Take a bite out of a 'Big Mo'

By Max J. Dickstein, amNewYork Sports Editor | mdickstein@am-ny.com

January 29, 2008

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Dale Jr's Big Mo'
Flavors: Creamy Caramel (350 calories); Peanut Butter (380 calories)
2.5 oz. each, $0.99
(R. M. Palmer Company)

With the sale on Jan. 10 of his first personally endorsed chocolate bar -- the Big Mo' -- NASCAR megastar Dale Earnhardt Jr. has added two ultrasweet new options to North American convenience store shelves.

Earnhardt is preparing for his first season with his new team, Hendrick Motorsports, and without his familiar No. 8 Budweiser car. Earhardt's celebrated father, Dale Sr., died in a 2001 crash at the Daytona 500, and Dale Jr.'s popularity is out of all proportion to his inconsistent results on the track.

But despite 18 months in development, the candy bar is an unbalanced mixture of sweet, sweeter and sweetest.

The Big Mo's manufacturer, R. M. Palmer Company, is best known for confections featuring Easter bunnies. It aims to make the Big Mo' a "lifestyle bar," said account executive Wendy Manning of Volume Public Relations.

"It's a nice treat, and it's a big piece of chocolate," Manning said by telephone Monday from Centennial, Colo. "If you're going to have a Snickers or a Reese's peanut butter cup, why not grab a Big Mo'?"

A milk chocolate bar available in Creamy Caramel and Peanut Butter flavors, the Big Mo' is named for Earnhardt's old haunt of Mooresville, N.C., and the Dirty Mo' Posse of friends with whom the 33-year-old driver still rolls.

The smooth, full-flavored filling of the Peanut Butter Big Mo' impressed amNewYork tasters as a strong alternative to the gritty and dry contents of its most obvious competitor, Reese's.

However, the bludgeoning sweetness of the Big Mo' milk chocolate found few supporters, especially when combined with the overpoweringly saccharine filling of the Creamy Caramel Big Mo'.

The Big Mo' seems destined to be a hit with die-hard fans, but probably not the general, candy-bar-chewing public.