Dubai Chocolate: How to Pair This Viral Dessert with 7 Stunning Whiskies

If you’ve been on TikTok or strolled into a chocolate shop in the past few years, you’ve likely encountered Dubai chocolate. The silky chocolate bar, jam-packed with bright green pistachio cream, tahini, and crunchy fried phyllo dough, has become the most viral sensation in the confectionery world—so much so that its popularity has actually contributed to pistachio shortages worldwide.

It may come as no surprise that Dubai chocolate is a relatively recent invention. In 2021, a then-pregnant British-Egyptian engineer named Sarah Hamouda started a side hustle inspired by her food cravings and began developing a chocolate bar filled with the aforementioned ingredients with the help of her friend and culinary consultant Nouel Catis Omamalin. The following year, Hamouda and her husband Yezen Alani opened FIX Dessert Chocolatier in Dubai with their flagship chocolate bar, Can’t Get Knafeh Of It, before adding a slew of other confections to the FIX portfolio.

Creating chocolate took elements of a popular Middle East delicacy called ‘knafeh’ and wrapped it in high-end Belgian chocolate. “Knafeh has a base of kataifi, which is a dried and shredded phyllo dough that gets fried in butter to make it crunch, says Todd Robinson, director of operations at Robinson Confections in Hayden, Ohio. “For knafeh, you’d make sort of a crust out of this and then fill it with pistachio cream mixed with tahini (ground sesame seed), and add other things like cheese or cream.” In Dubai chocolate’s case, the cheese and non-pistachio cream are left out.

As Robinson puts it, “If you are a pistachio lover, [Dubai chocolate] is quite literally one of the best things you’ll ever eat in your entire life.” As good as it is on its own, we feel that a dessert so decadent deserves an equally decadent dram to go with it. So here are stellar whiskies that pair perfectly with the myriad textures and rich, nutty flavors of Dubai chocolate.

7 Whiskies to Pair With Dubai Chocolate

95 points - Rampur Barrel Blush Indian Single Malt, 45%, $105

This hails from the Himalayan foothills, where extreme temperature fluctuations cause barrel influence to set in rapidly. That means intense flavors from both bourbon barrels and Australian shiraz wine casks. Pistachio, chocolate, rose, raspberry, and vanilla are a flavor combo made in heaven, and those notes are all present when you snack on a Dubai chocolate bar and wash it down with sips of Rampur Barrel Blush.

94 points - Port Charlotte 18 year old Scotch Single Malt (2025 Release), 51.5%, $200

This single malt from Islay’s Bruichladdich Distillery contains a healthy dose of peat, so a note of earthy campfire smoke is present from start to finish. However, this feature only amplifies the whisky’s flavors of salted caramel, butterscotch, dried figs, and ginger. With peat and an ensemble of barrels ranging from bourbon and sherry to French oak casks all at play, sipping this between bites of the chocolate is like having a s’more layered with tahini and pistachio cream.

94 points - Wild Turkey Rare Breed Barrel Proof Straight Rye, 56.1%, $60

For those looking to pair Dubai chocolate’s hallmark pistachio-and-chocolate flavors with mint, citrus, and oak, seek out Wild Turkey Rare Breed Barrel Proof straight rye. The whiskey’s nose doubles down on woodsy notes of cedar, oak, and mint, while the palate offers waves of oranges, barrel char, and myriad herbs. Unlike most Wild Turkey products, this expression is non-chill filtered, ensuring a rich texture that contrasts with the chocolate bar’s crunch.

93 points - Kentucky Peerless Double Oak Bourbon, 54.35%, $95

Kentucky Peerless Double Oak is no shrinking violet. It’s bottled at cask strength and spends at least 4 years in a charred new oak barrel before being transferred to another charred new oak barrel for further aging. The result is a bourbon chock-full of oak influence with a rich, luscious texture that complements Dubai chocolate’s nuttiness and counteracts its satisfying crunch. The whiskey’s flavors of apple pie, raisins, and gingerbread only add more to explore.

92 points - Hibiki Japanese Harmony, 43%, $100

Not all whisky and Dubai chocolate pairings need to be big and bold. For something a bit more delicate and understated, reach for Hibiki Japanese Harmony. This blend consists of multiple malt and grain whiskies from three of Suntory’s distilleries in Japan and contains whiskies aged in various cask types, including mizunara oak—prized for its rarity and unique notes of sandalwood and coconut. The final product is a smooth sipper with plenty of fruit, vanilla, and spice.

92 points - Redbreast 12 year old Irish Single Pot Still, 40%, $70

Hailing from Ireland’s Midleton Distillery, Redbreast 12 year old is the brand’s flagship expression. It’s a triple-distilled single pot still blend crafted from malted and unmalted barley that’s aged in both bourbon and oloroso sherry casks. The resulting profile dishes up plenty of pot still baking spice notes, along with bourbon barrel sweetness and nutty, dried-fruit flavors courtesy of the sherry casks. The whiskey’s nutty notes help enhance pistachio and tahini flavors in the chocolate.

90 points - High Wire Distilling Co. 7 year old Jimmy Red Limited Edition Wheated Bourbon (Batch 6), 53.5%, $100

South Carolina’s High Wire Distilling Co. has been using the once nearly extinct Jimmy Red corn varietal to make bourbon since the brand’s inception in 2013. While every Jimmy Red release is unmistakably “bourbon” in profile, the prized corn brings a nice peanut butter flavor into the mix, and few things pair better with chocolate than peanut butter. This particular expression contains wheat in its mashbill, which softens the bourbon and adds further complementary flavors of cherry gelato and caramel.