My neighborhood grocery store had Ghirardelli Dubai-Style candy at half price, a 4oz bag for $7.49, so I picked some up. I just ate one, and it tasted good, but not something I would pay the equivalent of $60 a pound for.
They also had short-dated Dole Whip for half price. That’s really good too.
I don’t get it either, but some people really like it.
I never even quite got Godiva either. So what do I know.
The real Dubai stuff has a thick layer of crunchy pistachio filling and has a distinct texture. The jump-on-the-bandwagon knockoffs don’t.
I dislike milk chocolate, so even the thicker Dubai stuff doesn’t taste good to me.
This Dubai trend started almost two years ago (or at least that far back) from what I recall. I think there was a Tik Tok video sometime in 2024 that made it popular, and by the winter, the stuff seemed to be everywhere around here in Chicago. I remember Christmas shopping that year and seeing bars of chocolate for $20, wondering what in the hell that was about, and my kids explained it to me. We ended up making a few bars ourselves. It’s not really all that cheap to make, either, but at least cheaper than the real stuff. You need to make your own pistachio paste, as the jarred stuff is like $12+ a pop. I went to some Middle Eastern grocery that sold pistachios for $5 or $6/lb and made it from that.
The defining characteristic of it, for me, is the crispy kataifi pastry. Can’t be Dubai chocolate without that. Chocolate and pistachio paste tastes pretty good, but that pastry is what makes it somewhat interesting. We’ve also – stay with me – substituted shredded wheat, and that works a hell of a lot better than one might think. But it’s not really any less expensive – the Middle Eastern markets have kataifi around here, and it ends up being cheaper. Making it ourselves, we all thought making it with dark chocolate was much better than milk chocolate, as the filling is quite sweet and needed contrast.
They do seem to be running the trend into the ground. I thought it had been dying out by spring 2025, but it’s back again this winter, but the prices overall have come down. (Another trend I thought was dead long ago but is back is hot honey.)
I have some pistachio nuts in the refrigerator. Thanks for giving me an idea for making a semi-attempt of my own.
If you look at YouTube, there are tons of DIY videos. (Also on TikTok, but I don’t use that.) I believe it’s those videos that helped make it the trend it is. I have no idea when “Dubai chocolate” itself started as a thing – it’s my understanding that it’s a very recent phenomenon and not some old sweet we’re discovering thanks to the internet. (Wikipedia says imagined in 2021 by a British-Egyptian entrepreneur inspired by cravings for chocolate, tahini, pistachio, and knafeh [a pastry made with kataifi]. First to market in 2022, and popularized by the internet in 2024).
A year or so ago, when Dubai chocolate was the hot fad of the day, enough people were making it to cause a noticeable spike in the price of pistachio nuts.
I mean, it does sound like a good combination, but the pistachios are the most expensive ingredient, and they’re still only $6-$8 per pound. There’s no way the finished product (which also includes cheaper ingredients) should cost more than that.
I’m waiting until there’s commercial competitors at a more reasonable price.
I agree. That’s what makes it.
I first heard of it when a friend made some and bright it to a dance i attended. He used good dark chocolate, and it was delicious.
I’ve had some purchased stuff, since, which was nice, but not as good as what my friend made.
Tastes like Dutch tulips to me.
Yeah, it’s really not all that difficult to make yourself, and the product is superior because you can do stuff like use dark or semi-sweet chocolate of milk if you (like me) find it sickly sweet.
I’m a sucker for anything pistachio, though. But it has to be pistachio not almond flavor with green food coloring, or a pistachio-almond blend. They don’t taste the same!
In the case of the half-off Dubai chocolate in the OP, I think the high price is due in part to the Ghirardelli branding. In the lead-up to Christmas, Costco had several Dubai chocolate products and I think they weren’t that expensive.
I can’t eat Dubai chocolate because it has pistachios (nut allergy). That said, I’m puzzled about why it’s so expensive and how it’s suddenly become a hot culinary trend. Did it really take this long for people to combine pistachio and chocolate?
Are there minimum legal standards to be met before you can state that your product is “Dubai Style” chocolate?
Out of curiosity I’ve sampled bars from Trader Joe’s and Lindt. They were good but not that good and too expensive for me to buy again.
Don’t forget the phyllo-like crunchy pastry in it. Otherwise, I’m 99% sure I’ve seen pistachio chocolates before. The internet tells me Nestle Damak was introduced in 1933. That one has whole pieces of pistachios in it.
ETA: It’s become a hot culinary trend because of social media in 2024.
From the Wikipedia article linked above:
This. It is about $18/lb. It is less expensive than Ghiradelli Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Squares but more expensive than Hershey’s whatevers.
I like the treat, but I’m not eating much candy these days. Gotta pick and choose my calories the older I get. I can only burn off so much from all my exercise.
We got back from Dubai recently, sampled a bunch while over there, and brought some home. Fix (the originator) is certainly top notch but at least one brand we tried (Velvet) was its match at a slightly lower price point. There are lots of brands that really don’t compare.
Hmm…I had been wondering myself what exactly Dubai chocolate was. So, as I now understand, it’s not just a type of chocolate in and of itself, but a combo of chocolate, pistachio paste and some sort of pastry. Like a fancy Kit Kat bar, pretty much.
And actually, there is a Kit Kat variety called Kit Kat Chunky Pistachio Kunafa, available in the United Arab Emirates.