Sarah Hamoudah, founder of the popular brand FIX, has turned a pregnancy craving into an artistic business that is now known globally as “Dubai Chocolate.” Her products are so popular that they sell out in minutes, with the wait for them being like Coldplay concert tickets or, as she puts it, “Hermes chocolate bags.”
What started as a personal curiosity to find the best chocolate blend has now grown into a small business with big appeal that has captured the hearts and palates of Dubai and beyond. Started with a team of two, FIX now employs more than 20 people and, according to Hamoudah, remains a “small, local business.”
“It’s still like a dream to me – I pinch myself sometimes!” says Sarah Hamoudah in a new interview. Hamoudah speaks with excitement, referring to his early days in the business. With a smile on his face, Hamoudah recalls sending his wife on a quest to find her favorite treats in Dubai during her pregnancy. But every time she returned, those treats weren’t “hers.” That’s where the idea for FIX was born—a chocolate that would combine flavors, textures, and layers to create something truly special. “But I had no knowledge of chocolate, no culinary background, I just knew what I wanted it to taste like,” he says. “FIX was never going to be an ordinary chocolate,” says Hamoudah. His goal was to create an artistic and nostalgic experience that would connect to his family’s memories and traditions, especially the beloved flavors of kunafeh and pistachio that he craved while pregnant with his second child.
“I wanted the FIX experience to be different, I wanted people to relive their sweet memories with every bite,” he explains. In his dining room, which had been transformed into a chocolate kitchen, he experimented with flavors, trying to create flavors that would connect with his childhood memories.
For a long time, FIX chocolates were sold solely through local marketing, without any formal advertising budget. Until one day, a TikTok influencer named Maria Vohra decided to introduce FIX chocolates on her platform, a video that has now had nearly 100 million views. Hamoudah remembers the day vividly. “I remember walking into our little kitchen and all of a sudden our ordering app started going crazy, ding, ding, ding. It was a very exciting and amazing experience.”
Within hours, Hamoudah’s small business became famous. Orders poured in from all over Dubai and even from other countries. “I thought there was something wrong with the app,” he recalls with astonishment, “I still couldn’t believe it until I realized the power of social media. I was shocked.”
The chocolate quickly found its fans in Iran, and everyone was eager to covet it. That’s why they were looking for the raw materials for Dubai chocolate, and they found Tel Kadif A-2 strands, one of the main ingredients in Dubai chocolate.
The main use of Tel Kadif A-2 is in making kunafeh. In kunafeh, kunafeh strands are mixed with melted butter or oil and arranged in a mold. Then cheese or a mixture of cheese and cream is poured on top and baked in the oven until golden and crispy. In addition to kunafeh, kunafeh is also used in other desserts, such as kunafeh with sweets and kunafeh with ice cream.
But in Dubai Chocolate, the strands of Tel Kadif Edo are dipped in pistachio butter and placed in a layer of chocolate in rectangular clay molds.
If you are craving Dubai Chocolate and want to make it at home, you can get Tel Kadif Eido at a discount and directly from its manufacturer from EIDO.
