“That’s a good bar”

Posted April 26, 2010

In the 1920s Hershey Chocolate Company wanted to expand its product line and began experimenting with formulas for another nut bar. Samuel Hinkle, who began his career as a plant chemist in November 1924, spearheaded the company’s efforts. He shared vivid memories of developing the formula for Mr. Goodbar in 1925 in his 1975 oral history interview:

We’d been experimenting with a peanut bar, peanuts being a popular product with the American people,” said Hinkle. “We decided we’d better use Spanish peanuts rather than Virginia peanuts. We came up with this Spanish peanut, a small round peanut, and we left the little red shell on the outside. We called it roasted, but we really were frying the peanuts in fat and combining them with our milk chocolate. We began to think about a name. Actually, it was Mr. Hershey who really came up with the name. Someone said, ‘That’s a good bar.’ And his (Mr. Hershey’s) hearing being a little bad, he thought they said, Mr. Goodbar. So he named it Mr. Goodbar.

Mr. Goodbar is one of the Chocolate Company’s most enduring products. During the 1930s Depression Era, it was marketed as a “Tasty Lunch” because the peanuts gave it added nutritional value. During these years the bars sold 2 for a 5 cents. In the 1950s and 1960s the bars carried the slogan, “Quick Energy in Every Bar!”