This drink is a marriage between Korean-style iced coffee and the viral dalgona coffee, or whipped coffee. You get the delicious taste of honey with a creamy, milky coffee that is strong and flavorful.

The iced coffee by itself is super refreshing, but the dalgona coffee creates an insanely creamy and frothy, seriously good texture. The best part is that this drink takes less than 5 minutes to make and only 3 ingredients.

So here’s how to make a delicious honey dalgona coffee at home!

What is Dalgona Coffee?

Dalgona coffee, or whipped coffee, started in Macau in the 90’s by shipbuilder Leong Kam Hon who opened up Hon Kee Cafe. It’s made from instant coffee, water, and sugar, beaten with a whisk or fork until it triples in size and is light brown.

It’s served on top of a cup of ice and milk, and when mixed into the drink, it becomes a sweet, creamy, and frothy drink.

It flew under the radar until 2021 when it blew up on social media after a Korean actor, Jung Il-woo, ordered it on a TV show called Stars’ Top Recipe at Fun-Staurant while filming a mukbang in Macau.

Enamored by its seemingly magic process, whipped coffee spread virally in South Korea and eventually flooded Tiktok, with thousands of people making this coffee beverage at home in quarantine.

Since then, people affectionately know dalgona as their comfort drink, which helped them connect with strangers worldwide during a global pandemic.

Initially, this drink was called hand-beaten coffee. But the actor described it as tasting like the dalgona candy he had as a kid, and the name stuck.

Dalgona Candy

Dalgona (달고나) is a Korean street candy made from caramelized sugar and baking soda. Once you caramel 2-3 spoonfuls of sugar, you add a little bit of baking soda and it immediately triples in size.

Food Science Break: When we add baking soda to hot sugar, the baking soda decomposes and releases carbon dioxide. The gas spreads throughout the sugar mixture, causing it to foam and create bubbles, making it look like a sponge or honeycomb.

That’s why nicknames for this candy include honeycomb candy!

Because of the baking soda, dalgona has a distinct taste, and apparently, like whipped coffee! Which is sweet, a little bitter, and caramel-like.

What Does Dalgona Coffee Taste Like?

Dalgona coffee, on its own, tastes like sugary coffee candy. It’s very sweet and bitter because it’s a fluffy coffee concentrate. You wouldn’t want to eat or drink it on its own, though, as milk definitely needs to help balance the taste.

It has a soft, foamy texture that, when mixed into milk, becomes a nice frothy texture. Altogether, it tastes very similar to a sweet and bitter caramel, with a smoky taste from the instant coffee.

How to Make Dalgona Coffee

Dalgona coffee is equal parts instant coffee, sugar, and hot water whisked until a soft, fluffy foam forms.

If you add the same amount of coffee, water, and sugar, whipping dalgona coffee will work. It can be 1, 2, or even 3 teaspoons, as long as you use the same amount of each.

Food Science Break: Dalgona coffee works because of the sugar and protein in the coffee powder! Like how sweet cream stabilizes, the protein or structures in the instant coffee trap air when whisked, and the sugar helps stabilize the foam. Without sugar, the coffee won’t hold its frothy texture.

While you could use room temperature or cold water to make dalgona, hot water helps incorporate everything easily and quickly. Dalgona is quite fragile; once you make the dalgona foam, it will eventually dissolve into a liquid if you let it sit.

The faster you can dissolve everything and whip, the better!

Can I Use Honey Instead of Sugar?

Yes! Honestly, I’ve found that honey in dalgona helps it whip up faster and better. Maybe it’s because honey is a thick syrup that helps trap air bubbles better.

Also, this recipe was inspired by Korean-style instant iced coffee, which is instant coffee, honey, milk, water, and ice, shaken and served. It’s absolutely delicious and one of the easiest coffees to make.

So naturally, honey and coffee taste delicious together, and it’s the same with dalgona!

What Instant Coffee is Best?

You can use any instant coffee you like.

My personal favorite instant coffee is the UCC The Blend 114, a Japanese instant coffee that is creamy, a little smoky, and has a great taste that tastes like nearly freshly brewed coffee. It’s slightly sweet and rich, and with milk, it is just divine.

It also doesn’t have that burnt aftertaste that a lot of American instant coffee has. Japan is on another level when it comes to instant coffee.

You can also use instant coffee with milk and sugar, but adjusting the sugar to create the perfect froth is harder. For simplicity, use plain instant coffee so you don’t accidentally add too little or too much of one ingredient.

Dalgona Coffee Common Mistakes

Here is a quick troubleshooting guide to help you in case your dalgona coffee isn’t turning out like you thought:

• Use hot water: Hot water is essential for making a good whipped coffee because instant coffee and sugar melt much faster than cold water.
• Use an electric whisk: A handheld frother or electric whisk will incorporate air much faster than hand whisking. Dalgona is a very fickle foam that needs air to be incorporated fast to produce a nice fluffy foam.
• Make sure you use equal amounts: Whipped coffee is so easy because it’s equal amounts of coffee, water, and sugar. If you use more or less of any ingredient, your whipped coffee won’t work.
• Whip for more time: Dalgona coffee needs time to become fluffy. It’s similar to meringue, where stiff peaks won’t form until about 5- to 10-minute. Luckily, whipped coffee doesn’t take that long, but you need to whisk for about 1 to 2 minutes until your dalgona turns fluffy.

Tips

Here are some tips on how to make an amazing honey dalgona coffee at home:

• To make this drink vegan, use agave or monkfruit sweetener instead of honey and plant-based milk instead of dairy. It will taste just as good!
• If you want to hand whisk your dalgona, use a fork or hand whisk and a bowl with tall sides. Whip in a Z motion, not a circle, to whip your coffee the fastest. Up and down or side-to-side motions incorporate air much quicker than circular motions, which are better for mixing ingredients.
• If your honey is crystallized, set the jar in a bowl of warm to hot water and the crystals should turn back into liquid.