CU, Dubai Chocolate Sold Out in One Day... "Restocked Every Wednesday and Saturday"

Recipe Using Korean-Style Dried Noodles Instead of Hard-to-Source Kadaif

CU announced on the 8th that the Dubai-style chocolate, the first of its kind in the distribution industry, sold out all 200,000 initial units within a day as soon as the product arrived on the 6th of this month.

The Dubai chocolate is a product from ‘Fix Dessert Chocolatier,’ a company located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It contains pistachios and Turkish Kadaif (thin noodles popular in the Middle East) spread inside the chocolate.

The Dubai chocolate gained fame starting late last year. Maria Behara, a famous influencer in the United Arab Emirates, posted a video on social media eating the chocolate, which spread word-of-mouth globally. This video has now surpassed 60 million views, and the product has become difficult to find even locally in Dubai.

As the Dubai chocolate’s popularity grew, CU collaborated with domestic small and medium-sized enterprises to launch Dubai-style chocolate instead of going through the lengthy process of importing from overseas. This product was inspired by the original Dubai chocolate recipe but uses Korean-style dried noodles and pistachio powder instead of Kadaif, which is currently difficult to source worldwide.

After the product launch news spread, consumer interest increased even more. From last week, Dubai chocolate-related search terms swept the top 10 real-time search rankings on CU’s own commerce app, Pocket CU, occupying ranks 1 through 6. On the launch day, the 6th, many stores experienced “open run” phenomena, with long lines forming for purchases. The usage of Pocket CU’s stock inquiry service also surged, causing connection delays for several hours due to heavy traffic on the 6th when sales began.

CU’s Dubai chocolate is restocked twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Currently, demand is exploding to the extent that production cannot keep up with orders and sales, leading the manufacturing plant to operate overnight. CU is also developing a new concept product using Kadaif, scheduled for release later this month.

Kim Jang-woong, MD of the Snack Food Team at BGF Retail, said, “We will continue to quickly follow trends not only in domestic but also overseas popular products to plan items that enhance customer satisfaction.”