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Dubai chocolate is expensive because it's made by hand, in small batches, with specialist ingredients that cost a lot to source. The filling combines pistachio cream, tahini and kataifi pastry inside a thick milk chocolate shell, and none of those come cheap. If you're after a great chocolate fix without the luxury price tag, take a look at our chocolate range at Sweets and Candy.
What exactly is Dubai chocolate and where did it come from?
Fix Dessert Chocolatier is a confectionery brand based in Dubai. Their original bar, called "Can't Get Knafeh of It", is a thick milk chocolate shell filled with pistachio cream, tahini and kataifi pastry.
Kataifi is a shredded pastry used in traditional Middle Eastern and Greek desserts. The brand was founded in 2021 by Sarah Hamouda, a British-Egyptian entrepreneur living in Dubai, who came up with the idea while pregnant, inspired by the traditional dessert knafeh.
The bar went viral in December 2023 when TikTok creator Maria Vehera posted a video unwrapping and tasting it. The video racked up more than 139 million views, according to CBC News.
Overnight, a small Dubai delivery business became a global name. And that's where the price problem starts.
What ingredients make Dubai chocolate so costly?
Three things. Pistachio cream, tahini and kataifi pastry. None of them are cheap, and none of them are easy to get hold of at scale.Pistachios are one of the priciest nuts on the market.
When you grind them into a cream, you need a lot of them per bar. Pistachio prices rose by around 30% from early 2024 into 2025. The Dubai chocolate craze drove demand sharply upward. A poor 2024 harvest in the US, the world's largest pistachio producer, made the shortage worse.
Tahini is made from ground sesame seeds. Kataifi pastry is traditionally produced in Turkey, Greece and the Middle East, which limits how quickly supply can scale up globally. Add a thick chocolate shell and you've got ingredient costs that are genuinely high before anything else is factored in.
Is the high price of Dubai chocolate down to being handmade?
Yes. That's a big part of it. Each bar goes through a process that can't be rushed: the kataifi pastry is toasted separately. It's blended with pistachio cream and tahini.
The mixture is poured by hand into chocolate mouldsIn the early days of Fix Dessert Chocolatier, a team working six to eight hours would produce just 25 bars a day.
Each bar weighs around 200g, so there's more of everything per unit. Skilled labour, kitchen overheads, quality control on every single bar: it adds up fast.
Does viral demand push up the price in the UK?
It really does. When Fix Dessert Chocolatier went viral, they were a small operation delivering locally in Dubai. They weren't set up for international demand on that scale.
Resellers started importing bars and charging what they liked. Some UK listings went upwards of £30 for a bar that Fix lists for around £15.
Even as other brands entered the market, demand kept outpacing supply through 2024 and into 2025.
The scarcity became part of the appeal. And when something feels hard to get hold of, people pay more for it. That's just how it works.
Are import costs adding to the price in the UK?
Yes, and they're not small.
Chocolate that needs temperature control during shipping costs significantly more to transport from the UAE than standard freight. Import duties, VAT on arrival and customs admin all push the price up before a bar even reaches a shelf.
Brands not importing from Dubai, like Lindt and Lidl, avoid those specific costs. But they still need pistachios, kataifi and tahini to make the recipe work.
So even the more affordable versions cost more than a standard chocolate bar, and that's before you factor in the handmade element.
Is Dubai chocolate actually worth paying a premium for?
Honestly? That depends on what you're after.
The flavours work well together. Sweet pistachio cream, crunchy kataifi, earthy tahini and thick milk chocolate: it's different from anything you'd find in a standard UK sweet shop. Most people who try it enjoy it.
But it's one bar. You eat it in a sitting. A lot of buyers say it doesn't feel worth the reseller price, however good it tastes. Lindt's version has been available in UK supermarkets for around £10, and Lidl released their own at £3.99 with Lidl Plus.
So the experience is no longer exclusive to the high end of the market. As a one-off treat or a gift, the original makes sense. As a regular buy? Not so much.
So, is Dubai chocolate worth it?
Dubai chocolate is an interesting case. The price is real, the ingredients are genuinely costly, and the craftsmanship is genuine. But the trend has also matured.
What once cost upwards of £30 through a UK reseller is now available in supermarkets for a fraction of that. The original Fix bar is still the benchmark, and for a one-off experience, it's hard to argue with.
For everything else, there's plenty of great chocolate out there that doesn't require a second mortgage. Browse our chocolate range and gifts and hampers at Sweets and Candy, and get free UK delivery on all orders over £25.
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