In the heart of Dubai, where culinary concepts bloom and fade at the speed of light, one woman has managed to carve her niche with nothing more than a craving and an insatiable passion for chocolate. Sarah Hamouda, founder of the now-cult-favourite brand, FIX, has transformed a pregnancy craving into a booming artisanal business globally known as the ‘Dubai Viral Chocolate’. Her products are so in-demand they’re snapped up within minutes, evoking the anticipation of Coldplay tickets or as she jokes, “the Hermes bags of chocolate.”
What began as a personal quest for the perfect chocolate bar has become, in comparison, a small-batch business with massive appeal, capturing hearts and taste buds of Dubai and beyond. Starting off with a team of two, FIX now has over 20 employees in what Hamouda says remains a “small, homegrown business.”
In her first in-depth interview, Hamouda speaks exclusively to Arabian Business, to talk about her vision that made FIX an international sensation.
A craving sparking a culinary revolution
“It still feels a dream – I sometimes pinch myself,” Hamouda confides, her excitement palpable even as she reflects on how it all began. With a smile, Hamouda reminisced about sending her husband on food quests across Dubai to satisfy her pregnancy cravings. But each time he returned, the treats failed to “hit the spot,” she recalls. That’s when the idea of FIX took root – a chocolate bar that would fuse flavours, textures, and layers to create something truly unique. “But I didn’t know anything about chocolate, I had no culinary background, I just knew what I wanted it to taste like,” she said.
Hamouda insists, “FIX was never intended to be a typical chocolate bar.” Her goal was to create a nostalgic artisanal experience, rooted in her memories and family traditions, particularly the beloved flavours of kanafeh and pistachio which she so badly craved whilst pregnant with her second child.
“I wanted the FIX experience to be different,” she told Arabian Business. “I wanted people, from that first bite, to relive moments of their past.”
From her dining room-turned-chocolate-kitchen, Hamouda experimented tirelessly, perfecting flavours that married her childhood memories with unique textures. “My mother used to make kanafeh, and that’s something I wanted to capture my own way,” she shares, hinting at how deeply her Middle East roots influence her creations. “Kanafeh was the first flavour we perfected. The crunch, the pistachio, it had to be just right.” Low and behold, ‘Can’t get Knafeh of It’ was born, a titled inspired by Hamouda’s husband.
From corporate life to chocolate life: The sweet and bitter of building a brand
Before FIX, Hamouda worked in a corporate 9-to-5 job, an experience she contrasts starkly with her current role. “It’s a completely different world. Back then, I would clock in and clock out, but now, it’s like I wake up every day wanting to do more. Every day with FIX feels different, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” she says with a sparkle in her eye.
But making the leap from corporate to culinary came with challenges. “Turning my dining room into a chocolate factory was … chaotic, to say the least,” she laughs. “I was still working my corporate job, and here I was, spending 12 hours a day wrapping bars by hand, with my kids running around. We had to install special three pin sockets for our chocolate-making machines. It was madness, but looking back, those are some of my favourite memories.”
Imagine though a life without the ‘Dubai Viral Chocolate’ bars, because for Hamouda there were a number of times where she almost gave up. The road wasn’t easy, and there were moments of doubt. “I can’t count how many times I turned to my husband and said, ‘I’m done. I can’t keep doing this,’” she admits. In the beginning sales were limited, there was no great trajectory for the business and Hamouda had a young family to look after – the idea of turning her craving into a successful culinary concept was almost crushed until….
The TikTok moment that changed everything
For a long time, FIX bars relied solely on community buzz, without a formal marketing budget. Then one day, a TikTok influencer Maria Vehera decided to feature FIX chocolate bars on her platform, a video which now has almost 100mn views. Hamouda remembers this day vividly. “I remember walking into our tiny kitchen, and suddenly our ordering app starts going wild – ding, ding, ding,” she laughs. “It was like a scene from ‘The Bear’ – tickets flying out faster than we could keep up. I even threw my phone on the floor. It was overwhelming, but in the best way.”
In a matter of hours, Hamouda’s tiny operation was thrust into the limelight. Orders poured in from across Dubai with many trying to order from beyond. “I thought something must have gone wrong with the app,” she recalls, still incredulous. “I had no idea what was happening until I realised the power of social media. I was blown away.”
FIX went from being a homegrown Dubai secret to an international sensation almost overnight. Humbled by the brand’s meteoric rise, Hamouda told Arabian Business, “Now, it feels surreal. Videos of our bars are coming in from Argentina, South Korea and small towns in the UK. I still wake up some days and have to pinch myself.”
The Hermes of chocolate
While FIX chocolates were initially designed to be readily available, they are now so sought-after that snagging one feels like winning the lottery. Customers eagerly wait for the online “slots” at 2 PM and 5 PM, when a limited number of bars become available only in Dubai. Fans compare it to the anticipation of trying to score a Hermes bag or a Coldplay ticket.
It was a partnership with Deliveroo where Hamouda managed to meet the insatiable demand across Dubai for her desserts. But she says creating slots on one delivery site was never the plan and she had no idea that the demand for her chocolate treats would be this high.
“FIX was meant to be, you feel like a dessert, order it, you get it and so it was never the model to be not available,” she explains. “The whole idea of slots was something we never planned, it was something we were pushed into doing because that was the only way we could make enough bars to be able to deliver to customers. Going from an on-demand service to the slotting was a difficult time from a production perspective.”
When challenged on whether limiting the availability of chocolate bars was in fact a marketing strategy to drive people’s want for FIX, Hamouda was adamant it happened organically and it was purely ‘demand’ which meant they couldn’t get chocolate out quick enough. But she told Arabian Business that the hype around availability has ‘played a big part’ in growing the business.
And so it is that demand that has transformed FIX into something of a phenomenon, with Hamouda’s team struggling to keep up. “Before we were making just two or three bars a day. Our produce is fresh, we make it, we sell it and we don’t keep.”
However now, it’s believed Hamouda and her team are making more than 100 orders per minute. “We’re making as many bars as we physically can, but they’re handcrafted, and we’re committed to quality,” she tells Arabian Business. “I know it can be frustrating for people ordering them. Some days, the bars sell out in seconds, and there’s nothing I can do. So be patient with us,” she pleads to her customers.
A delicate dance with copycats
When a brand gains a dedicated following, copycats inevitably appear. For Hamouda, seeing her products replicated around the world evokes mixed emotions. “Any human would get frustrated,” she says candidly. “But I channel that frustration into making FIX even better.”
That ‘frustration’ has been evident on the FIX Dessert Chocolatier Instagram feed, a post earlier this year titled: “FIX is ONLY available in Dubai on Deliveroo!” relayed a stark message to customers who were falling for copycats who claimed they were the original ‘Dubai viral chocolate’.
The post went on to state, “WE DO NOT: have a website, have a physical store, sell our bars on social media, have any authorized resellers anywhere. Please beware of scammers!”
Hamouda tells Arabian Business she wants to bring FIX to as many people as possible and it’s something she and her team are working towards. “There will always be copycats,” she shrugs. “But it’s our quality, creativity and precision that makes us different.”
At the same time, she finds a silver lining in the popularity of her flavours, particularly Middle Eastern flavours like kanafeh and pistachio, that are now being celebrated globally. “It’s secretly really cool that people around the world are talking about these flavours,” she admits. “People who’ve never even tasted it are now trying it because of FIX.”
Royal recognition: A moment of validation
One of the most significant turning points in FIX’s journey so far, was a call Hamouda received from the office of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, the crown prince of Dubai, inviting her to collaborate on a unique project. “I remember pulling over to take the call. I was full of emotion. It was a very big ‘wow’ moment,” she recalls. “It’s not every day you get a call from the Royal family to ask you to collaborate on a specific bar,” she adds with the shock still etched on her face.
It was only in September 2024, that FIX delivered a new flavoured chocolate bar to the residence of the Crown Prince of Dubai, exclusively for the Royal Family. In an Instagram post, Sheikh Hamdan shared a picture of the new bars with a new flavour called ‘Emirati Halwa’. But Hamouda makes clear, these are not for sale and in fact the Crown Prince has been gifting them to many across the world.
Back to the phone call, and Hamouda says, “The words he said to me, ‘that they were very proud,’ felt like validation for all the hard work we’d put in.” She told Arabian Business, after the phone call ended, she cried a lot.
The partnership was more than just a business milestone for Hamouda – it was a deeply personal achievement, reflecting the value of her work within the very community she cherishes. “To have that kind of recognition in the place where we started…it was overwhelming. I never imagined FIX would reach this level.” Adding, “it’s a stamp of honour that no amount of advertising could buy. It made all of those late nights, all of those struggles, feel worth it.”
What’s next for FIX?
The artisanal nature of FIX is something Hamouda fiercely protects, even if it means turning down lucrative mass-production offers, of which she has received many. “The product wouldn’t be the same. People love that every bar is different, that there’s this unrepeatable quality,” she shares with Arabian Business. “Sure, there’s pressure to expand, but I want to stay true to what FIX was meant to be – an experience, not just a chocolate bar.”
So with demanding continuing to soar, Hamouda is exploring ways to bring more FIX to the world without sacrificing the brand’s quality and unique appeal. She’s even engaging her community in the process. “We listen to what the consumer wants,” she says. That’s how the dark chocolate kanafeh bar came to be – people kept asking for it!”
Looking ahead, Hamouda share that ‘very soon’ the bars will be available to order from Abu Dhabi, “that’s the next stop for us,” she says. And then her plans are to reach everyone around the world. “We have a lot of exciting things happening,” sheepishly hiding her masterplan for the future, but telling Arabian Business there are always new flavours being tried and tested.
In an industry that often values speed over soul, Hamouda is proof in some ways that passion and authenticity can create something special. Her UAE, home-grown business has captured global attention like no other – and with every handcrafted bar, she feels she isn’t just serving chocolate; she’s serving in her words “a freaking incredible experience” (FIX).
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