A dessert born almost by chance, a trend that started from a social video and a surge in the prices that worries the producers: this is the parable of Chocolate dubaithe chocolate bar with kataifi and pistachio heart which, in a few weeks, has become viral all over the world. Not only online, but also on the shelves of pastry shops, desserts and supermarkets, where it is often difficult to find.
The spark is struck on Tiktok, where millions of users-from influencers to simple greedy-started reviewing or replicating the viral bar, born in 2021 from the creative mind of the British-Egyptian engineer Sarah Hamouda, founder of the Fix Dessert Chocolatier brand. Inspired by the Arab tradition of Knafeh, its version contains the crunchiness of the kataifi (a filiform pasta used in many Middle Eastern sweets) and the softness of a pistachio cream inside a dark chocolate shell.
In a few months, the tablet has been able to conquer pastry shops and supermarkets all over the world. Among the first to sniff the commercial potential was Lindt, which burned the stages of its traditional long development processes to launch, in November 2024, a limited edition of the Dubai shiled in some boutiques selected in Germany. The stocks run out in a few hours, with files outside the shops and retailers on eBay at decreased prices.
The success is such that Lindt decides to transform Dubai shit into a permanent product, slightly changing the recipe to adapt it to large -scale production. Immediately afterwards Esselunga also arrive, with the “Delica Dore” tablet, and Lidl, with the “Dubai Style” line on the JD Gross brand. In parallel, artisan pastry chefs also try their hand at their version of the trend: among these, Ernst Knam, which offers a gourmet version with Sicilian pistachio, golden kataifi and Maldon salt.
The downside: what is happening to pistachio?
The planetary success of Chocolate dubai He had unexpected but very concrete consequences on the global pistachio market. One of the key ingredients of the recipe, together with chocolate, tahina and kataifi pasta, is precisely pistachio cream, often obtained from high quality pistachios. But the question generated by this new trend has triggered a real global deficiency of pistachios, which is making prices rise and putting in difficulty Even big brands such as Lindt, who now struggle to satisfy the question.
In short, the boom of the chocolate of Dubai has unleashed a real pistachio race, leading to an international deficiency of this key ingredient, cultivated mainly between the United States and Iran. According to Giles Hacking, expert of the CG Hacking commercial company that deals with dried fruit, Within a year, the price of pistachios climbed from 7.65 to 10.30 dollars per kilo.
The problem is not born only from the ever wider question but also from the harvest in the United States, the world’s largest exporter, which has been disappointing. Less pistachios than usual, even if of superior quality, which have been intended for sale as a whole fruit still in the shell, leaving less raw material for creams and stuffed.
Meanwhile, Iranian exports to the United Arab Emirates increased by 40% in the six months preceding in March compared to the previous year, a sign that the Tiktok effect has had a direct impact also on commercial routes.
Everything for a viral tablet. And it is not the first time that a gastronomic trend of the genre sends an entire sector into tilt. It had already happened with the Avocado Toast and Pink Latte Mania, but the case of the Dubai Chocolate shows how much today social media are capable of influencing not only food fashions, but also the markets of raw materials.
And while the pistachio becomes a rare goods, there are those who ask: is it really worth chasing every trend, if they are the costs of it producers, consumers and small craftsmen?
