Dubai Chocolate: A Kadayif Craze

There are few desserts more trendy right now than FIX Chocolate’s famous “Can’t Get Knafeh of It – Hero” bar. It’s referred to as “Dubai Chocolate” and replicated frequently by competitors. 

Asking $120 for a pack of “six large bars” on their website – they lack a physical storefront –  and a whopping $599 for the “FIX Dessert Chocolatier’s Gourmet Chocolate Secrets” recipe book promising to teach you how to make it at home. The book claims to be “packed with detailed recipes, high-quality ingredient tips, and pro techniques” in the 80-page guide. It’s clear that this surge in popularity has proven to be profitable.

FIX Chocolate describes the bar as “a FIX Dessert Chocolatier favorite that brings crispy knafeh to a whole new level. Filled with a delightful mix of pistachio and tahini paste, this bar is wrapped in creamy milk chocolate, providing a smooth, nutty flavor with a touch of Middle Eastern charm.” Indeed, the main ingredients are knafeh, pistachio paste, tahini, and milk chocolate. 

What isn’t known to most is that the nature of this “Middle Eastern charm” obscures the Palestinian roots of knafeh. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, knafeh is made of a shredded phyllo dough known as kadayif, sweet syrup, and chees. It originated in the Palestinian city of Nablus hundreds upon hundreds of years ago. 

This chocolate bar is attributed to Dubai because FIX Chocolate is a Dubai based company and has been credited with the invention of this mix of chocolate, knafeh, and pistachio paste. But the ingredients, just as integral to the creation of the bar as the recipe, do not come from Dubai.

Few people know of the origins of “Dubai Chocolate,” and the perspectives of those who pioneered the central ingredient of it, Palestinians, are rarely credited or featured.