About This Dalgona Coffee Recipe
Love fun, unique, and delicious coffee drink recipes? This dalgona coffee is for you!
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. As a result, folks also call dalgona coffee by other names like “whipped coffee”, “frothy coffee”, or “fluffy coffee.”
For more quick and easy delicious iced coffee drinks, try this Copycat Starbucks Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Foam or this Vietnamese Egg Coffee!
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 Starbucks Frappucino. In the best way possible. It’s less icy and milkshakey, somehow? 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?
When I first shared my tutorial for dalgona coffee on my Instagram account, I received one snarky comment: “But how do you drink it?!”
The commenter argued that doing so would be a logistical nightmare. 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. The commenter then clapped back—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 Starbucks Frappucino than a drip coffee or instant coffee from a vending machine.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Let’s talk about everything you need to make this dalgona coffee recipe:
- Instant Coffee. Instant coffee granules are KEY to any dalgona coffee recipe. Ground coffee beans, either store bought or freshly ground, won’t work! Because contrary to popular belief, instant coffee and ground coffee are different things! Learn more below.
- Sugar. Although dalgona coffee is traditionally made with white granulated sugar, I’ve successfully made it with brown and coconut sugar.
TECHNICALLY you can skip the sugar, but I don’t recommend it. While the coffee cream DOES whip up, it doesn’t get as light, fluffy, and stable as the coffee cream you see in my pictures. Because in addition to flavor, the sugar is definitely there to help whip the coffee up into a foamy, meringue-like structure. Without the sugar, yours will never look as fluffy and airy as mine. If you insist on reducing the sugar, I wouldn’t reduce it past 1 tablespoon. - Milk. Use any milk—dairy or plant-based—of your choice. I personally like the Dalgona coffee cream best when it’s paired with cow’s milk, oat milk, and nut milk.
Why does this recipe only work with instant coffee?
Ground coffee is made by grinding coffee beans into a coarse or fine powder. You can easily make ground coffee at home with a coffee grinder.
Instant coffee, on the other hand, is made from whole coffee beans that are roasted, ground, and brewed. The water is then removed from the brewed coffee either by flash-heat drying or freeze-drying, leaving behind dehydrated crystals. You then add water back to these crystals to make a cup of coffee.So while ground coffee literally looks like ground up coffee, instant coffee looks more like Demerara or raw sugar crystals. Most folks are unable to make instant coffee crystals at home (since you’d need a freeze-dried machine to do so).
Why does the recipe only work with instant coffee? The best explanation I found was in this Reddit thread. A biochemist explained that the frothiness can be attributed to emulsifiers (specifically, soy lecithin) added to the coffee dehydration process.
Recipe Troubleshooting: Why didn’t the dalgona coffee recipe work?
First, check your coffee. This recipe does NOT work with ground coffee. It only works with instant.
Now, let’s talk water. Remember: hot water helps dissolve both the instant coffee and the sugar more quickly, helping it whip up into its foamy state. The hotter the water, the better. You want the water to be freshly boiled.
Finally, how long and how much did you whisk for? If you didn’t whisk for long enough, keep going—the mixture will eventually thicken. If it has thickened but doesn’t look as fluffy as mine, it’s likely that you either haven’t done it for long enough or haven’t been doing it vigorously enough. The more you whip and the faster you do it from the get go, the fluffier the coffee will be.
Why does your dalgona coffee look fluffier than mine?
Did you use a different sugar? Like I said above, this recipe works best with white sugar—although you’ll still get decent results with brown sugar, coconut sugar, and some sugar alternatives, they don’t whip up as airy and fluffy as white sugar.
Beyond that, I’m a freaking maniac, baby. The more you whip and the faster you do it after combining all the ingredients together, the fluffier your dalgona coffee will be. This is why it’s handy to use an electric mixer. Immediately after combining the ingredients, turn on your mixer and whisk, whisk, WHISK at a medium-high speed. The only downside to doing this is that the ingredients have a tendency to splatter from the bowl—you can use one of those fancy bowl covers (they have them for both stand mixers and handheld mixers), or just throw a towel around the top of the bowl to catch splatters.
Best Recipe Tips
Serving Tip
- The recipe below is adapted from the LA Times recipe and makes just one dalgona coffee. All in all, it’s about the size of one grande drink at Starbucks. If that’s too much for you to handle, no worries! Halve the recipe into two servings by splitting the milk into two glasses and dividing the dalgona coffee cream in between them. Alternatively, you can also just halve the quantities of the recipe below and make just one serving of dalgona coffee. However, I wouldn’t recommend splitting it further than that—small quantities of ingredients don’t whip up as well.
Storing Tip
- Dalgona coffee keeps for a surprisingly long time. If you don’t want to use the coffee cream right away, simply scoop the cream into an airtight container like a tupperware or jar. Refrigerate for up to 3 days. That being said, storing it away works best if you’ve whipped it into oblivion. Whip it to the point where it has the consistency of whipped cream; a whisk quickly dipped into the center of the foam and turned upside down should hold peaks. However, after 3 days or so, it loses its fluffy texture and starts to turn back into liquid coffee.
Video Tutorial
Use the video player below to watch my Instagram Story tutorial on how to make this dalgona coffee recipe! Clicking the left and right sides of the frame will allow you to skip through the different recipe steps.
Get the Recipe: Creamy & Light Dalgona Coffee Recipe
Ingredients
For the Dalgona Coffee
- 2 Tablespoons instant coffee granules
- 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 Tablespoons hot (freshly boiled) water
- ½ cup ice
- 1 cup (8 ounces or 227 grams) cow or plant-based milk of your choice
- cocoa powder, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
For the Dalgona Coffee
- First, make the dalgona coffee cream. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or a medium bowl if using a whisk, handheld electric mixer, or milk frother), combine the coffee and sugar. Add the hot water and immediately whisk on medium-high speed until light, airy, and doubled in volume, 2 to 4 minutes.
- Serve immediately. Pour the milk over the ice in a tall glass. Use a rubber spatula or cookie dough scoop to scrape the dalgona coffee cream over the milk. Garnish with a dusting of cocoa powder. Serve immediately with a straw.
Notes
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Hey Michelle! After seeing your original instagram post on this coffee, I’ve literally made it every, single, day for the past 4 days. It’s so good!! And such a treat esp on stressful days (which is…every day?). I found the 2 tbsp of coffee + 2 tbsp sugar(replacement) to be WAY too strong for 1 person’s serving even after stirring it in the milk (and I was divvying it up between 2 glasses for me and my husband!), so I retweaked the ratios to 1 tbsp instant coffee + 2 tsp monk fruit sweetener + 1 tbsp hot water, and it whipped up perfectly 🙂 I usually drink my coffee with just milk sans sweetener and the concoction is still just a tad too sweet for me, so I think I might try 1 tbsp instant coffee + 1 tsp sweentener + 1 tbsp hot water today and see if that amt of sugar still stabilizes the foam.
All this to say – thanks so much for sharing the recipe with us!!
Woohoo! Thanks for sharing! Very good to know that monkfruit works in place of sugar! xo
Just wanted to follow up – turns out the ratio of 3 tsp coffee : 1 tsp sugar/sugar replacement : 3 tsp hot water still made very stabilized foam, so perfect for those who don’t want the coffee to be super sweet!
Ahhhhh, this coffee looks TOO good, Michelle. WHYYY don’t I have an electric whisk?! If I’d have known how long quarantine was going to last I’d have bought one the day before it began!! Anyways, I can’t wait to make this one day. Hope you’re taking care! xoxo
Get a workout using a regular whisk. I like this with warm milk instead of iced too…
i held out from making this for weeks, because i’d gotten so inundated with people (friends, bloggers, everyone lol) making it. and then i got over myself, tried it, and it was so much easier and tastier than i thought it would be! definitely tasty when i miss going out for fancy overpriced coffees (:
So easy and surprisingly fast! I used espresso powder and almond milk. My fiancé loved it. Thanks as always for all of the detailed instructions, background and info!
Hey, Michelle! I must say I tried the recipe and it actually came out outstandingly lip smacking. My mama who is a big time food critic whenever I am cooking or baking something in the kitchen and a so-called perfectionist, even loved the recipe and gave a thumbs up and told me that she and my brother had tried preparing it say two months whilst I was on work tour in my absence and it was a disaster. But in any case, I would love to hopefully prepare it again. Thanks a million, Darl!
One thing I’d like to add over here since as per our desired sweet tongue, I tried adding 2 tbsps of powdered sugar for the recipe yielding 3-4 people’s servings and blending the same in the ice cold milk to give it a bit creamy texture whilst pouring it in the tall glass to eventually give it a very nice and attractive look in the end after scooping the frothy mix. It didn’t feel too sweet or bitter or even a bland milk flavour but blended well with the taste buds. We INDIANS love but more sugar than the westerners. Try this tip and you might love it! Thanks once more. God bless. I wish I could share the attractive photos I had clicked from my phone of it being a professional food photographer!!!!😝😉
Can you use brown sugar?
Yep! Check out the ingredients section in the blog post above where I talk about the different types of sugar you can use in this recipe! Do a search for “Can I use brown sugar or coconut sugar instead of white sugar for dalgona coffee?”
I finally tried this the other day and have been drinking it daily. So yummy! I made a bigger batch and put it in the freezer. It has held up fine that way and still stays creamy/frothy when stirred into my milk.
Milk frother works AMAZINGLY! Very fast and less mess than using other ways to whip it.
I’m excited to try this! Just waiting on my ice cubes to freeze; I LOVE cold drinks period, but this fluffy coffee looks like it’s in a category of its own! I wonder what would happen if I substituted the boiling hot water w/ hot milk? Do you think it would still froth up?
Hmmm, I think it would given how frothy milk gets with a milk foamer! But I also can’t guarantee it since I haven’t tried it myself? On the other hand… the milk might weigh it down and it won’t get as fluffy. But I’m optimistic that it’ll work!
Lots of great tips! I’m going to try it with brown sugar now.
I use a non-glass cup (a tall plastic cup I got with my stick blender) and an electric mixer to whip up my coffee. No splatter, and the tall shape helps. I mix half of the coffee with milk, and spoon the rest on top so I still get some of that fluffy texture.
Hi Michelle,
I’m about to try this recipe.
I wanted fill in a little history about Greece. When I lived in Greece almost 50 years ago, coffee (kafé) was Greek coffee (many call it Turkish coffee) and Nescafé. You could only buy Nescafé brand of instant coffee.
The ice coffee you described was called a Nescafé frappé.
To make hot instant coffee you put the coffee in the cup, equal sugar and a small amount of hot water, just enough to make a paste. Then you whip the paste with your spoon until it gets light and fluffy. Slowly add the rest of the hot water as you stir. The coffee has a frothy top.
Everyone would go out to these coffee shop/pastry shops to socialize. When the coffee came to the table, it was always one of the women who made it.
So interesting!!! Thank you for sharing! xo
The recipe is wonderfully specific, and I loved all of the info. Even better than the recipe? The recommendation for Heart Roasters. Oh my goodness. I’ve ordered their coffee twice now. It’s so good!
As I was growing up, in Portugal my mother always made “Café Batido Instantâneo ”. My Brazilian friend has the same experience. I feel that others are trying to appropriate what is typically Portuguese. It was the Portuguese that brought the 4 pm Tea Time to UK, and they brought the chili pepper to India to gave rise to the Curry. But who knows, maybe the Portuguese got it from somewhere else, but I’m already in my 50’s so it would have been a long time ago.
https://www.tudogostoso.com.br/receita/49125-cafe-instantaneo.html
Simple & surprisingly fast! I’m excited to try this with nescafe gold espresso powder. Thank you for all the detailed instructions. I truly appreciate your work!
Simple & straightforward Recipe! I definitely try this recipe at home. The process you used looks quicker. Thank you for sharing the amazing recipe of the famous Dalgona coffee.
2 tbl coffee gave me jitters. Cut it to 1 tsp of each and still worked and tasted fine. I use an electric hand mixer in a plastic glass then add milk. No you don’t get the visual but it tastes the same. Plus less cleanup🙂
This was so easy and didn’t take too much time at all. I loved the creamy texture of the coffee. Thank you for sharing this!
So easy and surprisingly fast! I used espresso powder and almond milk. My fiancé loved it. Thanks as always for all of the detailed instructions, background, and info!
Thanks for sharing
This was a really great recipe and very easy to do. Definitely recommend. But I have tried it with green tea and it does work you just use egg whites as well to get the fluffy texture. As well as this we don’t really need to hear about your work outs and rock climbing. It’s irrelevant detail and more to read.
Tried it. Loved it!
I’ve tried this with artificial sweeteners of all varieties – Splenda, coconut sugar, etc. You can get a delightful foam but nothing like what the sugar gets you, unfortunately. There are some people in YouTube making Matcha and other versions but they are cheating and making flavored whipped creams. It really is its own unique thing, but too much sugar and caffeine for me!
Have you ever read your blog on an Android? It’s a pretty frustrating experience because the ads make the text jump around and every few seconds as I type this ads start encroaching.
History of Dalgona Coffee
“Creation and naming
The drink is credited to one Leong Kam Hon, a former Macanese shipwright who started his ‘Wai Ting Coffee’ (or later ‘Hon Kee’, 漢記) shop in Coloane after a freak accident to his left arm left him incapacitated from continuing work. Leong recalls concocting the drink as requested by a tourist couple in 1997. The drink did not yield much interest to him until 2004 when he took on the idea to serve it as a specialty to Chow Yun-fat and his entourage who visited the Hon Kee café that year. Chow’s praise for the drink gathered the first wave of international attention when new visitors came in to ask for ‘Chow Yun-fat coffee’.[8][1] The maker himself dubs the drink made in his menu as 手打咖啡 or “hand beaten coffee”.
The name “dalgona coffee” is credited to the South Korean actor Jung Il-woo, who ordered this drink at the same eatery in January 2020 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.[9][10][11]
Spread from Korea
From that TV programme, the drink became well known among Koreans”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalgona_coffee
As a good coffee lover, I am excited about this recipe. It surpassed the creamy cappuccino I always had! Thanks.
https://123receitas.com.br/lanche/cappuccino-cremoso/
Hi I started making Delgona coffee during Covet also however I like my coffee hot and no milk. So I whip up my dell gonna coffee and I just glop it on top of my hot coffee and it still looks pretty for a while so it’s a great picture.
2 attempted, ruined a good stick blender. Both are still liquid.
It sounds like your stick blender might be broken if it can’t handle a little bit of sugar and liquid?
Everything are clear and perfect.
I like this coffee