Quick answer
Dubai chocolate is a milk chocolate bar filled with a creamy pistachio and tahini center mixed with crispy shredded kataifi pastry (kunafa). It was created in 2021 by FIX Dessert Chocolatier in Dubai and went mega-viral on TikTok in late 2023. The magic is the texture contrast: smooth chocolate, rich pistachio cream, and an ASMR-level crunch in every bite.
What is Dubai chocolate, exactly?
Dubai chocolate is a stuffed chocolate bar, not a flavor of chocolate. Picture a thick milk chocolate shell hiding a bright green filling made from pistachio cream, tahini, and kunafa, which is shredded filo pastry toasted until it shatters. It looks like a regular chocolate bar from the outside, but snap it open and you get that viral green cross-section all over your feed.
The original bar is called "Can't Get Knafeh of It," and the name tells you everything: it is a chocolate bar built around knafeh, the Middle Eastern dessert of crispy shredded pastry, sweet cheese or cream, and crushed pistachios. Chocolatiers took those flavors, packed them into a bar, and the internet did the rest.
What is Dubai chocolate made of?
A classic Dubai chocolate bar has three layers of flavor working together:
- The shell: smooth milk chocolate, thick enough to give a solid snap.
- The cream: a pistachio-tahini filling. Real pistachio butter gives it that vivid green color and deep nutty taste, while tahini adds a mellow sesame richness.
- The crunch: kunafa, also spelled kataifi or kadayif. These are hair-thin strands of shredded filo dough, toasted in butter until golden and crisp. This is the ingredient that makes the bar loud.
Our Dubai chocolate bar keeps it classic: crispy kunafa and premium pistachios in a milk chocolate shell, 6.35 oz per bar, individually wrapped, and both Kosher and Halal certified.
Who invented Dubai chocolate?
Dubai chocolate was invented in 2021 by Sarah Hamouda, a British-Egyptian engineer living in Dubai, together with Filipino chef Nouel Catis Omamalin. Hamouda was pregnant and craving the knafeh her mother used to make, so the two of them built a chocolate bar around it through their company, FIX Dessert Chocolatier.
For two years it was a local Dubai secret, sold in small daily drops that sold out in minutes. Then in late 2023, TikTok food creator Maria Vehera posted an ASMR video of herself eating the bar in her car. That video passed 70 million views, the hashtag #DubaiChocolate took over, and chocolatiers around the world started making their own versions. The rest is snack history.
What does Dubai chocolate taste like?
The first thing you notice is the crunch. The kunafa shatters like the crispiest baklava you have ever had, then the pistachio-tahini cream floods in, nutty and just sweet enough, and the milk chocolate ties it all together. It is rich but not heavy, sweet but not sugary, and the texture does half the talking.
If you have ever had really good baklava with extra pistachio, you are in the right neighborhood. If you have not, imagine a chocolate bar crossed with the crunchiest pastry on earth. That contrast, creamy versus crispy in the same bite, is the whole reason it broke TikTok.
Why did Dubai chocolate go viral on TikTok?
Three reasons: the snap, the color, and the scarcity. Breaking the bar open on camera gives a perfect ASMR crunch, the bright green pistachio filling looks unreal against the chocolate, and the original was nearly impossible to buy outside Dubai. Scarcity plus spectacle is the exact recipe for a viral food trend.
By 2024, "Dubai chocolate" had jumped from a single brand to a whole category. Supermarkets, candy shops, and online stores all launched versions, and creators started ranking them, stuffing them into cookies and ice cream, and inventing spin-offs like angel hair chocolate. The trend is still going strong in 2026.
Why is Dubai chocolate so expensive?
The original FIX bars sell for around 69 AED (roughly $18) in Dubai, and resellers have charged far more. Real pistachio butter is one of the priciest nut ingredients in confectionery, the bars are thick and generously filled, and the hype premium is real.
You do not need to pay hype prices, though. Our Dubai Chocolates collection starts at $8.99 a bar, which gets you the full crispy-kunafa-and-pistachio experience without the markup.
Where can you buy Dubai chocolate online?
Look for sellers that show you the cross-section, list real ingredients (pistachio, tahini, kataifi), and ship chocolate carefully. Our Dubai Chocolates collection has 33 options, from the classic pistachio bar to bite-size party boxes, all shipped from the US. Start with The Best Dubai Chocolate with Pistachio at $8.99.
How do you store Dubai chocolate?
Keep it in a cool, dry spot away from sunlight, ideally around 60 to 68°F. Do not refrigerate it unless your kitchen is hot, because the fridge dulls the flavor and can turn the chocolate cloudy. Sealed and stored right, a bar stays fresh for weeks. We covered the full routine in our chocolate storage guide on the blog.
