Woman with 90kg of viral Dubai chocolate apprehended by customs
German customs officials seized 90kg of the Internet famous Dubai chocolate last month from a woman at Hamburg airport, who is now on the line for hundreds of euros in import duties.
The chocolate bar features a crunchy mix of pistachio cream and knafeh – a crispy filo dough used in the dessert baklava – encased in milk chocolate. It went viral after TikTok food influencer Maria Vehera posted a video of herself eating a bar of it in 2023.
The 33-year-old woman, who the police did not name, had not declared the 460 bars she had spread out among three suitcases, reported Reuters. A spokesperson for German customs said she told police she had paid €4.60 (£3.85) for each 200g bar. She was not arrested, but will be investigated for possible tax evasion charges.
Customs officials said that the confiscated chocolate bars now have to either be re-exported or destroyed, and added that it was likely that the bars, due to the sheer number that had been imported, were meant to be sold commercially.
The officials did not state which brand the chocolate bars were from, but said the confiscated bars were valued at a total of around €2,100 (£1,759).
Officials were also unable to find any information on ingredients or allergens on the bars’ packaging, which meant they posed a health risk to customers.
“In addition to the potential tax evasion for the evaded import duties of over €330 (£276), customs in this case is primarily concerned with protecting the health of citizens in Germany,” the office added in a statement.
Dubai chocolate is a recent creation, invented by Dubai-based British-Egyptian entrepreneur Sarah Hamouda in 2021, who was inspired by cravings she had when pregnant and wanted something more than the “typical” chocolate fix.
An authentic Dubai chocolate bar is made by Hamouda’s brand, Fix Dessert Chocolatier, fittingly named “Can’t Get Knafeh of It,” and exclusively in Dubai. However, copycat versions are now available all over the world. Last year, Swiss chocolatier Lindt introduced a limited number of 1,000 of the novel chocolate bars in select shops in Germany that saw hundreds of shoppers lined up for hours to buy a single bar.
“We take a lot of time and effort, and put a lot of love into our bars,” Hamouda told CNN in 2024. “We want to create an experience.”
The demand for the viral chocolate bars, helped along by Instagram and TikTok influencers, has shot up rapidly. Fix went from around six orders for a bar a day to about 100 per minute, and that too only in Dubai.
