Dubai Chocolate, the chocolate bar stuffed with aromatic pistachio cream and crispy kadaifi shreds, is much more than this year’s viral sweet that has taken the globe by storm. It has turned into an absolute craze and everyone wants a piece of it—consumers a bite of the scrumptious sweet, and manufactures a bite of its booming sales.
Dubai Chocolate, as its name proclaims, originated in Dubai, though several social media users say it existed long before British-Egyptian entrepreneur Sarah Hamouda came up with the idea. Her Dubai-based Fix Dessert Chocolatier had been creating a series of handmade, filled chocolate bars, including some flavored with vanilla custard, caramel and fudge, and Nutella brownies. But it was the pistachio-cream bar that gave her company traction, along with the actual Dubai chocolate bar. Within months of a famous food blogger posting a viral TikTok video in early 2024, Dubai Chocolate became omnipresent across all social media platforms. Today, the video has over 80 million views and has been trending non-stop on TikTok, with users posting thousands of videos related to the Dubai Chocolate trend—from recipes to new variations.
In fact, the hype around the viral dessert has been so high that according to Turkish media, prices of Turkiye’s famous Antep pistachios have risen by 20 percent driven by the rising demand linked to the Dubai Chocolate trend.
How Dubai Chocolate is gripping the globe
As the Dubai Chocolate craze started gripping the globe, countries and sweet manufacturers alike started quickly adapting to the trend.
Dubai Chocolate is based on Middle-Eastern ingredients such as pistachio and kataifi (also known as kunefe or knafe in that part of the world) which are wrapped in chocolate, a more typically European ingredient. B. Laban, the famous dessert spot in Egypt that is also becoming viral in Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, was quick to update its menu of traditional Egyptian desserts with a modern take including several Dubai Chocolate variations. B. Laban has over 1.3 million followers on Instagram and keeps up with the trend by presenting new variations all the time.
In the United States, Baskin-Robbins, the famous multinational ice-cream chain, began selling Dubai Chocolate ice cream in many of its franchises. You can get Dubai Chocolate waffles in Milwaukee, Dubai Chocolate cupcakes in Houston, Dubai Chocolate pound cake in New Jersey, Dubai Chocolate milkshakes in Chicago and Dubai Chocolate croissants in San Franscisco. Even a 120-year-old Polish bakery in Michigan, known for its traditional doughnuts called paczki, jumped on the trend and now sells paczki in Dubai Chocolate flavor.
In the United Kingdom, just in time for Christmas, Lindt, the global leader in premium chocolates from Switzerland, released a limited edition Dubai Style Chocolate sold in a handful of select stores across the country at the price of £10 ($12.51) for the 145 gram bar. When Lindt announced that its new chocolate bar would hit the stores on December 18, Stefan Bruderer, Master Chocolatier at Lindt & Sprungli said that the company is “always tapped into consumer trends and after we saw how well the Dubai Chocolate craze went down on social media, we knew we had to get involved and put our very own twist on it.”
At the same time in Cyprus, as of December 19, Lidl Cyprus, the German international discount retailer shop, announced that “following modern gastronomic trends, and listening to consumer preferences, Lidl Cyprus brings the famous Dubai Chocolate and Dubai Dream, which have conquered social media, to all its stores.”
In Greece, Lidl Hellas this week, had to issue a statement apologizing to its customers that “due to high demand, Dubai Chocolate may not be currently available.”
Dubai Chocolate adapts to Greek consumer trends
From melomakarona (Greece’s traditional Christmas sweet), to tsoureki (a sweet holiday bread) and even bougatsa (a rustic pie with cream filling), Greeks have been extremely creative in using their imagination and jumping on the bandwagon.
In bakeries, pastry shops and even mini-markets across the country, one can find everything from premium handmade Dubai Chocolate bars selling at about €7 ($7.27) a piece to “pastes” (small individual cakes with various fillings) and mass-market chocolate bars.
Some have even gone overboard, going beyond the realm of sweets. A Greek butcher shop recently presented its Dubai version of pork chops, with a pistachio spread covering the meat along with kadaifi shreds at the price of €18.90 ($19.63) per kilo.
However, many Greek social media users have now been mocking the trend because of the overexposure of the sweet, saying they’re “fed up with Dubai Chocolate” even if they’ve never tried it.
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