How to Make Whipped Coffee (Dalgona-Style) at Home Without Failing

To make whipped coffee, also called dalgona coffee, beat equal parts instant coffee, sugar and hot water until the mixture turns thick and pale, then spoon it over a glass of milk and stir before drinking. The Los Angeles Times recipe uses 2 tablespoons each of instant coffee, sugar and hot water with 1 cup of whole milk, and beats the mixture with a hand mixer for 3 to 5 minutes. Two common reasons it fails are using ground coffee instead of instant and stopping before the foam has thickened. Daily Home Coffee does not test recipes; the amounts below come from the published recipes and sources named in each section.

What Dalgona Coffee Is

Wikipedia describes dalgona coffee, also known as hand beaten coffee, as a drink originating from Macau, made by whipping equal parts instant coffee powder, sugar and hot water until creamy and then adding it to cold or hot milk. It credits the drink to Leong Kam Hon, who recalls first making it for a tourist couple at his café in Coloane in 1997. The name came later: South Korean actor Jung Il-woo ordered it there in January 2020 for a TV show and compared its taste to dalgona, a Korean honeycomb toffee. The homemade version then spread on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The drink is close to two others. Wikipedia notes its similarity to Indian beaten coffee, where milk is poured on top of the whipped mix instead of the mix going on top of the milk, and to the Greek frappé, which is shaken or whipped with a frother.

What You’ll Need for Whipped Coffee

Ingredients

The Los Angeles Times version, which follows the equal-parts rule:

• 2 tablespoons instant coffee
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons hot water
• 1 cup whole milk
• A few ice cubes, for the iced version

Nescafé’s UK recipe makes a smaller single serving and does not use equal parts: 2 teaspoons of Nescafé Gold Blend, 2 teaspoons of brown sugar, 20 ml of cold water, 170 ml of milk of your choice and ice cubes. It is a useful second reference because it shows the method working with cold water and brown sugar.

Gear

• A mixing bowl. The Los Angeles Times calls for a small one; Nescafé lists a medium-sized bowl.
• A hand mixer, which both recipes use, or a whisk if you are willing to beat by hand.
• A tall glass.
• A spatula or spoon to move the foam onto the milk.

Wikipedia notes that the home videos which popularised the drink showed people whipping it by hand without electric mixers, so a whisk works. Neither recipe gives a time for hand whisking; the Los Angeles Times only advises that if you make it by hand, you should “pretend you’re getting in some light exercise”.

Step-by-Step Instructions for Making Whipped Coffee

1. Combine the base. Put the instant coffee, sugar and hot water in the bowl.
2. Beat until thick. With a hand mixer, the Los Angeles Times says to beat for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the colour changes to golden brown and the mixture takes on a thick consistency. Nescafé’s wording for the finish point is “thick and creamy, holding its shape.”
3. Fill the glass. Put a few ice cubes in a tall glass and pour in the milk. Nescafé’s recipe says to leave room at the top for the whipped coffee.
4. Top with the foam. Spoon or scrape the whipped coffee onto the milk.
5. Stir before drinking. The foam is a strong, sweet coffee base sitting on plain milk; stirring combines them into one drink.

For a hot version, use hot milk instead of cold milk and skip the ice. Wikipedia’s definition allows either cold or hot milk.

Why Instant Coffee Whips and Ground Coffee Does Not

Wikipedia states plainly that dalgona coffee cannot be made with ground coffee beans, and that the reason has much to do with the drying process of instant coffee granules. Two published explanations fill in the detail.

• Ground coffee does not dissolve. Writing for Popular Mechanics, the author notes that ground coffee will never dissolve into a liquid and suggests its fatty oil could inhibit the foam.
• Oil works against foam. Tasting Table reports chemistry editor Joanie Tian’s finding that cheaper instant coffee is usually spray-dried, while freeze-drying preserves more of the coffee’s oils, and that the lack of oils is why spray-dried coffee foams so well.
• Concentration helps. Popular Mechanics points out that most instant coffees make one cup from 1 teaspoon of crystals in six ounces of water. The whipped base uses 2 tablespoons of crystals in just 2 tablespoons of water, a far more concentrated mix.

Chemist Tom Kuntzleman told Popular Mechanics he tentatively compares the process to making a meringue from egg whites. That is a hypothesis, not a settled mechanism; neither he nor the author could find information on whether instant coffee contains stabilisers.

Why Your Whipped Coffee Keeps Failing

Mistake #1: Using Ground Coffee

This will not whip, for the reasons above. Use instant coffee. Popular Mechanics notes that decaffeinated instant crystals also work, as long as they are made from coffee beans and not from a substitute such as chicory.

Mistake #2: Not Considering the Type of Instant

If a jar foams poorly, the type of instant may be one reason. Tian’s explanation, reported by Tasting Table, is that cheaper spray-dried instant foams more easily because freeze-drying keeps more of the coffee’s oils. Nescafé does publish its own dalgona recipe using Gold Blend, so the brand’s recipe is a fair starting point if that is what you have.

Mistake #3: Leaving Out the Sugar

Sugar helps build the foam as well as sweeten it. The Popular Mechanics author made the recipe with Splenda first, then with sugar, and reports that the sugar version worked much better and much faster. When Kuntzleman whipped only crystals and water, he got a more watery-looking foam that did not last. Tasting Table sums up the reports by describing sugar as a glue that holds the foam together.

Mistake #4: Giving Up Too Soon

The mixture changes gradually. The Los Angeles Times gives 3 to 5 minutes with a hand mixer, and the signs to wait for are a colour change to golden brown and a thick consistency. Nescafé’s wording is thick and creamy, holding its shape. If the mix is still dark and runny, keep going before you decide it has failed.

Mistake #5: Water That Does Not Dissolve the Coffee

The Los Angeles Times recipe and Wikipedia’s definition both use hot water. Nescafé’s UK recipe uses cold water with its own Gold Blend. If your instant coffee does not dissolve fully, use hot water.

Variations to Try

Wikipedia lists coffee powder, cocoa, crumbled biscuits and honey as toppings sometimes added to the finished drink. The Los Angeles Times also suggests making the same recipe with hot chocolate mix instead of instant coffee, for a version without coffee.

Sugar-Free Version

A sugar-free version is possible but less reliable. In the Popular Mechanics comparison, the version made with Splenda worked less well and more slowly than the one made with sugar, and Kuntzleman’s coffee-and-water-only batch made a more watery-looking foam that did not last. He also tried salt in place of sugar and reported a result almost as good as sugar, though Tasting Table doubts you would want to drink the salt version. If you cut the sugar, expect a softer foam that does not hold as long, and spoon it onto the milk as soon as it thickens.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is my whipped coffee bitter?

The foam is concentrated coffee, so on its own it is strong. It is meant to be stirred into the milk, which dilutes it. If the stirred drink is still too strong, use more milk or less foam. Cutting the sugar does not fix bitterness in the foam itself and weakens its structure.

Can I make whipped coffee without instant coffee?

Not with ground coffee. Wikipedia says it is not possible to make dalgona coffee using ground coffee beans. If you want an iced drink from the same jar without the whipping, the instant iced coffee guide covers the National Coffee Association’s dissolve-first method.

Can I use less sugar than coffee?

Yes, within limits. The equal-parts ratio is the common version, but the sugar is there to stabilise the foam, so cutting it far below the coffee amount makes the foam weaker. See the sugar-free section above for what the sources report.

Is dalgona coffee strong?

It contains more instant coffee than a usual cup. USDA FoodData Central lists generic regular instant coffee powder at 3,142 mg of caffeine per 100 g and gives 1 teaspoon as 1.0 g, which works out to about 31 mg per teaspoon. The two-tablespoon version uses six times the crystals of a standard one-teaspoon cup, according to Popular Mechanics, so by those generic USDA figures it would come to roughly 190 mg. That is a reference calculation, not a measured value for any brand. Brands differ, so check your jar’s label; decaffeinated instant also whips.

The Short Version

Use instant coffee, not ground. Keep the sugar in. Beat until the mixture turns golden brown and thick, 3 to 5 minutes with a hand mixer in the Los Angeles Times recipe and longer by hand. Spoon it over cold or hot milk, then stir before drinking.