With a crisp snap, a thick chocolate bar drizzled in gold and green is broken in half. Creamy pistachio filling oozes out as ASMR social media influencer Maria Vehera dives in for a bite.
While perhaps not the most visually appealing and despite some critics likening the green filling to grass, the shredded and roasted phyllo dough, also known as kataifi, mixed into the pistachio cream emits hunger-stirring crunches. The TikTok video posted on Dec. 18, 2023, has since racked up nearly 7 million views, helping ignite a worldwide "Dubai chocolate" trend and resulting pistachio shortage.
The filled chocolate bar was invented by Fix Dessert Chocolatier in Dubai in 2021, inspired by founder Sarah Hamouda's pregnancy cravings for cocoa but with a nostalgic Middle Eastern twist.
With the original sold only in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, large chocolate companies like Lindt and small businesses alike have created imitations or specials inspired by the trend — many with a hefty price tag. So if you've been itching to sample this buzzy sweet, try these four Spokane businesses.
MIFLAVOUR
When Ella and Maximus Piskun, the owners of miFLAVOUR, a modern French bakery on East Sprague Avenue, got an influx of customer requests last year for Dubai chocolate, they were hesitant.
"But then we got so many requests that we're like, 'OK, let's dive into this and figure out how we can make it and how we can make it really good,'" says Ella Piskun.
The couple first tried recreating the chocolate bars, which proved challenging.
"They just kept splitting, breaking, just a bunch of stuff was going on, so we finally finalized the recipe, and now it's been great," Piskun says.
Yet the handmade pistachio cream filling kept leaking into the chocolate shell, so bakery staff decided to import the filling from Italy and finally found success. Since launching last Christmas, miFLAVOUR's Dubai chocolate bars ($35) have been hard to keep on shelves since.
"Pretty much anything that's coming into the U.S. is getting sold right away, like before it even gets to the U.S., so the shortage is crazy," Piskun says of the pistachio cream.
The bakery buys phyllo dough from a local Middle Eastern market, Mariam International Foods, then roasts it, adds a bit of tahini and mixes the cream in-house to achieve a satisfying crunch.
MiFLAVOUR also dove deeper into the trend with two special pop-ups in March and April selling Dubai strawberry cups ($17).
Made to order, a 16-ounce cup is loaded with layers of fresh strawberries, warm white or milk chocolate, and pistachio cream filling. The price might cause sticker shock but comes from the cost of high-quality ingredients.
"Ingredients really matter to us, so we want to give customers the best experience, and that's why our products are more expensive," Piskun says.
Customers don't seem deterred. She notes that they only expected to sell about 500 cups during the first pop-up, yet sold about 1,500 in one weekend. Don't feel too dejected if you missed the last one, because Piskun says the cups will return to the menu permanently, starting May 12.
"I know sometimes people think, 'Oh it's just a trend, who cares?' But it really helps small businesses," Piskun says. "As a local bakery, we get to jump on it and gain more customers with it and put our own twist on it and have fun with it."
SWEET MAMA'S
Dishing out specialty strawberry cups, Sweet Mama's opened as a pop-up vendor in April 2024, and naturally jumped onto the Dubai strawberry cup trend.
"We saw it first on social media, and we're like, 'Wow! That looks kind of interesting. It's kind of in line with what we're doing,' and so we really just wanted to offer it to Spokane," says Jessica Lakeru, who co-owns the business with Nicole Bosman.
Though it was difficult to replicate, after some trial and error, Sweet Mama's was able to nail down a recipe. Their 16-ounce cups ($16) include fresh strawberries, melted Belgian chocolate, pistachio cream with the crunchy kataifi, and roasted pistachio chunks to top it off.
Lakeru says the high demand for ingredients in Dubai chocolate has created scarcity.
"We import all of our ingredients, so we import our cream, we import our kataifi, so finding those channels that are still able to provide that has been difficult in the recent months," Lakeru says. "But we are just stocking up the best that we can to still be able to provide this treat for the local people here in Spokane."
Find Sweet Mama's at the Kendall Yards Night Market (opening Wed, May 21), Spokane Pride (June 14), Hoopfest (June 28-29) and the Kootenai County Fair (Aug. 15-24).
KETO SWEETIE
If you have dietary restrictions or don't have a super sweet tooth, don't worry — you can still enjoy the Dubai chocolate craze. Keto Sweetie, a commissary bakery in Deer Park, has crafted some dietary-friendly versions.
Co-owner Kristi Evenson started baking with her daughter, Angel, from home in 2020 during the pandemic, making donuts that quickly became a popular keto treat.
"We are a 100% gluten-free bakery. We are sugar-free, gluten-free, low carb, and also our donuts are dairy-free. So we cover a lot of dietary restrictions," Evenson says.
Keto Sweetie has recently offered strawberry Dubai chocolate cheesecake, Dubai chocolate pistachio cupcakes, and currently offers Dubai chocolate brownie bars ($12). The brownie base (with a dairy-free option) is smothered with a pistachio topping as well as chocolate ganache.
At first, Evenson sourced her pistachio butter, but when one delivery ran late she decided to make it herself, and it turned out even better.
"With the keto group and the diabetic group, they want to be involved in this kind of thing, too, and they get looked over and left out," Evenson says. "We've come up with a little niche that we can help people."
LEBANON DELI & GROCERY STORE
Stepping into this Middle Eastern market at North Division's Y, spices perfume the air, Arabian music plays on a small radio and imported products line the shelves.
Here, Yazan "Yaz" Al Azrai, who operates the family business, dishes out shawarma, gyros, hummus, baklava, and other Middle Eastern delicacies. He's lately constantly blending Dubai chocolate milkshakes ($15).
Al Azrai started making his Dubai chocolate bars ($13) last October. At first, he made the pistachio cream by hand, but he now buys it to save time. While many necessary ingredients aren't too difficult to find, he says it's hard to find products that are high quality.
"It was crazy, crazy. I didn't expect that it was going to be like this," he says about the crowds that have flocked to buy the chocolate.
Al Azrai decided to get creative and make a milkshake version of the treat, releasing it as a limited special on March 8. It's since become a permanent menu item. Pistachio cream, vanilla ice cream, and milk are blended together, poured over a layer of the pistachio-kataifi mixture, and topped with cream, Dubai chocolate chunks, and edible gold glitter for a presentation that's almost too beautiful to eat.
"The eyes eat first, especially with the food," Al Azrai says. ♦
