’re far too sweet for me and I think the portion is ridiculous (especially given the caloric density of the peanut butter bar). Cut these in half. I don’t think they will survive the test of time, as history bears out that vanity candy bars never do. I haven’t seen these in stores yet, but I expect you’ll see them at the usual places that sell Palmer products, such as 99 Cent Stores and other dollar chains, but they could pop up at convenience stores. (Here’s the page on the official website that lists stores.)

Jamie at Candy Addict stopped short of calling the Peanut Butter one Awesomely Addictive and didn’t care much for the Caramel.

Related Candies

  1. Elvis Reese’s Peanut Butter and Banana Cup
  2. Palmer Nest Eggs
  3. Palmer Milk Chocolate Balls
  4. Head to Head: Rolo vs Caramel Kisses
  5. Hershey’s Take 5
Name: Big Mo' Bars: Peanut Butter & Creamy Caramel
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Palmer
Place Purchased: samples from All Candy Expo
Price: unknown
Size: 2.5 ounces
Calories per ounce: 152 & 140
Categories: Chocolate, United States, Palmer, Kosher

POSTED BY Cybele AT 6:42 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. umm… am i the only one who thinks “big mo” is a terrible name for a candy bar, particularly one aimed at nascar enthusiasts?

    Comment by ruffy on 10/29/07 at 8:28 am #
  2. How in the world did this name get through the focus groups?  Did no one realize the connotation of “‘Mo” as being a campy, affectionately pseudo-derogatory shortening of the word “homosexual”?  At least, that’s how my friends and I use it.

    Comment by David on 10/29/07 at 9:09 am #
  3. You know, David…I don’t think anyone else uses it as a shortening of the word ‘homosexual’.  Most stop at ‘homo’.

    As for the name, I’m guessing it may be some sort of a nickname for Motorsports or maybe some tie to Missouri or the Missouri River. 

    Or Maybe ‘something you don’t really want to eat, but we’ve plastered Dale Jr. Face On it So YOu’ll Buy it” was too long of a name.

    Comment by Cat Skyfire on 10/29/07 at 10:18 am #
  4. Hey Cat Skyfire,

    I can vouch for David.  Me and my fellow gay friends often “accuse” each other of being “big mos”. 

    I’m sad that the candy, however, is at best “Benign”, because they’d make fun novelty christmas gifts.

    BTW, a quick Google search reveals “Big ‘Mo”, in this context at least, “is a play off of Earnhardt Jr.‘s hometown of Mooresville, N.C., and the longtime moniker used for he and his closest friends, the Dirty Mo’ Posse.”  (http://www.junkfoodblog.com/2007/09/dale-earnhardt-jr-launches-big-mo-candy.html)

    Comment by Kelly on 10/29/07 at 2:26 pm #
  5. I’m not sure why you’re irritated with Dale Jr. endorsing this bar, are you not a fan of him?  I’m not a fan of NASCAR so I don’t get the wole soap opera.  As for the Big Mo=homosexual reference, I wasn’t aware of that.  Most likely the NASCAR crowd isn’t either.  Anyway, I have to agree with you about the Palmer candies.  Sometimes I’ll see something that cacthes my eye at the drugstore and then realize it’s a Palmer and return it to the shelf.

    Comment by Patrick on 10/29/07 at 3:30 pm #
  6. I don’t know why, but when I read “Big Mo” i thought of a bowel movement.

    Comment by Heidi on 10/29/07 at 3:41 pm #
  7. Cybele's avatar

    ruffy - I didn’t think it was a horrible, but it didn’t do anything for me and it turns out it’s kind of an inside thing.

    David - hmm, I’ve heard homo, but not mo before. But Kelly has the explanation for the origin of the candy name.

    Patrick - nope, I have no problem with Dale, Jr. I just figured he had a choice of any candy company he could have gone with ... while it was better than many of Palmer’s candies, the market saturation of the Palmer company isn’t as good as, say, Hershey’s or Nestle or Mars (however Mars has a bunch of Dale Sr. stuff). I suppose it could be seen as him supporting the “little guy”.

    Heidi - hee!

    Kelly - give them a try, if someone is a fan, I’m sure they’ll be much happier to give it a try. Thanks for the extra info, too.

    Cat - I think most folks stop at homo, but probably not when they’re saying it in a nice way.

    Comment by Cybele on 10/30/07 at 5:16 am #
  8. My friends pointed the name issue out to me as well, and I was curious to see if anyone picked up on it.  I wonder how the public will react when the bar is officially released this winter.

    Comment by Jamie on 10/30/07 at 5:46 am #
  9. I don’t know if I am in the forum, but I am
    trying to find anyone who remembers at halloween
    receiving a pack of black licorice tubes like short straws that got soft as you chewed them.
    i think the little box had a jet of a plane on the front. This would have been in 1963-64
    These were the best. Just curious if anyone
    remembers. P.S I grew up in Madison Height,MI
    Thanks for any response.

    Gina

    Comment by Gina on 10/30/07 at 7:55 am #
  10. lol wow u people are funny…the bar is named a big mo bar because Dale Jr has a crew of friends called the dirty mo posse or Dmp so yeah nascar and Dale jr fans will like the concept of the name and the bar..i think its a great deal for 99 cents i just wish i could find out where to buy it im still chuckling over this comment what a homophobic small mind…“How in the world did this name get through the focus groups?  Did no one realize the connotation of ??Mo? as being a campy, affectionately pseudo-derogatory shortening of the word ?homosexual??  At least, that?s how my friends and I use it.”

    Comment by Paul on 2/01/08 at 4:03 am #
  11. Where can you find these candy bars at? They don’t have them at Wal-Mart.

    Comment by Ryan on 2/02/08 at 2:08 pm #
  12. Uh, about the name debate.
    As someone nicknamed ‘Mo’ bcs it’s the first two letters of my name. I’ve gotta say that Mo is short for many things: names, “more”, apparently homosexual.

    However, the package for this candy bar says on the back and side “Your ‘Big Mo’ment’ with Dale Jr.” So my guess it, in this case, Mo’ means a monent with Dale, eating his candy bar is like putting you in the room with him, yay.
    Hope that help y’all’s debate.

    P.S. Since it’s NASCAR it could also mean Mo’mentum, eh?

    Comment by M on 2/22/09 at 3:48 pm #
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