In June, Daniel Korson, the founder of Richmond-based Coracao Chocolate, was at the Specialty Food Association’s Fancy Food Show in New York and found there was no escaping the Dubai chocolate craze. Long in the chocolate industry, Korson said he can’t remember another chocolate trend that has taken hold quite like this one, which piqued his curiosity. But Korson gave up cane sugar long ago. And he doesn’t eat gluten or dairy either, so as much as he was intrigued, he couldn’t try it himself.
More East BAy Dubai Chocolate
Coracao is not the only East Bay business putting its own spin on Dubai chocolate. Check out these other treats taking advantage of the trendy flavor profile, and let Nosh know of others you’ve discovered.
Charles Chocolates: Tasting Table came out with its ranking of the best American-made Dubai chocolate bars, and at the top of the list was Charles Chocolates, which are made in San Francisco and found in many East Bay shops including Market Hall. The chocolatier makes three versions: original pistachio, pistachio milk chocolate caramel, and pistachio bittersweet chocolate ganache.
The Xocolate Bar: Since the Berkeley shop introduced “Dubai Bites,” it can’t keep them in stock. You can pre-order them on the website.
Heyma Yemeni Coffee: If one form of Dubai isn’t enough for you, you can visit this cafe for a Dubai Latte with a slice of Dubai Cheesecake on the side.
The chocolate confection with pistachio cream and kataifi, or shreds of phyllo dough, and sometimes tahini, was invented by pastry chef Sarah Hamouda in the United Arab Emirates in 2021. While combining chocolate and nut butter is hardly original, the kataifi is definitely a unique addition, and jumping on the tahini train is a smart move; clearly, it has become so popular because it offers a multitude of contrasts: sweet and salty, crunchy and creamy.
The trendy flavor profile seems to be everywhere, having first gone viral on TikTok in a 2023 ASMR post. Today, you’ll find versions while waiting in the checkout line at Safeway. Dubai lattes are on offer at East Bay Yemeni coffee shops. Dubai cupcakes have been spotted at a local Costco, and when I was in my hometown in Southern California last weekend, I passed by a pop-up shade structure advertising “Dubai strawberries” at a local shopping center.
After the Fancy Food Show, Korson bought a Dubai chocolate bar for his daughter and she ranked it a 10 out of 10. That’s when he was inspired to try to come up with a version of it that he himself could eat.
Coracao quietly introduced its own Dubai bar in July, but, like all of its products, its version is free of dairy and gluten.
It took several months of development for his daughter to declare this one a 9.5.
Besides being defined by what it doesn’t use, Coracao has distinguished itself by what it does use: coconut sugar, which is not only regeneratively grown, but is lower on the glycemic index; organic, fair trade cacao from Peru, as opposed to West Africa, where children are exploited in the chocolate trade; and organic ingredients that are minimally processed. They also do nearly everything from scratch, like grinding whole vanilla beans rather than using extract. All their ingredients are recognizable, and their entire facility is dairy, wheat and peanut free.
A global palate meets dietary restrictions
Korson, who grew up in the Bay Area, had somewhat of a hippie upbringing. His single mother had the travel bug, and took him on many adventures, which both inspired his global palate, but also left him with a parasite that wreaked havoc on his digestive system, which is why he doesn’t eat dairy or gluten.
In the aughts, he had already worked in both the food and wine industries, and was hired as part of the dessert team at Cafe Gratitude, working in its central kitchen in the Mission district of San Francisco. There, he was part of a group that created all the chocolate truffles and other chocolate desserts served at its small network of Bay Area restaurants. (A Cafe Gratitude existed in Berkeley in the former Agrodolce Osteria space on Shattuck Avenue. Just as much as being known for its raw, vegan fare, Gratitude was most known – and skewered – for preceding all of its dishes, which had names like “humble” and “beaming,” with “I am,” so that when you ordered, you told the server, “I am humble.”)
On the one hand, it was a real education, in that Korson learned about making desserts using whole ingredients like young Thai coconuts and whole vanilla beans. But, on the other, the operation was extremely “rustic,” he said, as they didn’t have anything resembling the usual kind of equipment needed for professional chocolate-making. Their chocolate truffles weren’t tempered – tempering chocolate involves bringing it to a certain temperature, which stabilizes the cocoa butter within the chocolate, imparting a glossy finish, a hard, crisp snap, and making it contract for easier unmolding. Without refrigeration, their truffles “would melt into a puddle,” Korson said.
His tenure at Cafe Gratitude got him curious about the benefits of raw cacao. He began educating himself on its qualities and its use in medicine and ceremonies in different cultures. When he learned about its mood-enhancing effects and nutritional value, including relatively high amounts of antioxidants and iron, he realized a company emphasizing these qualities could bring something different to the crowded chocolate market.
At that time, Whole Foods had introduced its Local Producer Loan Program, which loans money to food startups that create items that the grocery chain will then carry. In 2008, Korson and cofounder Matthew Rogers (who left the company in 2017) applied for and received startup funds of $20,000 to start making chocolate treats for Whole Foods shoppers from a commercial kitchen in Emeryville.
Soon, Coracao products were available in the candy cases in the bakery section of some Bay Area Whole Foods stores, but “eventually, that turned out not to be the best fit just because someone who’s looking for low-sugar, dairy-free and gluten-free chocolate is not going to go to the Whole Foods bakery section,” Korson said. But it was a start.
The company has grown dramatically since. There are now 15 employees, with 13 of them also partial owners of the company. Coracao is sold in specialty grocers throughout the West Coast, though most of its sales happen online. (Most new customers find them through web ads.)
The company is employee-owned, and in 2019 it merged with and acquired CACOCO, which makes drinking chocolate (sold in a distinctive, pyramid-shaped box).
Its facility in Richmond is also a co-packer for other vegan and gluten-free chocolate brands. Coracao’s candy bars go beyond what many think of in a filled candy bar. Its “Berkeley Bar” is its take on a Snickers, though since they don’t use peanuts either, due to it being a common allergen, it’s filled with caramel and nougat made from lucuma (a South American fruit prized by chocolate makers not only for its health benefits but for its caramel-like taste). Other filled varieties range from hazelnut cream to superberry, which has a deliciously tart filling of pomegranate and acai, and the chocolate bars come in a variety of flavors, including one with no sugar at all. Coracao also sells truffles, and customers can select individualized truffle flavors to build their own gift box.
Making the Dubai bar
While they have a number of different candy bars, some, like those filled with caramel, can be done primarily by machine. Not so with the Dubai bar. Given the density of the filling, it must be put on sheets, smoothed and cut by hand.
Making the Dubai bars is a three-day process. The whole pistachios spend 24 hours in a stone grinder or melanger. While many companies start with pre-made pistachio cream or butter, Coracao does not; they source whole organic pistachios from the Santa Barbara Pistachio Company and grind them in-house.
They could do it for less time, Korson said, but he believes the silky smoothness of the pistachio cream contrasted with the crunchiness is what makes the Dubai bar so satisfying. Next, they add coconut sugar, coconut milk powder, vanilla, and Himalayan salt to the pistachio cream.
Rather than the kataifi, which is made from flour, they use toasted quinoa and toasted coconut shreds, as well as chopped roasted and salted pistachios. Getting that “gluten-like crunch” was the hardest part, Korson said. Once the filling is well-incorporated, it is poured onto sheet pans and then left overnight to cool and harden in a refrigerator.
The next day, the sheets of filling are cut by hand into bar shapes, and then each bar is sent twice through the enrobing machine, which gives it a thick chocolate coating. The bars take about 10 minutes to go through a long chamber set at around 45 degrees, so the chocolate sets as they go through the chamber.
Korson felt the chocolate-to-filling ratio was off with only one coat of chocolate, so they sent it through the enrobing machine twice. One employee stands at the mouth of the enrober and sprinkles a few pistachio chunks on top as each bar enters.
A three-pack of the bars is available on Coracao’s website for $23.99, but single bars are available on a very limited run at some East Bay stores, including El Cerrito Natural Grocery, Tessier Winery in Berkeley, and Berkeley’s Lhasa Karnak herb company stores, with more grocery stores slated to carry the bars soon.
