Dalgona coffee is a frothy, whipped coffee drink iced or hot made with beating instant coffee, sugar, water, and milk. Also known as “frothy coffee”, “whipped coffee”, or “fluffed coffee”, Dalgona coffee has two distinct layers made from whipped coffee cream sitting on top of hot or iced milk.
Presently, sharing its name from Korea’s version of a honey-comb toffee based snack- Dalgona, Dalgona coffee, set social media on fire. Whipped coffee is famous across the world with various names. As the drink gets more famous globally, its origin and name are under dispute.
Here are some fun anecdotes on ‘Dalgona’s’ origin-
Dating back to the 90s in Macau, Leong, a former shipbuilder who lost his arm in a workplace accident, opened a café for shipyard workers. To regain his strength, he learned kung fu which helped him create a labor-intensive coffee drink.
Sometime in 2000, an ex-pat couple visiting the Macau Grand Prix introduced the technique of repeatedly stirring coffee into a frothy texture. They jokingly named it ‘400x coffee’ resonating it to stirring 400 times to attain a fine, fluffy, frothy textured coffee.
In Greece, this whipped coffee known as ‘frappe’ is created by beating an espresso with sugar. In India and Pakistan, ‘pheti-hui’ coffee is a household name.
With safety norms and WFH culture setting in, a cup of coffee, especially a Dalgona can beat away all the moody blues.