During the height of the Dubai Chewy Cookie (DCC) craze, there was no doubt that companies were taking advantage of the hype and selling DCC with a hefty “hype tax” on them. In fact, some brands were even recorded as pricing a single bar containing a few DCC at $17.92. That is nearly four times more expensive than a standard Hershey bar, which already has a profit margin exceeding 1300 percent. Even considering that DCC takes more ingredients, time, and effort to make than a standard chocolate chip cookie or bar, $17.92 is, regardless, an exorbitant price tag that would give most people second thoughts about trying DCC.
“I definitely felt that during the height of everything, Dubai Chewy Cookies were too expensive,” Billy Kim (10), Dubai Chewy Cookie enjoyer, said. “But it did occur to me that if DCC wasn’t a trend food, would I be able to buy it without feeling guilty about spending too much money? Because frankly, it does taste good, just not good enough to justify the cost during the peak.”
Fortunately for Billy, the hype seems to have died down; searches for it fell to nearly half its peak in just 17 days. The product has therefore transitioned from becoming a potentially overhyped trend food to a more mainstream, long-term product.
So the question presents itself: Is DCC worth the price?
To produce a verdict on the matter, it is first necessary to understand what goes into a “standard” DCC, how much, and how much they cost. While many are likely familiar with it, the signature ingredients of DCC include kadayif, pistachio cream, butter, and marshmallows. While there are local variations depending on personal and vendor preference, these four ingredients are often cited as the core necessities for creating DCC.
For a batch of eight DCC, one will need four cups of kadayif, four tablespoons of melted butter, 300g of pistachio cream, 12 oz of marshmallows, four tablespoons of cacao powder, and additional oils that will not be factored into the calculation. The total cost comes to $37.32, which means each DCC should cost around $3. However, as this is calculated using supplies from general distributors, we must factor in the gross profit, which is approximately 30 percent for general distributors. This means that the final cost for DCC is $2.10. Compared to a standard chocolate bar or a chocolate chip cookie, which both cost around $0.3, DCC is exorbitantly more expensive.
The short answer: yes, DCC is a bad return on investment, even when compared to the already profit-ridden chocolate bar. This might be surprising given that DCC, at least by individual piece, is significantly more expensive than chocolate chip cookies or bars. So the conclusion might be that high prices actually allow the consumers, you, to get more bang for your buck. However, the numbers tell an interesting story here. A common DCC on Amazon costs anywhere between $5.98 to $14.99. Using the upper values, our return on investment is $0.14 for each dollar spent. This is worse than a chocolate chip cookie, which is $0.32 for each dollar spent.
The conclusion shifts using the lower values, where our return is $0.35 per dollar. The result here, however, is hampered by the fact that we must go to the absolutely cheapest option of DCC for a reasonable comparison. More likely than not, most DCC will be sold at a higher price, implying that the actual value might not be as high as individuals want it to be.
This is just a matter of fact with numbers and predictions; numbers stack up, and calculations get messy. Sometimes it is easy to get consumed by all the variables and numbers that we are immersed in, trying to factor in every ingredient, work hour, transportation fee, inflation, and countless other factors. If we indeed do that, we might come to a definite truth, but is that truth really useful? Sometimes being able to relax with a DCC in hand makes a hefty price tag worth it.
