You may’ve seen the viral green form of chocolate floating around the internet. Videos about creating and eating the famous ‘Dubai chocolate’ may’ve hit your ‘for you page’ on TikTok, or your feed on reels. What started out as the newest food trend soon became the world’s newest craze.
Dubai chocolate soon quickly branched out from its food stage into beauty, wellness, and lifestyle products. Dubai chocolate itself is made up of unique ingredients like saffron or cardamom, exotic nuts like pistachio or macadamia, and sometimes even edible 24K gold. In Dubai culture, it’s meant to be more than just a simple snack, it’s meant to be an experience or a present.
While I think Dubai chocolate is a good chocolate to enjoy, perhaps a bit overrated I might add, the resulting Dubai chocolatification is uncanny. Dining halls all around the U.S. have added this sweet delicacy to their menus. UCLA, for example, offered Dubai chocolate strawberries to its students. County fairs and street events are selling Dubai chocolate, marketing it as this exotic dessert item. However, it’s not these specific instances of trend-following that makes me question the absurdity of this craze. Instead it’s the way this chocolate has slipped into lifestyle items and activities. I’ve seen videos of people doing acrylic nails with Dubai chocolate. Instead of using a monomer and acrylic powder to create the acrylic gel, people are using actual Dubai chocolate instead to substitute as the gel. If that wasn’t enough, the Dubai chocolate craze has manifested itself into products such as shampoos, perfumes, and even pads.
At some point, one starts to wonder where the line is between innovation and absurdity. While Dubai chocolate-scented lotions and lip tints could make sense in the same way that there are fruit flavored items; I think melting down these sweets and turning them into beauty hacks or hygiene products starts to feel more like a ridiculous stunt, rather than creative self-care. It blurs the boundaries between indulgence and impracticality, raising questions about capitalist and consumer culture as well as whether novelty should outweigh functionality in personal care routines and everyday wellness products.
In my opinion, we should lay off putting it on our scalps, spraying it on ourselves, or sticking it on our nails. I think chocolate should just be chocolate. It should be eaten, enjoyed, experienced, and gifted the way that Dubai culture has intended.