Dalgona coffee

Dalgona coffee is a beverage made by whipping equal proportions of instant coffee powder, sugar, and hot water until it becomes creamy and then adding it to cold or hot milk. Occasionally, it is topped with coffee powder, cocoa, crumbled biscuits, or honey. It was popularized on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people refraining from going out started making videos of whipping the coffee at home, by hand without using electrical mixers. The name is derived from dalgona, a Korean sugar sweet, due to the resemblance in taste and appearance, though most dalgona coffee doesn't actually contain dalgona. History: The viral trend of sharing recipes and photos of the do-it-yourself (DIY) coffee first gained prominence during the social distancing orders in South Korea, and for that reason it is dubbed the 'quarantine drink' or 'quarantine coffee'. The coining of the name is credited to the South Korean actor Jung Il-woo, who ordered a whipped coffee at an eatery in Macau during his appearance on KBS2 show called Stars' Top Recipe at Fun-Staurant (신상출시 편스토랑). He likened the taste to that of dalgona, a type of Korean honeycomb toffee. Under the hashtag #dalgonacoffeechallenge, homemade versions of dalgona coffee began spreading on South Korean YouTube channels before going viral on TikTok. The spike in interest during the quarantine period has been attributed to the calming, ASMR-like effects of watching online DIY videos. Although the beverage was popularized as a home-made version of beaten coffee, it is becoming a menu offering in many coffee shops in South Korea. The drink is inspired from the Indian coffee beverage known as phenti hui coffee, phitti hui coffee, or beaten coffee. The only difference is that when making phenti hui coffee, milk is poured on top of the whipped mix rather than spooning the whipped mix on top of the milk. While most dalgona coffee doesn't actually contain dalgona, one South Korean cafe does combine dalgona with milk tea or coffee. It is not possible to make dalgona coffee using ground coffee beans; instant coffee creates the dense and foamy topping and the reason for this has much to do with the drying process of the coffee granules.