@Vermillion-Rx I've had chocolate with pistachios before this silly craze. It can be a good pairing. This was good chocolate and actual pistachios. I liked it, but not enough to spend that much again when other pairings such as hazelnuts are way better and less pricey.

From what I've seen of the Dubai crap, it's a pistachio-flavored paste that looks like vomit.

@Vermillion-Rx

when every store and their pet monkey did dill pickle flavored everything

The only new thing like that I ever saw was dill pickle flavored sunflower seeds, and those are really good especially on a hot day.

They had dill pickle flavored almonds as far back as 2005. I distinctly remember coming across those in the PX during my first tour in Iraq. Blue Diamond brand, if memory serves. They had all kinds of oddball flavors.

@Vermillion-Rx I had never heard of it until it was mentioned in a WAATGM thread a while back. I was relieved to find that it had nothing to do with Dubai porta potties.

I'm always suspicious of stuff that just comes out of nowhere and is suddenly popular or at least ubiquitous. Another example is Dutch Bros Coffee. I never heard of this chain, and suddenly I can't drive a few miles without passing 3 of them. They're almost as widespread as Starbucks, but didn't have the slow build they did.

@Stigma

Nah I might just dislike random marketing pushes to the point of conspiracy

@Vermillion-Rx My bad, I have a bad habit of misreading and veering off on the wrong note!

Lol

@Stigma

So yeah you're right to notice it isn't authentic, but it's business y'know?

Right. Maybe I just realized I have a dislike of random marketing pushes instead of a grand observation

@Vermillion-Rx Oh well that's the other thing to; brand washing. Arabic Dubai? Dangerous destination Dubai? Islamic Dubai? Dirty oil money Dubai? No silly, Dubai Chocolate! That's our brand association and they'll sink billions into it if it gets them the image they're going for.

Saudi Arabia did the same kind of thing through sports. Invest in teams around the world, buy positive results and then profit positive name recognition.

So yeah you're right to notice it isn't authentic, but it's business y'know?

@Vermillion-Rx anyone trying to type in the "Dubai chocko" into search engines before would either get Instagram models getting poo-n or nothing which would look like engine is covering up.

Now unless youll be more specific you might get the first 100pages of another sheikh favourite.

Is it that? Idk. Coverup strategy doesn't have include only one approach.

I had DC icecream in shape of balls, moochie style and loved it.

Pistachios are very expsnsive, what is found in a chocolate is probably some low quality falvouring blend.

@First-light

Honestly, it just tastes like chocolate and pistachio but the taste conflicts to the point it doesn't really taste like either

I could beat describe it as tasting "cool". It doesn't have the mellow/sweet chocolate taste, it's kind of bland from some weird flavor cancellation by mixing the two

If they didn't stick the exotic Dubai branding on it I don't think anyone would have bought it for the advertised flavor pairing