Viral Dubai chocolate gets desi spin. India can't get knafeh of it

Time of India

6 hours ago

Kochi-based Paul And Mike were one of the first to launch their own take
Sometimes, a global trend finds its sweetest home far from where it began. Ashmeet Singh Dua didn't think a viral chocolate bar with a pistachio filling from Dubai would define his five-year-old Hyderabad-based dessert brand but the kunafa pistachio chocolate bar he introduced in Sept last year did just that.
'It's become our brand identity. In Hyderabad, people already love kunafa, so this was a hit the moment we launched it,' says the chef and founder of Xocolatl.
If you haven't heard of Dubai chocolate, you probably don't have a sweet tooth. Inspired by the traditional Middle Eastern dessert knafeh (also called kunafa), it's become such a craze that global pistachio prices started climbing and every chocolate brand launched its own versions.
Indian brands too have put their spin on it.
Dua's take on the bar uses imported kataifi pastry for the crunch, house-roasted pistachio paste and a creamy filling. He's got a range of flavours as well: nutella, lotus biscoff, salted caramel. 'We've had celebrities try it and it's our best-selling product even today. Unlike other dessert fads, this one's here to stay,' he says.
At Manam Chocolate, the award-winning craft chocolate brand from Hyderabad, the Dubai chocolate bar gets a layered, decadent spin.
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Called 'The Kunafa Stack', it brings together their house-made custard, tart bursts of fresh mulberries, pistachio cake crumbs with toasted granola and chopped dates. It's topped with crisp pistachio kataifi and a scoop of house-made gelato, and a final flourish comes with a warm pour of molten Manam chocolate.
Ruby Islam, head chef at Manam Chocolate, says The Kunafa Stack was launched during Ramzan this year. 'I always look forward to creating unique experiences.
But it's also important to hear what people are asking for. When the Dubai Kunafa chocolate went viral, people started asking us if we had something with crunchy pistachio and milk chocolate.' The brand is opening a New Delhi outlet this month, where this version will be available.
Mumbai's French pastry shop Le15 Patisserie has also tapped into the Dubai chocolate trend. Founder Pooja Dhingra, aka the macaron queen, tried the famed bar in Dubai earlier this year and immediately understood the hype.
'It was bold, sweet, crunchy and satisfying. But I knew I wanted to reimagine it through the lens of French pastry. A tart felt like the perfect format,' says Dhingra. Her kunafa chocolate pistachio tart, launched last month, features a buttery chocolate tart shell filled with pistachio cream, toasted kunafa and dark chocolate ganache topped with a pistachio macaron.
Dhingra admits that viral trends come with their own set of expectations.
'Trends push you to stay current and experiment, which is fun and keeps the creative energy high. But there is a pressure to constantly be 'new' and sometimes, that can feel more reactive than intentional,' she says.
Kochi-based Paul And Mike's bar has a golden kataifi pastry and a pistachio-rich filling. Founder and business head Vikas Temani says openness to global trends isn't just philosophy — it's now an operational reality.
'What virality has done is really compress the product innovation cycle. We wanted to be the first among reputed Indian chocolate brands to launch this, so we did it real quick in terms of R&D and sourcing.
That also gave us a window of no competition,' he says.
As kataifi pastry is hard to find, home bakers in India have substituted the ingredients with what's locally available. Some have used roasted sevaiya noodles to recreate that signature crunch.
Arun Viswanathan of Chitra'm Craft Chocolates in Coimbatore didn't want to replicate the trending Kunafa chocolate. Instead, he used a base of nool peni — a South Indian festive sweet made with fine strands of deep-fried dough, resembling delicate vermicelli, layered with ghee and powdered sugar — and cheekily named his bar Dubai Return, almost saying we've been there and come back with something of our own.
The nool peni is layered with pistachio, saffron, rose and a touch of gulkand (rose petal preserve).
'Nool peni has a flaky, crisp texture that reminds me of kunafa. So, I thought, why not reimagine the Dubai bar with it? Our Dubai Return is familiar, yet it surprises you,' says Viswanathan, who did his chocolate training in Belgium.
Poetry by Love and Cheesecake, a cafe chain in Delhi, gave the trend a seasonal spin last month with their Chocolate Mango Kunafa Cheesecake. 'We've never done anything like this before,' says chef Amit Sharma. 'But after the Dubai chocolate went viral, people got curious—now we're seeing repeat orders and planning more Kunafa experiments.'