BERLIN (AFP) – When Ali Fakhro lays out a row of pistachio-filled chocolate bars in the morning at his bakery in Berlin, he knows they will be gone in a matter of hours.
Inspired by the viral success of the crunchy delicacy known as ‘Dubai chocolate’, Fakhro, 32, hunted down a recipe and began making his own version two months ago.
“On the first day I made 20 bars, but they went fast. The next day, I made 50 – all gone too,” he said.
So-called Dubai chocolate was invented in 2021 by British-Egyptian entrepreneur Sarah Hamouda, who is based in Dubai.
The chunky treat consists of a blocky, hand-decorated chocolate bar with various quirky fillings – the signature flavour being a rich pistachio cream.
The treat went viral when TikTok food influencer Maria Vehera posted a video of herself eating a bar in her car, which has since been viewed more than 100 million times.
The real thing is only available to local customers in limited quantities, but the trend has led to an explosion of copycat versions of the chocolate around the world.
Fakhro, who runs Abu Khaled Sweets in Berlin, experimented “several times” with different recipes before finally landing on the right ingredient to give the pistachio cream its famous crunch – a finely shredded Middle Eastern pastry known as kataifi.
Germans have been scrambling to get their hands on the chocolate with bars selling for over EUR100 (USD104) on the Internet.
Last week, a 31-year-old man was caught by customs attempting to smuggle 45 kilogrammes of the sweet treat into Germany from Switzerland.
When Swiss manufacturer Lindt launched its own version of the Dubai chocolate in Germany this month, customers queued for hours in the cold to get their hands on a bar.
At up to EUR20 per bar, the delicacy is far more expensive than your average chocolate bar — but that didn’t seem to be putting anyone off.
“I waited 10 hours. I’ve been here since midnight just to taste this chocolate,” 18-year-old student Leon Faehnle told AFP outside a Lindt shop in Stuttgart.
Lindt launched the chocolate in Germany with 1,000 numbered bars in 10 shops, a spokesman for the group told AFP, and is planning a similar launch in Austria on November 30.
