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uptown aces Chasing the kataifi, the viral chocolate bar on TikTok
By the time you are reading this, you probably have already heard about “Dubai’s viral chocolate” and watched people crack one open on TikTok to reveal a rich pistachio cream loaded with what seems to be small noodles inside. Fix Dessert Chocolatier founder Sarah Hamouda collaborated with Filipino chef and dessert consultant Nouel Catis to create this now famous treat that has since caught global attention and demand.
Influencers rave about the satisfying crunch and texture and how it isn’t cloyingly sweet. Retailing at about P1,250 a bar, people from all over the world wanted to have a bite of the famed chocolate bar.
The original recipe mixes a string-like filo pastry called kataifi together with pistachio cream and tahini. This mixture is encased in high-quality chocolate that gives that satisfying crack when you break the bar in two. The kataifi, which shares a similar taste and texture with shredded wheat cereal, lends a textural crispness and tempers the sweetness of the other ingredients.
Here in the Philippines, three brands hope to bring the experience locally without having to hop on a plane.
Bueno BarksCzarina Waga, owner of Bueno Barks, has been baking and selling chocolate bark, truffles, and the like since 2019. Operating from her home kitchen, hundreds of kataifi chocolate bars are laid out on her dining table waiting for riders to pick up the orders. “This just started trending last April or May. I was just browsing and I kept seeing people crack the chocolate and I was curious already.”
The beautiful mold of Bueno Barks’ products sets it apart
Bueno Barks’ Biscoff flavor is loaded with kataifi pastry tempering its sweetness
It was not until one of her customers inquired if she made these bars that she realized there could actually be serious demand here in the Philippines. “A lot of people have FOMO so why not answer their curiosity? So I decided to start making my own. It took me weeks of R&D to develop my own bars. I tried making my own pistachio cream and it was also hard to source kataifi but I made it work,” says Waga.
Colorful designs make Bueno Barks a level above the rest
Bueno Barks sells pistachio and Biscoff (both with kataifi) in three different chocolate variants: milk, white and dark chocolate. Her bars are slightly thicker than that of the original, which translates to more filling. Prices start at P675 per bar (a fraction of the original sold in Dubai). She holds preorders every Friday at 6 p.m. for orders for the following weekend. “We have to control the number of orders. A lot of people get mad that they don’t get a slot but they have to realize that this is a homemade chocolate bar. It’s a small business,” Waga explains.
Czarina Waga of Bueno Barks operates from her home kitchen
Zuri Cravings
Another supplier of kataifi bars, Raziela Panganiban of Zuri Cravings, only started selling her kataifi bars in July and is already receiving a demand of about 200 to 300 bars a day. “I had no idea that it would be selling this much. I started out doing it all by myself but now I hire working students to work part-time to help out.”
Zuri Cravings has two flavors—Pistachio Kataifi and Biscoff Cream Cheese
A closer look into Zuri Cravings’ bars. Their Biscoff doesn’t have kataifi pastry
Although Panganiban has no previous experience in the F&B industry, she is well-versed in online selling, particularly selling shoes and bags full-time. This might have sharpened her eye to spot what can sell and what people are willing to buy. “I like to cook and make desserts. When I saw the Dubai viral chocolate on TikTok, I was curious how it tasted so I tried making it myself. People said it was good and they encouraged me to sell it and so I did. I had no idea it would boom like this.”
Raziela Panganiban of Zuri Cravings
Panganiban sells two flavors: pistachio with kataifi and Biscoff with cream cheese. She also sells these flavors in smaller sizes that cost P299 while the big size (double the size of the small) is at P799. Her Biscoff variant does not contain kataifi however and came off a tad too sweet.
Breaking Bar
Breaking Bar’s version is thinner compared to the original giving a more chocolate-to-filling ratio
Fresh from college, 18-year-old Julia Brillantes had a similar story. “It all started in the summer in June and I was going out every single day. I thought to myself, ‘I can’t sustain going out every day. I need to find a way to make money.’ So I was scrolling on TikTok for ideas and I saw the Dubai viral chocolate. I knew that if I tried making it, I would be able to sell it here.”
Brillantes started Breaking Bar—a play on the popular show “Breaking Bad”—to sell her version of the bars she calls Knafeh Pistachio. Knafeh is an Arabic dessert that incorporates pistachio and kataifi. Her bars are noticeably thinner than usual, which means that the chocolate-to-filling ratio is higher.
Julia Brilliantes breaks into the Knafeh Pistachio Bar
“Our Knafeh Pistachio Chocolate bars are designed a bit differently from traditional chocolate bars like Fix. Instead of solid, thick filling throughout the entire bar, our chocolates feature individual square pockets, each filled with generous portions of creamy, crunchy pistachio knafeh.” The squares make it easier as well to portion off (or share) your bar.
“In my second preorder batch, I received my first ever bad review,” Brillantes recalls. “Someone posted on TikTok and it gained about half a million views. I felt so put down. I decided to take it constructively and make a chocolate comeback. So I upgraded the quality of my chocolate and my filling really had to be crunchy.” Breaking Bar sells their bars for P499.
When riding on a trenduptown aces, timing is important. As an entrepreneur, timing is only second to being brave. You need to be bold and really take on the risks of testing out the market. No one knows how long this trend will last, but for these three local makers of Dubai’s viral chocolate bar, they’re striking while the iron’s hot. Special thanks to Sentro Artista