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Image: File
There’s a new viral chocolate bar on the block.
Angel Hair chocolate, created by Belgian brand Tucho, launched in December 2024 and ticks all the boxes for going viral online. Its white chocolate shell is dyed a pastel pink and delivers the all-important snap when broken apart, revealing pistachio cream and pişmaniye, a Turkish candy floss also known as “angel hair.” Depending on who you ask, it’s either a fun novelty or a sensory nightmare.
Angel Hair is riding the coattails of Fix Dessert Chocolatier’s “Can’t Get Knafeh of It,” better known simply as the Dubai chocolate bar. That confection—also filled with pistachio cream, along with tahini and shredded phyllo dough—launched in 2021 but didn’t truly go viral until 2023, when food reviewer Maria Vehera posted a video unwrapping and tasting it, racking up more than 135 million views and sparking the Dubai chocolate craze.
Pistachio mania quickly spread. Stores limited sales due to pressure on the global pistachio supply chain compounded by major manufacturers jumping on the hype and introducing their own pistachio-based treats. To date, we’ve seen Dubai-chocolate-inspired cookies at Crumbl, shakes at Shake Shack, chocolate bars at Trader Joe’s, donuts at Krispy Kreme, and lattes at Dunkin’—and the pistachio hype is still going strong.
While Dubai chocolate bars might just now be arriving at your local convenience store, the internet is already on to its next craze. “Angel hair is soooo much better [than] the Dubai chocolate,” one Reddit reviewer commented in r/snacking. “Gas station by my house is selling them for $20 a piece,” another wrote. “Tasted it and honestly I love it.”
Despite copycat versions of the viral chocolate bar already cropping up, the availability of Angel Hair chocolate in the U.S. remains mostly online. The bar is listed on Walmart’s website via third-party sellers, but you won’t find it in stores.
Of course, novelty confectionery is nothing new, but the winning formula seems to be both edible and Instagrammable, with a sprinkle of ASMR. It’s easy to see why a bar that’s pink, hairy, and pistachio-filled is proving popular with the “little treat” culture we currently exist in, with more than half of Gen Z confessing to purchasing a small treat for themselves at least once a week, according to a new survey from Bank of America’s Better Money Habits team.
Even as grocery prices are rising and wages stagnating, the habit of indulging in small luxuries is hard to break. For many, a $20 pistachio-filled pink chocolate bar is still worth the splurge—even if it is just to film their reaction.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Eve Upton-Clark is a writer at Fast Company who focuses on internet culture and trends, covering everything from politics to pop culture. She has been a freelance features writer since 2020 and is a regular contributor to Business Insider, Telegraph, Dazed, and more.