What is Dalgona coffee? The whipped coffee trend taking over the internet

Brew Interrupted Coffee Staff
Apr 30, 2021
3 min read

Updated: Aug 20, 2021

So what is Dalgona coffee, and why is it taking the internet by storm?

If you’ve scrolled through Instagram, TikTok or Facebook lately, there’s a good chance you’ve seen a video of someone whipping together sugar, instant coffee and boiling water. This concoction is spooned over iced milk to create the foamy drink known as Dalgona coffee.

Dalgona coffee is a whipped, frothy iced coffee drink made with instant coffee, sugar, water, and milk. Dalgona coffee has two distinct layers made from whipped coffee cream sitting on top of iced milk.

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According to Google Trends, “Dalgona coffee” has become the most searched type of coffee worldwide, overtaking previous highest peaks for all other kinds of coffee.

The food craze born of isolation

Dalgona coffee is reportedly named after a similarly sugary and foamy South Korean candy.

I’ve never tasted it but it’s not hard to see the visual appeal: the ingredients are mixed together to create a whole new foamy, silky substance, the kind of transformation that always does well on social media.

I think the Dalgona coffee craze has everything to do with our current COVID-19 induced isolation. It’s a way to get a coffee that looks cafe-style but can be achieved with the very cheapest instant coffee and some basic household ingredients.

Not the first food trend, won’t be the last

Food videos can be very satisfying to watch and many users report getting lost in them for hours. In a world where so much of our food thinking is around what we can’t eat or do at the table, food videos offer a release - they’re a form of vicarious consumption. You get to understand and feel the senses at play without the health implications.

Food trends online are often not really about real life. There’s a great many people who may not really enjoy an incredibly sweet instant coffee in real life but have watched a full Dalgona coffee video with relish.

To me, the Dalgona coffee trend is part of this isolation trend of “making do”. We can still have our Instagram-worthy treats while staying home. To enjoy the satisfaction of watching ingredients transform into something different and sometimes unexpected - and share the experience with friends.

What does Dalgona coffee taste like?

If I had to describe Dalgona’s coffee taste, it would be this: yes, it tastes kinda like a Frappucino. In the best way possible. It’s less icy and milkshakey, somehow? Actually, maybe it’s more like those iced macchiatos. It mostly tastes like milky iced coffee, but with a layer of foam that’s reminiscent of the frothy milk in espresso drinks like cappuccinos and lattes.

How do you drink Dalgona coffee?

Specifically: drinking through a straw would only enable you to taste one layer at a time, whereas drinking without one would leave you with a nasty coffee foam mustache. I patiently explained that you stir the drink before drinking for best results. How was that any different from just drinking instant coffee the regular way? But here’s the thing: recipes instruct you to make Dalgona coffee by whipping together instant coffee, sugar, and hot water. You then keep whipping until it turns into a coffee-flavored whipped cream/marshmallowy meringue. Even when stirred with the iced milk, this coffee cream keeps its frothy, fluffy texture. It creates a drink that’s more similar to a Frappucino than a drip coffee or instant coffee from a vending machine.

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