Trendy drink Dalgona Coffee – Korean iced coffee
Sweet, bitter and above all very instagramable: Dalgona Coffee is the trendy drink from Korea.
Dalgona Toffee and Dalgona Coffee
Dalgona Coffee is the trendy drink of the moment, at least it's going viral on the internet right now. In Korea, however, dalgona is old hat, being a sticky candy that is especially popular with children – a type of caramel made from melted sugar and baking soda and eaten as a lollipop. In Dalgona Coffee, however, the Dalgona candy isn't an ingredient – it's just the sweet-bitter taste of the coffee foam that evokes Dalgona and gives the Korean iced coffee its name. Before we get to the step-by-step instructions for Dalgona Coffee, a few words about Korean coffee culture, because it's absolutely stunning. Instead, jump straight to the Dalgona Coffee recipe here.
Korean coffee culture – Seoul, capital of coffee drinkers
The South Korean capital has the most cafes per capita – in the world! A whopping 18.000 cafes are said to exist in Seoul. Of course, this includes the typical coffee chains, first and foremost the American coffee shops Starbucks and Coffee Bean, as well as the Korean coffee chains Holly's and Pastucci. In addition, however, there is a high number of small, owner-operated cafes. For some, the cafe is indeed the main reason to visit, for others, like cat cafes, cafes with DJs (and allegedly even a raccoon cafe), you don't go there for the coffee – but of course it never hurts if it tastes good, and in Korea, it almost always does.
If you have a free afternoon in Seoul, do what I do: sit in a cafe, order an Americano and a little nibble, and just people watch. The best way to get to know the different neighborhoods and their inhabitants. In Gangnam, drinking coffee is a pure see-and-be-seen experience, the streets are catwalks for the fashionistas, there are plenty of very hip cafes here beyond the big chains. In Jongno-gu, teenagers in school uniforms meet, in Insadong and Iteawon, tourists mingle with locals, and in every corner, no matter how remote, you can find a small shop selling filter coffee.
Why do Koreans drink coffee so excessively??
The reason why there are so many cafes in Korea, and especially in the capital Seoul, is, at least for the most part, by no means the great coffee thirst of its inhabitants. The attraction of cafes is strongly related to their function as a place for social contacts. In South Korea, which often appears so hypermodern and progressive, the clocks in the interpersonal and social area often still tick differently: traditionally and strictly. The cafe is therefore for many young people, who often still live with their parents until they get married, as a retreat where they can be among themselves and also where they can meet their dates.
Koreans and their love of instant coffee
Yes, in South Korea you can definitely get an espresso that is hardly different from an original Italian espresso. You'll also undoubtedly be able to order Australian Flat White, Turkish Mocha and Third Wave hand-filtered coffee in Seoul. But what the Koreans really love is instant coffee. Yes, that's right, the crumb coffee that you drink in a thermos flask when you're out hiking – same same, but different.
If you want to buy coffee in the supermarket in South Korea, you will almost never find whole coffee beans or coffee powder, but only this soluble coffee and its close relative, the "RTD". The abbreviation stands for "ready to drink" and the name says it all: here you don't have to add anything other than water, because in addition to the coffee extract, both coffee whitener and sugar are already included.
Also in the cafes in Seoul there are very often coffee specialties, which are made on the basis of soluble coffee. In contrast to Greece, where a lot of iced coffee (frappe) is drunk in this way, in Seoul they often use plastic or disposable cups. disposable cups.