Shelby Gibson, the founder of Pittsburgh’s Lux Artisan Chocolates, doesn’t usually follow fashions. But as she previously told the Post-Gazette, she did create a bonbon for her Valentine’s Day collection that was inspired by the viral Dubai chocolate bar.
“It’s a really delicious and unique combination of flavors and textures, so I’m not surprised that people like it,” she said.
Originally created by the chocolatier Sarah Hamouda, who lives in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the Can’t Get Knafeh of It bar, as Hamouda called it, didn’t immediately take off when she opened her online shop, FIX Dessert Chocolatier, in 2022. But a viral TikTok video at the end of 2023 launched the Dubai bar, as it came to be called, worldwide.
Inspired by a traditional Arab dessert, knafeh, the Dubai bar incorporates pistachio cream, kataifi (fine strands of crisp pastry) and milk chocolate.
“I’ve never used kataifi before,” Gibson said. “It’s crunchy, it’s super flavorful and adds a really cool texture.”
Amy Rosenfield, owner of Mon Aimee Chocolat in the Strip District, knows a good thing when she sees it. She had been watching the burgeoning Dubai chocolate trend for months. Her shop features Lux chocolates, so when Gibson launched her Dubai bonbon, she made a request.
“I said, ‘Make bars, give me a hundred of each,’” Rosenfield said.
Each week, she wanted 100 milk chocolate and 100 dark chocolate Dubai bars. She also asked Gibson to add a touch of salt to the recipe.
At $24 per bar, she’s been selling out ever since. (The milk chocolate version has proved to be the more popular.)
Rosenfield cautions that her prices are provisional because the cost of chocolate is increasing. Extreme weather and disease have damaged cacao crops in West Africa, the major source of the world’s chocolate.
Nonetheless, another big holiday for chocolate is coming up — Easter. So Rosenfield had another suggestion for Gibson: “Please make Dubai eggs as well.”
The hand-painted bonbon will sell for about $4.
It is difficult for industrial chocolate manufacturers to turn on a dime, so Rosenfield is only now seeing large candy companies come out with their own Dubai chocolates. Recently, there’s been a Dubai chocolate surge.
“One of the oldest chocolate manufacturers in Germany, they’re making a version of it,” she said.
The Swiss-based multinational Lindt has a bar, too.
“A lot of restaurants are doing it as a dessert, so now you’re seeing it everywhere,” Rosenfield said.
Mon Aimee Chocolat is at 2101 Penn Ave., Strip District, 412-395-0022, monaimeechocolat.com.
First Published: March 25, 2025, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: March 25, 2025, 7:10 p.m.
