Via @sherubi / Instagram
From working at home while trying to placate the children, to homeschooling and getting all the chores done, quarantine has been a trying and tiring time for most of us. With coffee being one of the best pick-me-ups, it’s not surprising we’re constantly relying on that good old cup of joe. But while we’re at it why not make coffee time a real treat with something fabulously whipped and frothy like Dalgona coffee?
The coffee drink, also known as cloud coffee, has emerged as one of the biggest kitchen-based trends on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s mostly because it only requires three pantry ingredients, which you will probably already have at home. Plus, as well as giving tastebuds a thrill, it looks so good it’s perfect for ampingup those Instagram feeds people are constantly scrolling through while in quarantine.
“I think, more than anything, it’s a drink that’s a really fun distraction for specifically right now,” Ben Mims, a Los Angeles Times cooking columnist, told The Cut. “It uses an ingredient that everyone already has in their pantry, either by accident or on purpose, and manipulates it to create this frivolous fluff that makes you feel like you created magic.”
Made by vigorously whipping equal portions of instant coffee granules, hot water and sugar, until a thick whipped cream-esque mixture has been created, Dalgona has gained worldwide popularity. Instant coffee granules, rather than ground coffee beans, are required as the drying process of the coffee granules helps create the dense and foamy topping. You can also add cold or hot milk to the homemade version of beaten coffee for an iced coffee or latte-style treat. For an ultra-fancy version, you can top it with extras like coffee or cocoa powder, crumbled biscuits or honey.
While people from all over the world are posting tutorials on TikTok and YouTube and flooding Instagram with pictures, Dalgona, dubbed the quarantine drink or coffee, first gained prominence in South Korea. And it was a TV clip uploaded in January that really got the ball rolling. While the actor Jung II Woo was trying a whipped coffee drink on a TV show called Stars' Top Recipe at Fun-Staurant, he likened the taste to that of dalgona, a kind of Korean honeycomb candy.
