From viral fame to fine craft: Dubai Chocolate finds new life in London

When a pistachio-filled chocolate bar from Dubai took over TikTok in 2023, few could have predicted it would ignite a global confectionery craze. Millions of the now-famous Dubai Chocolate bars have since flown off the shelves, with some stores even rationing sales amid surging demand.

The original Dubai Chocolate was introduced in 2021 by Sarah Hamouda, a British Egyptian working at Fix Dessert Chocolatier, a chocolate company based in Dubai. It didn’t gain widespread popularity until it was the subject of a TikTok video by Ukrainian influencer Maria Vehera in December 2023. The clip, which has since drawn more than 139.2 million views, shows her enthusiastically biting into a bar of Dubai Chocolate in a hunger-inducing moment.

Since then, chocolate lovers have become addicted to the bar’s unique flavor and crunchy texture. The luxurious Middle Eastern dessert, with its pistachio cream and a crunchy kataifi filling, has become a household favorite for those with a sweet tooth. Within a year after Vehera posted her video, international sales of the original Dubai Chocolate saw a staggering 300% increase.

The craze has even caused a pistachio shortage this year, according to Iranian nut producer Keinia. In the first quarter of 2025, over 1.2 million original Dubai Chocolate bars were sold at Dubai Duty Free, generating approximately $22 million in revenue, according to Fix Dessert Chocolatier. Those figures do not account for the sales of the hundreds of other versions of Dubai-style chocolate available on the market globally. 

Pieces of Dubai chocolate with gold leaf are pictured at Abu Khaled Sweets oriental pastry shop in Berlin's Wedding district on November 14, 2024. (TOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP via Getty Images)

Hamouda’s European home country is also caught up in the chocolate’s global success, with different iterations of Dubai Chocolate flying off British shelves. Re-creations of the original Dubai Chocolate are now available in almost every major supermarket in Britain. In March, both Lidl and Waitrose had to impose a two-chocolate-bar-per-customer limit on their versions due to soaring demand.

One chocolatier in London is now hosting its own masterclass on how to make the sweet treat. Paul Hum, a senior chocolatier at high-end chocolate producer Melt Chocolates, runs the workshops at the company’s Ledbury Road store in Notting Hill in West London.

Melt Chocolates began selling its own version of Dubai Chocolate at the end of 2024. It has struggled to keep up with the demand ever since.

“We will regularly run out of Dubai Chocolate bars that we make before we can get more. We've had to expand the range and add a couple of other flavors as well to see how that goes. And they seem to all be [selling] pretty well and giving people another alternative to try, with the running theme being the cooked pastry through it all,” Hum told Al-Monitor.

The classes, which began just after Easter, proved popular — even filling up during the summer peak, which Hum called rare due to lower interest in chocolate in hot weather. Initially, Melt Chocolates ran the master classes once a week before adding an extra day due to their popularity. Hum said they might need to add a third day a week to match the demand.

The Australian chef begins the classes by showing how to cook the straw-like shredded kataifi pastry inside the Dubai Chocolate bars. He’ll then talk about the history of chocolate and how Dubai Chocolate became so popular, as participants taste varieties from around the globe.

The class also discusses the various techniques chocolatiers have employed to re-create their own Dubai-style chocolate. Some, in Hum's opinion, are more commendable than others.

“There's quite a fad at the moment over here, it seems, of instead of getting hold of the correct pastry, they just use shredded filo pastry, which is not the same. It's just nowhere near the same,” he said.

Hum then teaches customers how to make the rest of the filling — including the pistachio paste — for the chocolate bars, and then shows them how to create the chocolate shells to hold it all together.

Melt Chocolates Senior Chocolatier Paul Hum giving a workshop at the West London store. (Credit: Melt Chocolates)

The tempering of the chocolate — the process of carefully controlling its temperature through heating and cooling so that the cocoa butter fat molecules crystallize in a stable, uniform structure — is the hardest part of the process, Hum said. Patience and practice are required. If the chocolate is not heated to the right temperature for the right amount of time, it can become too soft, dull, streaky and unstable.

Asked about how Melt Chocolates makes its Dubai chocolate, Hum said he still maintains the decadence of the original, but keeps it simple with the kataifi pastry, pistachio paste and milk chocolate.

“We didn't really want to add too many other flavors. I know some people go add date syrup and a whole load of other different flavorings, but we just wanted to keep it to its essential core ingredients,” Hum said.

Finally, the workshop participants cap their Dubai-style chocolate bars and seal the filling with another layer of tempered chocolate before taking their sweet treats home.

“They've got the recipe and hopefully a brain full of knowledge to be able to take that home and try themselves,” Hum said.

The classes are comprised of a mix of tourists and regular chocolate lovers who want to make it at home. Being located in the heart of Notting Hill, Melt Chocolates is in a prime position to attract tourists visiting West London’s famous Portobello Road Market.

“We also get our fair share of Arabic guests coming in because they just love it. They love that it's something that's originally come from there, that we're doing it over here and embracing global flavors,” Hum said.

Classes at Melt Chocolates start from £54.99 ($73.51) and take place on Fridays and Sundays.