You might have found yourself experimenting with your AeroPress, trying new ways to make your daily coffee. What new twist will turn your regular brew into something extraordinary? Which new coffee trend will push the boundaries of what this simple, yet versatile brewer can do. Dalgona coffee, viral sensation from 2020, is due for another look now that time has eased the anxiety of the pandemic.
The Origins of Dalgona Coffee
Dalgona coffee is essentially milk topped with a sweet, whipped coffee foam. Most commonly served over ice, it can also be used to top steamed milk. Dalgona coffee first hit the scene in the 1960s in Busan, a city in the southeast of South Korea. The drink had a resurgence after going viral in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Using only a few simple ingredients—instant coffee, sugar, hot water, and milk—dalgona could be easily made and Instragrammed by coffee lovers at home.
Dalgona coffee is named for a type of popular Korean candy. Made from sugar and baking soda, the candy has a soft, brittle texture and a subtle caramel flavor. Dalgona candy was made popular in 2021 when Squid Game featured the candies stamped with a circle, star, triangle, or an umbrella. The whipped coffee drink was named after this candy because of its sweet, frothy texture, which reminded people of the candy’s airy consistency when it’s pulled and stretched.
The classic dalgona coffee recipe requires equal parts sugar, water, and instant coffee crystals, whipped by hand until frothy and light. This mixture is then scooped on top of milk. Variations include an Indian drink called phenti hui coffee which sees the milk poured through the whipped coffee. In Italy, mixing espresso into something like a sweet whipping cream makes a similar drink called crema di caffe.
AeroPress Variant for Dalgona
The main reason to dalgona with an AeroPress is to get away from the flavor of freeze-dried, instant coffee crystals. However, we must note that instant coffee is key to true dalgona coffee. Instant crystals are key to classic dalgona coffee because the freeze dried coffee needs very little water to reconstitute. Too much water prevents strong foam from forming. When you have a favorite coffee, you should be able to make your own coffee foam with it.
The AeroPress is one of the best coffee makers to use if you want to minimize water in your beverage. With these tools, you can easily soak 28 grams of your favorite ground coffee in a solution of 55-60 grams of water. You will be able to let the grounds steep and brew for the perfect amount of time to achieve the best flavor. Pour over coffee makers, because of gravity, need much more water to be able to adequately pull flavor from the grounds. The pressing action of the AeroPress lets you push the liquid out of the grounds, getting as much of the flavor out as possible. Full immersion brewers, like the French press, tend to hold back more liquid in the grounds. Using AeroPress gives you a more consistent foam and allowing for better control over the texture and intensity of your brew. Plus, the AeroPress is great for making small batches, so you can experiment without committing to a huge amount of coffee each time.
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