Roxana Saidi recalls roasted pistachios and nougat being a staple on her Persian family’s wedding menus and other gatherings. Those memories inspired her to create Táche, a line of plant-based milks and lattes made with pistachios. The brand’s sales have more than doubled in the past year.
Saidi attributes the growth to a variety of factors, but one notable influence is the ripple effect of Dubai’s chocolate bars, known for their creamy pistachio filling. “It created the zeitgeist for pistachios,” she says.
The “Can’t Get Knafeh of It” bar from Fix Dessert Chocolatier in Dubai also features shredded puff pastry dough, or kataifi. It provides the hypnotic crunch highlighted in ASMR TikTok videos that helped the bar rise to fame. Now, items inspired by Dubai’s chocolate are set to take over grocery store shelves.
At the biennial Fine Foods Winter Show in Las Vegas, about a dozen vendors sold pistachio oil, baklava treats and knockoff Dubai-style pistachio bars. Shoppers at Oakland Market Hall can find pistachio chocolates, jams, shortbread, butter cookies and Turkish delights coated with kataf.
“Pistachio is one of my favorite confectionery flavors across multiple categories,” said Summer Thompson, senior buyer at Food Market and trend spotter for the Specialty Food Association, which puts on the Specialty Food Show. “I don’t see this growth stopping anytime soon.”
Major food and beverage brands are also jumping on the pistachio bandwagon. Starbucks is bringing its pistachio latte and pistachio cold brew back to its winter menu. Many Starbucks fans took to social media to share their Dubai Chocolate-inspired matcha lattes: an iced matcha latte topped with two pumps of pistachio paste and a drizzle of chocolate cold foam.
In the ice cream aisle, Häagen-Dazs reintroduced its pistachio ice cream in August. The new recipe features pistachio paste and chunks of pistachios, according to Rachel Jaiven, marketing director for Häagen-Dazs. The ice cream is available in 32,000 U.S. stores, and the company expects sales to grow 6% this year.
Chocolate makers from Lindt & Sprüngli to boutique chocolatiers like Cacao and Cardamom have introduced Dubai chocolate knockoffs. A Lindt spokesperson said the company will roll out Dubai chocolate knockoffs in 33 of its U.S. stores this year after a limited test run of a few hundred bars sold out in a day.
Cacao & Cardamom launched the Dubai Pistachio Knafeh Bar in July, which quickly became a fan favorite and is on track to become the brand’s best-selling product by 2024, said President Annie Rupani.
Beyond grocery stores, the nut is influencing everything from perfume to interior design. According to Google Trends, searches for pistachios have doubled in the past year, while Pinterest Trends reports a 240% surge in interest in pistachio paste.
There’s also a practical reason for pistachios’ growing popularity: They require less water to produce than almonds. That makes pistachios more resilient to the ongoing drought in California, where most of the country’s pistachios are grown, said Scott Fryer, vice president of global marketing for the trade group American Pistachio Growers.
Pistachio production fluctuates based on weather and other factors, but supply has grown steadily over the past few years. The trade group expects the U.S. to produce 1.6 billion pounds of pistachios this fiscal year, more than triple the amount produced a decade ago and up 40% from last year.
Saidi said the sustainability of the nuts is a topic of discussion among buyers and coffee shop baristas. Táche has evolved over the past year from a specialty brand in natural food stores to a more mainstream option. The brand’s products are now sold in 500 Target stores and 1,300 Albertsons stores.
“I think we’re tapping into some everyday luxury, and the chocolate trend in Dubai is helping to do that,” she said.
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