I should have mentioned this before, but I wasn’t sure whether it was a necessary ingredient or not (I used it in the recipe I followed), but tahini paste is also mixed in with the pistachio. That seems to be canon, from what I gather, but I’m not sure all the stuff sold as “Dubai chocolate” contains it.
I haven’t had it by itself, but I got a Dubai chocolate doughnut from a bakery last summer. It was WAY too sweet. I don’t know if it was because that’s what Dubai chocolate is supposed to taste like, or if it was because it was combined with an over-sugared doughnut. The first bite or two were OK, but it got to be way too much. The doughnut is definitely not something I’d buy again.
I’ve never had the original Fix brand one, so maybe @Telemark can comment on what the baseline is. But the various commercial versions I’ve tried come in a range of sweetnesses, though do trend sweet, and I’ve had some homemade ones that were much more restrained. As I said above, when I make my own I use dark chocolate, because milk is just doubling down on sweetness I don’t think it needs.
As I have heard it, no. The UAE doesn’t have regional food trademarks like the EU does (champagne, etc) and the original product wasn’t actually offically called “Dubai Chocolate” so the term is legally meaningless aside from sounding exotic and the food being sorta middle-eastern
Last year Trader Joe’s came out with their version, it was I think $3.99 per bar. Cheap enough to give it a try. It was definitely good and had the crunchy/flaky texture, and I’d buy it again if they ever bring it back, but glad I didn’t spend more.
Our TJ’s never had it in–they said it all got diverted to bigger markets.
Laugh. Well done sir.