Dubai Chocolate Is Viral On IG. Is It Just Sewai And Pista, Or Something Else?

Dubai chocolate sold about one bar a week in 2022. Then someone filmed the crack. 

That’s all it took. One 15-second video, more than 120 million views, and a bar from a single Dubai kitchen started shifting the price of a global crop. 

I somehow do understand the reason behind its virality – the bar cracks, the filling oozes, and the pistachio green looks unreal on a phone screen. 

Also, let’s be honest, the sage green filling beautifully contrasts the dark brown chocolate. It really was a visual treat for me the first time I tried it. 

Now it’s on every Instagram feed, and we’re all thinking the same rude thought: Isn’t this just sewai and pista with a good publicist? 

I cook at home, and I study food culture, so I had the same suspicion. The answer is more interesting than the hype, and less comfortable. The bar that helped push pistachio prices up by about a third has also spawned imitators with allergens missing from the label.  

So, what are Indian buyers actually eating? 

What Is Dubai Chocolate, Really? 

Dubai chocolate is a thick milk chocolate shell stuffed with a crunchy, creamy filling. Creator Sarah Hamouda combined pistachio cream with a hint of tahini, crisp kataifi, and smooth milk chocolate. Tahini is sesame paste. 

Remember that. It matters later. 

The kataifi gets toasted in butter until golden. Then it’s mixed into the pistachio cream according to Flavor Catalyst. That step creates the crunch. Without it, you have a pistachio-filled chocolate. With it, you have the thing people crack open on camera. 

The original bar is called “Can’t Get Knafeh of It.” The name points to knafeh, the Middle Eastern dessert of shredded pastry, soft cheese, and syrup [Source: The Week]. 

How One Pregnancy Craving Became A Global Trend 

The story starts in 2021. 

The Week reports that Hamouda, a British-Egyptian engineer living in Dubai, was pregnant. She craved her mother’s knafeh and imagined it as a chocolate bar. The following year, she developed the bar with a trained pastry chef and launched it under FIX Dessert Chocolatier. 

It did not take off right away. When the online shop opened in 2022, FIX was selling about one bar a week, according to her husband and co-founder, Yezen Alani. The bar stayed niche for nearly two years. 

Then came December 2023. TikTok food creator Maria Vehera posted a short video of herself unwrapping and eating the bar. The Financial Times reported that it passed 120 million views. The crack and the drip did the rest. 

“Hamouda told The New York Times her company received 30,000 orders within days of the video appearing online.” [Source: The Week] 

But from what I researched, there’s also a credit dispute. Chef Nouel Catis says he co-developed the bar and helped buy the equipment to launch the brand. He told Arabian Business he was written out of the global success story. The outlet said it asked FIX for comment and got no response by publication. 

But that’s a discussion for another day. 

What India’s Numbers Actually Say 

India is buying. 

Instamart’s order analysis, covering July 2025 to June 2026 across more than 130 cities, found that orders for pistachio-filled chocolates rose 11,739%. It was the fastest-growing chocolate category in the data, Deccan Chronicle reports. The same analysis found milk chocolate still wins overall, at four in every ten chocolate orders. 

Read that number carefully. From what I believe, a rise that large usually means a very small starting point. However, that’s completely my judgment and not Instamart’s claim. 

Besides, it’s also one platform’s data, not the whole Indian market. But from the data, there is one thing we can be sure of: the trend is real. 

Isn’t Dubai Chocolate Just Sewai And Pista? 

Not quite. But I see why people say it. Because I used to think the same thing. And the cause of this confusion? Kataifi. 

It is a shredded pastry. On the other hand, what we Indians (or South Asians in general) have grown up eating, Sewai is thin wheat vermicelli. They’re cousins in spirit, but they aren’t the same ingredient. 

One thing that I noticed when I tried my hands on the Dubai chocolate for the first time at home was that many Indian home recipes swap one for the other anyway. 

For example, one recipe I came across on The Belly Rules the Mind uses crushed thin Indian vermicelli, browned in butter, mixed with pistachio cream and set in a dark chocolate shell. 

So the honest answer has two parts. The original uses kataifi and tahini. The desi version often uses sewai and skips the tahini completely. 

That second one isn’t a fake – the one using vermicelli instead of Kataifi. Rather, I would say that it was a way of making this Middle Eastern dessert desi. It’s a local adaptation, and a clever one. 

Besides, if I have to be completely honest, I’d say the swap works because both give you a toasted, buttery crunch. Also, from a money point of view, Kataifi costs you somewhere around ₹500 on Bigbasket, while I can get Vermicelli for just ₹50. Or even less from my local store. 

But if you are not making the chocolate at home and are buying it from a store, I’d say the difference matters. Because then, the difference isn’t the swap. It’s what you know about what’s inside the bar you’re buying. 

Adult Money And Luxe Appeal 

Dubai chocolate sells a small luxury to people who can afford one. A Business Today–PRICE survey found over seven in ten Gen Z consumers buy premium or luxury brands occasionally or regularly. 

Additionally, Mintel says younger Indians want affordable indulgences that comfort without straining their wallets. 

A Dubai chocolate bar fits. According to MagicDrop data from July 2026, Indian Dubai-style bars on Amazon ranged from about ₹269 to ₹522, and Cadbury’s Dubai Kunafa Silk cost ₹495. 

According to IMARC, premium chocolate is forecast to grow roughly 7% to 9% a year. And for the young adults who are actively earning, they are all for it. It’s a ₹500 flex, not a ₹5,000 one. 

The Pistachio Bill 

When something goes viral, it has the potential to impact the global community. Because – very simple math – a rise in virality is directly proportional to the rise in demand. And a rise in demand is directly proportional to a rise in price. 

One bar from one Dubai kitchen has moved a global commodity. The Financial Times reported that pistachio kernel prices rose from $7.65 to $10.30 a pound in a year. By my arithmetic, that’s roughly a 35% jump. 

The timing mattered. In 2023, global supply outran demand and prices fell. That glut pushed producers toward pistachio butter and paste. Then Dubai chocolate went viral, and the picture flipped. According to NDTV, imports of Iranian pistachios into the UAE rose 40% between September 2024 and March 2025. 

The shelf price followed. In the UK, Lindt’s version sold at £10 for a 145g bar, more than twice the price of its standard products. Time Out London noted online reviews saying the thin layer of filling didn’t justify the price. 

Now, I’ll be completely honest – specifically, I found no Indian pistachio price data tied to this trend. So I won’t claim India’s market changed. However, the global one clearly did. 

The Part Nobody Posts About: Allergens 

The original bar contains tree nuts, sesame, and milk. That’s the recipe. The problem is imitations. 

In December 2025, the UK Food Standards Agency said some Dubai-style chocolate on sale there may contain peanut and sesame that the label doesn’t declare. The agency’s policy director advised people with allergies not to eat Dubai-style chocolate and not to gift it to them. [Source: Food Safety News] 

The UK tested 50 samples for undeclared peanuts, sesame, mycotoxins and colors. The coverage I found didn’t include full results. Australia recalled one bar – Choco Bliss – over undeclared pistachio, milk, sesame seed, and wheat, according to FSANZ. 

Allergy UK’s advice is rather practical. As per the BBC, they clearly mentioned two very simple things: 

1. Avoid products without clear allergen information in English. 

2. Be extra careful shopping online or from unfamiliar sellers. 

The thing is, I couldn’t find Indian testing data on Dubai-style bars. But Indian buyers order imported and online bars too. So, if anyone at your table has a nut or sesame allergy, it is best that they skip the bars. But how would they know with such vague labels? 

Where The Nostalgia Is Real 

If there is one thing that I really like about the viral Dubai chocolate trend, it is this: Indian makers aren’t just copying. They’re translating. 

For instance, in Coimbatore, Arun Viswanathan of Chitra’m Craft Chocolates built a bar called “Dubai Return” around nool peni, a South Indian festive sweet of fine fried strands layered with ghee and sugar. 

View this post on Instagram

It also carries pistachio, saffron, rose, and a hint of gulkand. And according to The Times of India, he said nool peni’s flaky crunch reminded him of kunafa. 

The logic holds, though. Hamouda built her bar from a childhood dessert. Viswanathan answered with a childhood sweet of his own. Both moves run on memory. The Instagram crack gets the click. The familiar flavor makes the repeat order. 

So yes, memory nostalgia truly is the best marketing technique. 

Is The Hype Worth It? 

Yes, with conditions. 

Dubai chocolate works because it’s a texture story. Snap, cream, crunch. That’s why it filmed so well and why it traveled. It’s also a good idea, built on a real dessert tradition. 

But buy smart: 

• Know the difference between the original and “Dubai-style”. 

• The original is sold only in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, through Deliveroo (The Week). Most bars in India are imitations. 

• Read the allergen label. No clear label, no purchase. 

• Compare the filling, not the packaging. 

And if you cook at home, try the sewai version. Brown the vermicelli in butter, fold in pistachio paste, and taste it before you commit to a shell. It won’t be a Dubai original. It might be better, because it’s yours. 

Sources: 

• The Week: The best Dubai chocolate 

• Flavor Catalyst 

• Arabian Business: creator says he was written out 

• The Belly Rules the Mind: bite-size Dubai chocolate 

• Deccan Chronicle: Instamart chocolate data 

• Tribune: pistachio supply chains 

• Malay Mail: pistachio shortage 

• Time Out London 

• Arabian Business: UK FSA warning 

• GB News: FSA advice 

• Food Safety News: FSA concerns 

• FSANZ: Choco Bliss recall 

• Allergy UK: Dubai chocolate warning

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