Pistachio-filled chocolate bars are going viral from Dubai to Denver

DENVER — Pistachios have been hot in the culinary world for a little while now — in everything from coffee and cocktails to pancakes and desserts. But the trend got a supercharged boost in recent months when a chocolate bar made and sold in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, went viral on social media.

The filling for these sometimes hefty treats is made with a shredded phyllo dough mix called kataifi that is fried or baked to make it crispy and then combined with pistachio praline or pistachio butter and tahini paste. That is then encased in chocolate. The original, at a shop called FIX Dessert Chocolatier uses milk chocolate, although dark and white chocolate is also used.

There are now videos and photos all over TikTok and Instagram of people breaking them open to reveal their gooey greenish insides. Since the bars were only available in Dubai, though, people around the world have been making their own versions and selling them or posting them online.

One of the first people in Denver to do it was Liane Pensack-Rinehart of Colorado Cocoa Pod, who sells truffles and bonbons at popup markets and online.

“I was asked when it first started trending whether I would make it or not. Initially, I wasn’t going to, but I’m a lover of pistachio, and honestly wanted to try it myself,” she explained via email. The combination of kataifi and pistachio is common in some Middle Eastern desserts.

So she told her customers that if she could find the ingredients, mainly the kataifi, for a reasonable price, that she’d be willing to try making it. Although the ingredients were sold out in many places online because of the viral videos, Pensack-Rinehart found a local distributor.

After some trial and error, she ended up with a recipe that worked well structurally and taste-wise, and has since added various shapes and sizes, as well as a vegan version.

“I have a lot of chocolatier friends who have also been asked to make it since the original is only available in Dubai, and I think because it’s so exclusive, that helped in making it really popular,” Pensack-Rinehart said.

TC Nguyen-Vu agrees with that sentiment. A local designer, content creator and home cook, she made a version of the bar over the summer, when they started to go viral and posted it online.

After that, friends and family asked her to make more bars for them. She eventually did so, in milk chocolate, dark chocolate and white chocolate, and began selling them ($35) at CôNu’s Corner Cafe, 4400 W. 29th Ave., a combination Vietnamese restaurant and convenience store in Denver.

Nguyen-Vu thinks the bars gained popularity because they were so hard to get. FIX doesn’t ship, so only people in Dubai could buy them and they became very exclusive.

“Content creators from Dubai would create videos which made everyone more curious,” she said. “The bars are very beautiful on the outside, but pistachio filling is not commonly used in the U.S. so, when you break open the bars and you see the beautiful green filling, it’s a little surprise.

“And lastly, it’s the ASMR. When you hear the crunchy filling, it’s intriguing. You want to know what that is, and what it’s going to taste like,” she added.

Nguyen-Vu fills hers with kataifi, tahini, butter and pistachio cream. She is using the brand name Stash, but credits FIX for the inspiration and for making them popular.

Other places in metro Denver where you can find the viral Dubai chocolate include Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory (which has multiple metro Denver locations, including one at the airport) Cioccolatier (Cherry Creek Shopping Center and Park Meadows Mall) and Reem’s, 2418 S. Colorado Blvd. in Denver, a Syrian bakery that makes treats of all kinds.

And there has been at least one riff off of the chocolate bars from Mukja, a Korean fusion food truck that made sweet Korean pancakes — a popular street food called hotteok — at two recent events. They were filled with kataifi and pistachio cream and topped with chocolate.

The family that runs the truck took a trip to Korea in February and tried different versions of hotteok, which they decided to make different versions for themselves.

“We had it for the Saigon Azteca market a few weeks ago and it was a huge hit,” the family told The Denver Post.