Dalgona coffee, also referred to as whipped coffee, has recently taken the internet by storm. The fluffy, frothy, picture-perfect coffee has been all over TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube in the past few days. If you've spent any time on social media recently (and honestly, who hasn't?), you probably know what I'm referring to — dalgona coffee has milk on the bottom and light, cloud-like coffee on top.
As soon as I saw someone make it in an Instagram video, I knew I had to try it myself. During my weekly grocery run, I picked up the necessary ingredients (most people probably already have these ingredients at home), watched a few more videos, and got started.
Ingredients
To make dalgona coffee, you only need three ingredients: instant coffee, sugar, and water. You'll also need milk (or a non-dairy alternative) to put the coffee mixture on top of.
Step 1
To begin, put equal amounts of instant coffee, sugar, and warm water into a container. I used 2 tablespoons of each ingredient (because that's what I saw other people online doing).
To make dalgona coffee, you basically want to aerate the coffee mixture as much as possible — you can do this with a whisk or electric mixer (handheld and stand both work), but I thought that would take longer, so I started by shaking the ingredients in a mason jar.
Step 2
I had no idea if my mason jar idea would work, but after a few minutes of shaking it looked like the mixture was getting frothy, so I kept going.
Every so often, I opened the jar to see how the coffee was looking. Eventually, once I had a mixture that was lighter in color and texture, I poured it into a large mixing bowl.
Step 3
At the end of mixing, you want the coffee to have a meringue-like texture that can form stiff peaks. Once I poured the coffee into the bowl, I realized I was far from done, so I started whisking.
Step 4
Finally, after what felt like forever, my coffee mixture formed stiff peaks! I was thrilled. I was so excited, in fact, that I immediately licked the whisk… and it was amazing. While the coffee flavor was strong, it was also sweet and light. It seemed crazy that it could be so creamy and fluffy without any milk or cream in it!
Step 5
Once the mixture came together (which took about 30 minutes all together), I poured half a glass of milk and spooned the coffee on top. It looked glorious.
I tried to take a sip of the coffee without stirring it, but it was a little difficult to drink. But I just couldn't bring myself to stir the gorgeous drink I'd spent so long making! Finally, after trying to drink it again, I realized I'd have to bite the bullet and stir it, so I grabbed a spoon and started mixing.
After I stirred my coffee, I added a few ice cubes to have a perfectly refreshing iced coffee. Because of the COVID-19 crisis, I haven't been able to go to any of my local coffee shops in a few weeks, so this was a great (and inexpensive) alternative!
Final Thoughts
In my opinion, making dalgona coffee is totally worth it. Sure, it takes a little time and effort to get the coffee to be perfectly whipped, but the resulting product is luscious and delicious, and it'll make you feel like you were actually allowed to leave your house and get a fancy coffee from your favorite cafe.
