From Dubai to Lidl: How one woman’s pregnancy craving launched a craze

While on holiday in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last week, there was only one mission on my mind – getting my hands on the viral “Dubai chocolate” bar.

If you’re on TikTok, you will have seen the bar, which combines the flavours of chocolate, pistachio and tahini with filo pastry, and is inspired by the Arab dessert Knafeh.

The original, called Can’t Get Knafeh of It, by FIX Chocolatier, has been sold exclusively in the UAE since 2022. It become so popular on social media that it’s only on sale for two hours a day and often sells out within minutes.

But now imitations, known by the nickname “Dubai chocolate”, have hit UK supermarkets including Waitrose, Lidl and Morrisons, with some supermarkets limiting the number of bars customers are allowed to buy.

Yezen Alani, who co-owns FIX with his wife Sarah Hamouda, told the BBC the global attention Dubai chocolate was getting was “flattering and humbling”.

The FIX chocolate bar was first imagined by Hamouda in 2021, who craved the flavours while she was pregnant.

Alani and Hamouda started developing the bar a year later, running the business alongside their corporate jobs.

“Sarah and I were brought up in the UK and we moved to Dubai 10 years ago, so we’ve got Western and Arab roots.

“We wanted to create flavours that were inspired by that,” Alani says.

Part of the appeal of the chocolate is its exclusivity – you can only order it using a food delivery app, rather than walking into a shop or grabbing it at the supermarket.

It costs around £15 per bar and can only be bought during specific hours of the day to ensure the company can fulfil all their orders.

I also saw similar bars sold in many shops in the region, dubbed “Dubai chocolate” and adorned with pictures of pistachios and filo pastry.

Alani says the “copycat” bars are “very frustrating because people are trying knockoffs, which damages our brand”.

One of the reasons for the bar’s surge in popularity has been social media – with a viral video by TikTok user Maria Vehera from 2023 being cited as one of the main reasons for its rise to prominence.

It shows Vehera trying the Knafeh bar for the first time – along with several others made by the same chocolatier – and has been liked nearly seven million times.

The way the bar looks is made for social media – from the attractive orange and green spots on top of the smooth milk chocolate to the crunch sound it makes when you break off a piece.

Chocolate combined with pistachio isn’t new but the real standout element is the crunchy nature of the filling, with the filo pastry adding a texture and thickness to the bar.

Since the Can’t Get Knafeh of It bar is only available in one country, other brands have started to sell their versions in the UK, including Swiss chocolate manufacturer Lindt whose Dubai chocolate is being sold for £10 in supermarkets.

Since stocking the bar, Waitrose says they’ve had to introduce a two-bar limit for customers in order to regulate stock levels.

Another version has also been sold by Home Bargains, while supermarket Lidl has its own version for £4.99 and is also limiting purchase numbers.

One influencer documented how the bar been kept behind tills for this reason.

Having tried the Lindt bar and a couple of other versions being sold in corner shops, there is quite a contrast.

The FIX chocolate is billed as a “dessert bar” and needs to be kept in the fridge, with a short expiry date like many dairy items.

This isn’t the case for the others, which have been designed to have a longer shelf life.

You can also see the difference in taste and texture – the original bar is almost double the width of the Lindt bar, which is more aligned to the size and shape of a standard chocolate bar.

When Alani and Hamouda first started out, they employed one person to fulfil around six to seven orders a day.

But since growing in popularity, primarily thanks to TikTok, their business now employs 50 people, who fulfil 500 orders a day.

One big talking point has been the price of the product, which is £15 per bar.

“It’s all handmade, every single design is done by hand,” Alani says.

“We use premium ingredients and the process is not like making other bars – you’ve got the baking, moulding the chocolate to the design and with the filling itself, even the pistachios are hand-picked and processed”.

Speaking to Arabian Business last year, Hamouda said: “My mother used to make Knafeh, and that’s something I wanted to capture my own way.

“Knafeh was the first flavour we perfected. The crunch, the pistachio, it had to be just right,” she added.

Despite the product’s success, Alani says “it’s been a tough journey” as the pair have been working together full time while also raising their two children.

“There’s been times where we’ve wanted to give up, but we said to ourselves ‘we’ll keep going as long as we can pay the rent’ and now we have no regrets as its worked out”.