Some flavor crazes flirt with us and fade. Others stay and make themselves at home.
It’s too soon to tell for sure, but the Dubai chocolate movement seems to have put down roots and is spreading at a brisk clip. The sweet flavors and thick texture that have made Dubai chocolate bars a hit are morphing into other kinds of confections too.
Let’s back up for a minute. The original and now-classic Dubai chocolate bar was created by Fix Chocolatier in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2021, and by 2023 had exploded on social media. Rich and indulgent, it features a thick, milk chocolate shell usually encasing a creamy pistachio (and often tahini) filling mixed with crispy, shredded, phyllo-like pastry called kadayif.
Global brands and small bakers alike are riffing on the concept, translating it to croissants, milkshakes and more. Fillings range from peanut butter and jelly to s’mores to matcha.
"I don’t call this a ‘trend’ anymore - it’s a whole new thing,” said Din Allall, whose family business, The Nuts Factory, has about 150 U.S. stores featuring nuts, dried fruits and candies.
The craze has even contributed to a pistachio shortage this year, the Iranian nut producer Keinia has reported. It said the primary reason for the shortage is "the explosive surge in demand fueled by the viral ’Dubai chocolate’ TikTok trend, compounded by underlying supply constraint.”
Globally, Google searches for "Dubai chocolate” shot up quickly at the start of the year before peaking in March. They’ve remained elevated since then, according to Google Trends.
Allall carries 12 flavors of Dubai chocolate bar, as well as chocolate- and pistachio-covered Dubai dates, Dubai-coated roasted nuts, a layered Dubai chocolate strawberry parfait, and a Dubai Golden Chocolate bar infused with edible 24-karat gold for $79.99 (their regular 6.5-ounce bars sell for $18.99).
It's not just the flavors that make Dubai chocolate different, Allall says, but the bar's structure too - "huge, thick, with lots of filling."
Trader Joe’s carries a Dubai chocolate bar made by Patislove. IHOP introduced a limited-time Dubai pancake stack in some locations in August. Baskin-Robbins has some Dubai-inspired ice cream products on its menu, while Costco sells a range of Dubai chocolate confections, including a Dubai chocolate cake. Walmart and QVC also sell Dubai chocolate.
Swiss chocolate giant Lindt has a bar, and drew crowds when it debuted a limited number of them in Europe last fall.
"For me, it’s the crunch," said Erica Lefkowits, who was buying some Dubai chocolate recently in Dublin. "The chocolate is soft and melty, and the filling is creamy, and then the crunch of the kadayif. It’s all about the texture. Plus, it’s sugar.”
She was a little annoyed at the price, higher than your average chocolate bar. Part of Dubai chocolate's appeal, though, is the way it feels simultaneously indulgent and worldly. Pistachios, rose, saffron and cardamom bring luxury, travel and exoticism to the chocolate party.
In the U.S., Dubai chocolate is still a relatively niche product. In the 52 weeks ending June 28, U.S. retail sales of pistachio-filled chocolate totaled $822,900, according to the market research company NielsenIQ. By comparison, sales of all chocolates totaled $16.27 billion.
Still, demand for Dubai chocolate is growing much faster than demand for other varieties. Unit sales of pistachio-filled chocolates were up 1,234% compared to the previous year, NielsenIQ said, while unit sales of all chocolates fell less than 1%.
Despite the price, "I’ve never seen a single item sell like this in my 50 years of retailing,” said Stew Leonard, Jr., CEO of Stew Leonard's grocery stores in the New York metropolitan area. The chain introduced the BeeMax Dubai chocolate bar in March, watched it fly out the doors, he said, and then launched their own house-branded version (made by the company Chocopologie).
They've introduced a Dubai chocolate gift box for the holidays, which includes teeny Dubai ice cream cones, Dubai pralines and two bars.
Some other widely distributed brands in the U.S. are Moda, Magno and Leonessa. Other iterations of Dubai chocolate include Chocolove's little candies and Matteo's Coffee Syrups' sugar-free chocolate coffee syrup.
