Dalgona coffee, also known as whipped coffee, has been plastered all over the internet ever since someone decided to video themselves making some. Anyone and everyone has made it their mission to test out this new viral trend. The basic recipe is a 1:1:1 ratio of instant coffee, water, and sugar — one tablespoon of each.
Then you get out the mixer you haven't touched since you got it two Christmases ago, and you blend it until it becomes a whipped consistency. You pour a glass with some ice and milk, put the whipped coffee mixture on top, stir, and voila — whipped coffee.
Well, my boyfriend and I decided to hop on board the whipped coffee train and try it out one night.
Being college students and not owning a fancy mixer made it slightly difficult as we had to whisk the ingredients by hand for about 10-15 minutes, which included trading off when the other person's hand started cramping.
Finally, though, we finished... and I have to say, I thought it was gross. First of all, call me crazy, but I like a lot of sugar in my coffee, so equal parts of both coffee and sugar had me skeptical to begin with.
That wasn't my real issue, though. The coffee and milk just don't mix well.
Yes, you read that right, the coffee that I spent forever mixing did not mix well into the milk. The first sip just tasted like watery milk because, well, milk with ice in it will do that. And after a few more stirs, I tasted some coffee, but overall it still did not taste good.
I mean, I just spent 15 minutes whipping the coffee, and I did not want to spend another 15 minutes stirring it into the milk. Not to mention, milk is basically flavorless, and unless you're using sweetened almond milk, I doubt that will change the fact that it tasted like super bland black coffee with half a packet of Splenda. However, if you like that flavor, you'll probably like that particular version of the coffee.
There have been many alternative recipes created since the coffee's popularity spiked.
Some notable ones are whipped strawberry milk, whipped cocoa, and whipped Nutella. While all of those definitely add more sugar, I still don't understand why we can't just mix it into the milk to start. Sure, it looks really cool and makes for a great Instagram picture, but it's a hassle to get the mixture you just spent a quarter of an hour stirring to be liquid-like again.
While it may have been a flop for me, my boyfriend did try it again with more sugar and ended up liking it.
Overall, it was a unique and fun experience that I would recommend trying if you happen to have the ingredients lying around your house. Although if you don't have some form of a mixer, I would recommend buddying up with someone to avoid some massive hand cramps.
