This is why we can't have nice things: How your bougie taste in food is ruining the planet
The gap between "new product becomes viral sensation" and "demand for viral sensation product becomes problematic" seems to be getting shorter and shorter. The latest culprit – Dubai chocolate – appeared to make the switch within weeks. One minute I was reading a profile piece about how this sizzlingly on-trend confectionary, comprised of a pistachio cream filling, crispy kataifi (shredded phyllo dough) and tahini swaddled in milk chocolate, had become a global success story. The next, I was wincing at the oh-so-predictable follow-up: "Dubai chocolate TikTok trend triggers international pistachio shortage". It almost feels farcical at this point.
In reality, the trajectory from social media frenzy to real-world consequences was rooted further back in time. The original Dubai chocolate, made by FIX Dessert Chocolatier and named "Can't Get Knafeh Of It" in a nod to the Middle Eastern dessert that inspired it, launched in 2021. The first post praising this high-end, £15-a-bar concoction appeared at the tail-end of 2023. Then, like a snowball gathering ever-increasing velocity and volume as it hurtled downhill, the sweet treat's popularity swiftly spiralled out of control.
More and more TikTok videos jumped on the bandwagon, sales rocketed, and copycat versions sprang up from the likes of Lindt, the sale of which had to be limited to two bars per person at Waitrose after multiple sell-outs. Overnight, it went from being something most people had never heard of to the subject of round-ups listing the best Dubai chocolate-inspired products on the market in time for Easter 2025.
Even Morrison’s brought out a pistachio cream Easter egg this year in honour of the trend. Now, we're faced with the inevitable dark side of all this hysteria. One chocolate bar's success has resulted in a global pistachio shortage and a corresponding price hike for kernels. Grown mainly in the US and Iran, the nuts were already in shorter supply thanks to last year's poor harvest in America; Dubai chocolate's stratospheric rise to fame has only exacerbated the issue.
"The pistachio world is basically tapped out at the moment," Giles Hacking, from nut trader CG Hacking, told the Financial Times, adding that prices have shot up from $7.95 to $10.30 a pound in just a year. "There wasn't much in supply, so when Dubai chocolate comes along, and [chocolatiers] are buying up all the kernels they get their hands on ... that leaves the rest of the world short," he said.
It's not the only example that epitomises the notion of "this is why we can't have nice things". But let's focus on the common denominator in all of this: as is the case for many of contemporary society's worst afflictions, social media seems to be at the permanent centre of the Venn diagram.
It's no one individual's fault – not the producer of the "hot new thing", nor the person who posts about it, nor the consumer who sees a clip and fancies trying it as a treat. That's how capitalism works: demand dictates supply, supply dictates price. But supply chains simply aren't set up for the modern phenomenon of TikTok videos, nor for the overnight stardom that comes courtesy of an algorithmic quirk exposing millions of viewers to a certain product.
It's time to take heed of the real lesson behind all this. However good the latest food and drink craze looks on your feed, it's masking the ugly truth beneath: virality and sustainability simply aren't compatible. The question is, what's next? Will we be able to break the cycle before it's too late?