The viral bar is real. Most of the versions you can actually buy are not. Here is what a Dubai chocolate bar is, and what I changed when we made ours.
If you have spent any time on social media in the last year, you have seen it. A thick chocolate bar gets snapped in half on camera, and out spills a bright green, almost molten pistachio filling shot through with something crunchy. That is the Dubai chocolate bar, and it has genuinely taken the chocolate world by storm.
So what is it, exactly? A Dubai chocolate bar is a filled bar built from four things: a chocolate shell, a pistachio cream center, shredded kataifi pastry for crunch, and usually a little tahini to keep the sweetness in check. The original was made in Dubai (hence the name), and the whole experience is about the contrast: smooth shell, soft pistachio, and that toasted, crackly kataifi in every bite.
I finally got my hands on one of the originals to try. I was impressed, and I was a little let down. Both at once.
What is kataifi, and why does it matter?
Kataifi is shredded phyllo dough. You may have had it in Middle Eastern pastries like knafeh, where it bakes up into fine golden threads. In a Dubai bar, the kataifi is toasted and folded into the pistachio cream, and it is the reason the filling crunches instead of just being soft. Take the kataifi out and you have a pistachio truffle. Leave it in, toasted properly, and you have something with real texture. That crunch is doing most of the work.
Why was the original a little disappointing?
Here is the honest part. When I tried the viral bar, I was really impressed by the originality of the idea, and disappointed by how super sugary sweet it was. The pistachio is lovely. The kataifi is clever. But it was buried under sweet milk chocolate and a filling pushed well past the point where you can still taste the nuts. After two bites it was a lot.
That is a common problem with a trend. The idea travels fast, the execution gets cheaper, and the sugar goes up because sugar is cheap and it photographs well. Most of the bars flooding the internet right now are made to go viral, not to taste good on the third bite.
How we made ours: Dubai Done Better
In that great Charles Chocolates tradition, we set out to make what we think is the ultimate expression of a really cool idea. We call it Dubai Done Better, and the changes are simple but they matter.
Instead of sweet milk chocolate, we use a rich, bittersweet chocolate blend. That one swap pulls the whole bar back into balance. The bittersweet shell actually compliments the pistachio and the crisp shredded kataifi instead of drowning them. We make the pistachio cream in house, and we make everything from scratch, in small batches, here in San Francisco. Nothing about it is built to survive a year in a warehouse. It is built to taste like real pistachios and real chocolate, because that is what is in it.
The Original Pistachio Bar is the one to start with. If you want to see how far the idea stretches, the Raspberry Ganache Bar layers our house-made pistachio cream with a silky raspberry ganache that is bright and a little tangy against the deep cocoa. And if you cannot decide, the four-bar collection lets you taste the range in one go.
A quick word on gifting
A bar this striking makes an easy gift, and the cross-section alone tends to start a conversation. If you would rather let someone choose for themselves, we have a gift portal at gifts.charleschocolates.com where you can send a gift or a gift card and let the recipient pick what they actually want. And if you are putting together something bigger, our sister brand John Kelly Chocolates leans more toward rich, gift-ready truffle fudge and towers, so between the two of us there is a good answer for almost any occasion.
If you have only ever had the viral version, try ours once, just to recalibrate. Snap it in half, look at the cross-section, then taste it slowly. I think you will notice the difference by the second bite, which is exactly where the other ones tend to fall apart.
Enjoy,
Chuck Siegel
Founder, Charles Chocolates
Chuck has been making chocolate in San Francisco since 1987. Self-taught, he founded his first chocolate company, Attivo Confections, sold it in 1995, and started Charles Chocolates in 2004 on one uncommon idea: chocolate should be treated like fresh food.
Everything is made in small batches with all-natural ingredients (real cream, real butter, real fruit) and no shortcuts. His work has earned a Good Food Award, Sunset Magazine's Best of the West, and recognition from San Francisco Magazine, and has been covered by KQED and the San Francisco food press.
