Coffee habits are getting whipped in quarantine.
A creamy, four-ingredient coffee known as Dalgona in South Korea is taking over social media during the coronavirus lockdown. The craze started percolating in late January, according to Google Trends, then gained traction near the end of February when a Korean YouTuber posted a now viral, ASMR-style video of how to make the creamy drink. That hypnotic, hypercaffeinated clip alone has racked up more than 3.5 million views.
TikTok user @iamhannahcho appears to get credit for taking the Dalonga trend to that video-sharing platform when she shared a messy clip of herself (sorta) making the whipped coffee with her best friend on March 10. “Whipping was way too tedious so don’t judge plz,” she captioned the video, which has racked up more than 97,400 likes.
As more people are stuck home drinking java, the tag #Coffeewhip has at least 1.2 million views, and an increasing number of TikTokers are offering their recipes for making the photogenic whipped drink.
The peanut-butter-looking “frothy coffee” is achieved by combining just a tablespoon or two of three ingredients — instant coffee, sugar and hot water. Some also add in milk for flavor. For those who don’t like coffee, the instant can be swapped out for matcha green tea or cocoa powder.
Add them together in a bowl, mix until creamy — by hand or with an electric beater — and record yourself layering it into a Mason jar for peak Instagrammability.
“This was actually so fun,” writes one TikTok user of making the coffee — despite staining her shirt in the whipping process.
“I believe everyone is trying to get their specialty coffee fix without having to leave the house. Yes, there’s Starbucks and there’s small coffee shops that are still open, but since everyone’s at home, might as well make it from home,” a Texas-based Dalgona coffee fan named Alyssa tells Vice. “But I also think that if we weren’t in quarantine, it would still be popular.”
“Thing #5265 I’ve learned during quarantine: whipped coffee is the best thing ever,” tweets one new whipped coffee maker.