Viral Dubai chocolate trend hits Kansas City. What it is and where to find it
Late last week the Hy-Vee in Gladstone posted a video of an employee sharing late-breaking candy news.
“We just got Dubai chocolate back in stock,” he excitedly proclaimed in a Facebook video. “That’s right, the TikTok sensation is quickly becoming one of our most famous candy bars here.”
If you’ve never heard of Dubai chocolate you probably don’t spend a lot of time on TikTok.
The sweet treat born in the Middle East became a worldwide phenomenon thanks to the social media platform.
Dubai chocolate treats in many forms, from bars and brownies to this year Easter eggs, are available in bakeries, grocery stores and sweet shops around Kansas City, where the trend remains strong, according to local influencers and foodies.
World Fresh Market, a specialty grocery store in Overland Park, is the acknowledged go-to-source for all things Dubai chocolate, including DIY kits so you can make the treats at home.
“I feel like Kansas City, we caught onto it pretty quick,” said Adriana Davalos, known to her 74,000 Instagram followers as KC Lifestyle Girl. “Once I found out it was a viral sensation I was like, ‘Wow, I need to jump on this and taste it and see what the hype is about.’”
In a nutshell, the hype began as a unique, stuffed candy bar originally sold by Fix Dessert Chocolatier in Dubai, hence the name.
The gourmet bar, hefty like a brick, was filled with green pistachio cream, tahini paste and crunchy kataifi — shredded phyllo pastry dough used in many Middle Eastern desserts.
The chocolate shell was thick and handpainted, making it Instagram-pretty. The snap of breaking it open and the crunch of the filling made for great videos.
“The bar is definitely a crunch. You’re going to get a crunch out of it because you have the pistachio and kataifi inside,” said Davalos, who bought her first Dubai chocolate bar at World Fresh Market.
“I’ve never tasted anything like it. And I’m not a huge chocolate fan, not a huge sweets fan. I’m more of a spicy, salty girl when it comes to my snacks. But I was surprised how good it was, how different it was.”
Demand for the Fix Dessert bars soared once people began eating them on TikTok. But supply couldn’t meet demand. The bars were only available from the Dubai store. And they were expensive — about $20 a bar. So candy shops and companies around the world began making their own.
La Fresca, a crepes and ice cream shop in Olathe, was one of the first — possibly the first — places in the metro to sell the bars. This week the shop introduced jumbo-sized bars.
At Paperback Bakery in Lee’s Summit, customers liked the Dubai bars so much that the owners “decided to launch our own line of chocolate bars!!,” as they announced on Facebook last month. “Each bar is crafted in store using quality ingredients and from scratch nut butters.”
The bakery named its Dubai bar, filled with pistachio butter and crunchy phyllo dough, the “Pride and Pistachio.”
Martha Garcia, a home baker and owner of Mila’s Sweet Treats KC in Olathe, came across the trend a few months ago while late-night scrolling on TikTok.
She watched interest build for a while before she made her first chocolate bars, toasting the phyllo dough for extra crunch and making the pistachio filling from scratch. They found a quick following for the business she started in February 2024..
Then she went hunting for baked goods recipes and created her own Dubai chocolate brownies and cookies.
She drizzles the pistachio filling on top of chocolate-frosted brownies and stuffs the filling, along with Nutella hazelnut spread, inside cookies.
You really have to be a “lover of nuts and pistachios” to like anything Dubai, said Garcia.
The Dubai chocolate craze has moved way past the lowly bar. Dubai chocolate martini recipes have popped up.
Shake Shack locations in L.A. and Miami are serving the Dubai Chocolate Pistachio shake, a limited-edition treat made from a pistachio frozen custard base blended with toasted kataifi.
“I think now the term Dubai chocolate has created its own flavor,” said Kansas City foodie Annie B., known to her 24,000 Instagram followers as Feed Me Annie Thing KC. (She keeps her last name private for safety reasons.)
“Across Kansas City we have Dubai chocolate crepes, we have Dubai chocolate strawberries, a Dubai chocolate cheesecake. Those are all now available.
“Strawberry cups, everyone is trying to get a hold of these cups. I think that’s my favorite version of them.”
They’re like pistachio parfaits — fresh strawberries, pistachio cream and melted chocolate in a cup, topped with crunchy kataifi.
Sugah Rush Berries in Oak Park Mall, LaFresca and some local ethnic grocery stores, including El Rio Bravo in KCK, have them.
Fruitopia locations around Kansas City have added the cups to their menus, along with unique churros and Mexican concha rolls with Middle Eastern flair.
Davalos has watched people stand in line for the Dubai chocolate strawberry cups at World Fresh Market.
“It is a lighter bite,” said Davalos. “You still get the pistachio cream, the melted Dubai chocolate ... the strawberries give it a nice, refreshing taste and the kataifi on top a nice light crunch.
“It’s really unexpected. It’s something like you have never tasted ... I’m not this big dessert lover and I would recommend anyone who has not tasted it to taste it.”
Davalos, who spends hours hunting down new places to eat in Kansas City for her followers, isn’t surprised that local foodies have embraced these new sweets.
“I think Kansas City is more diverse than what we think and what we know,” she said. “I think we have such a blend of cultures here, and it’s not really boom, in front of your eyes. It’s more hidden. And you have to discover it.
“And that’s what I love to do. I love to discover these diverse, hidden gems. We have the people, we have the talent and we have the culture here that can bring these different items to life, especially something as exotic as Dubai chocolate.
“Not only can we make it happen, we can make it happen very well.”
So what’s up next for Kansas City’s sweet tooth?
“I’m starting to see angel hair chocolate bars,” said Garcia. “It almost looks like cotton candy inside a chocolate bar.”
Davalos is on the hunt for another TikTok trend — Chinese frozen desserts shaped like cute little mangoes and peaches.
“I think we are still searching for these little exotic treats,” she said. “They are this next wave of trends.”
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