[Photo by ‘freestocks’ Unsplash]
February 24, 2026 (Tuesday) – Leah Cho
With the increasing popularity of social media among young adolescents, popular culture is changing at an unprecedented speed.
Today, trends are rising and falling at a rapid speed. Whether it is related to food or fashion, what is popular is changing overnight. The reason behind this phenomenon is the influence of social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.
An example of such a trend is the Dubai Chewy Cookie, which has suddenly become popular in early 2026.
The origin of this trend started from 2025, whereas a TikTok influencer posted a video of her eating a Dubai chocolate bar from Fix Chocolate, which quickly went viral.
The chocolate’s sweet pistachio filling and crunchy kadayif texture captivated the consumers, even causing pistachio prices to surge from 7.65 to 10 dollars within a year. This sharp increase foreshadowed the broader economic consequences that can emerge from viral food trends.
By the end of 2025, the Dubai Chocolate trend appeared to fade until its sudden resurface in a different form: the Dubai Chewy Cookie.
The Dubai Chewy Cookie originated in Korea from 몬트 쿠키 (Mont Cookie). The Dubai chewy cookie suddenly went viral. Unlike the original Dubai Chocolate bar, the cookie’s squishy marshmallow filling with cocoa powder, drove widespread attention and rapid popularity.
Despite its high price of 8,000 won per cookie, consumers waited hours in line to buy a Dubai Chewy Cookie.
The trend became so popular that, as a result, blood donation campaigns were using chewy cookies as a reward, which doubled the amount of people donating blood.
The trend caught on with many self-employed cafes and bakeries and started to make dubai chewy cookies themselves, which saw a massive increase in revenue. This resulted the dubai chewy cookie being called a “효자 상품,” or a product that brings great profit.
Some of these business owners were expecting to earn up to 100 million won, and some even saw sales increase four times over.
However, just as the trend emerged, it also declined as fast as it rose.
As the interest in the chewy cookie decreased, small cafes and restaurants were left with massive losses, along with chewy cookies piled up in the kitchen due to lack of sales and interest.
One of the reasons that may have contributed to the sudden decrease in interest of the chewy cookie is the issue of hygiene, which contributed to the sudden decline of the trend.
During the period between last November and the 23rd of the preceding month, there were 19 food products with defects associated with the chewy cookie, which significantly damaged the consumers trust.
As a result, some self-employed business owners blamed large corporations, arguing that consumers increasingly preferred bigger brands due to perceptions of higher hygiene standards and better overall quality.
In conclusion, the case of the Dubai Chewy Cookie trend illustrates how social media can create a massive consumer demand almost overnight, only to have it dissipate just as quickly. What began as a viral sensation ended up as an economic consequence, highlighting the potential risk of trends. Small businesses have experienced a rapid surge of success and equally rapid decline, illustrating the volatile nature of the market based on trends. Ultimately, the case illustrates how modern culture can change almost overnight.
