It was a cold, damp evening in Munich in December 2024, but the festive tunes and the twinkling fairy lights at the Marienplatz Christkindlmarkt (Christmas market) lifted my spirits. With a mug of glühwein (hot mulled wine) in hand, I made my way to the candy stall to get my usual supply of German Christmas cookies. But I stopped in my tracks when I realised that the longest queue was not for lebkuchen (gingerbread biscuits baked for Christmas) or the traditional stollen fruit bread, but for a new kid on the block: Dubai chocolate.
That was my first encounter with the viral chocolate in a land far from its birthplace. But by then, Dubai chocolate had already become a global sensation: a rich, sticky and unapologetically extra chocolate bar that had shattered industry records, won millions of hearts and was spreading like wildfire across the world.
A decadent milk chocolate bar filled with silky pistachio cream, earthy tahini and crunchy shards of knafeh pastry, the original Dubai chocolate was launched by Dubai-based FIX Dessert Chocolatier in 2022 when its British Egyptian founder, Sarah Hamouda, had an urge to create something unique to satisfy her pregnancy cravings for knafeh and pistachio. FIX called their creation “Can’t Get Knafeh Of It”.
Can’t Get Knafeh Of It took the world by storm when TikTok influencer Maria Vehera posted a rapturous video of herself trying the chocolate bar inside her car in December 2023. The video quickly went viral, attracting more than 125 million views and scores of fans around the world who were willing to do anything to grab a bite. The bar became a craze and was promptly christened “Dubai chocolate”.
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