Have you done the #DalgonaCoffeeChallenge? About to do it? Hold on, you will have to take it into consideration after scanning through my story behind the glory of the most viral-for-now homemade coffee. Wonder why? Let’s find out!
Epic Fails Uncovered From The Sheer Simplicity
There is no doubt that Dalgona Coffee has been omnipresent during the shelter-in-place days because of its simple-three-ingredients recipe. All you need to do is just to mix sugar - instant coffee powder - hot water by a whisk or a hand mixer with an equal proportion of 3:3:3, for instance. Once the mixture ends up with a cloud-like consistency along with a caramel shade, booyah~ you nailed it! Sounds easy as if no one in the world could ever make it failed. Oops! I am not a human, tho. To be honest, I did it thrice and success came last. What happened to the first two?
The First-NG-scene
I attempted to make a “sugar-free Dalgona coffee” :D. Without hesitation, I manually mixed 3 tbsp of instant coffee powder with 3 tbsp of hot water. After whisking for 5 mins, the color switch somewhat soothed my nerves. Nonetheless, 10 mins and then 20 mins had passed with no sign of a frothy texture, I freaked out. Kept hopelessly whipping and whipping until the whole 496th episode of Running Man was finished, I surrendered everything.
The lesson is that the recipes ain't gonna lie and just follow it. No sugar, the white one *to be more precise* does mean no emulsion is triggered to form a smooth mixture. It's about time I considered the gritty remake.
The Second attempt
Camera is on and everything including “sugar” *indeed* is ready for an intended result. Here it goes again! The chemical magic was found nowhere. Why? Nothing wrong with sugar and water but my coffee powder. My eyes are still good enough to recognize the word “INSTANT coffee”. But several tiny phrases - “mixed powder" written here and there tricked my eyes. High hopes accompanied by an hour of an intense-muscle-training course ended with the second epic fail.
The Happy ending
Two failures in a row got on my nerves. These ingredients - “100% instant coffee powder” & “white sugar” are acknowledged and I refused to mess it up this time. What will be, will be. I made it, after all :D.
Do Not Judge A Book By Its Cover
Yes, don't rush to rate Dalgona Coffee 5 stars just by its aesthetic look. It is not exaggerated to say that the combo of cappuccino look-alike and golden caramel shade can make all of the TikTok and Instagram fans’ mouth watering. I couldn't agree more! But the real taste is such a big deal for the non-coffee drinkers.
You definitely expect to savor a caramelly and sweet-scented cup of coffee or at least a bittersweet one. In reality, no bittersweet, only the bitterness did move across my entire tongue. Not over yet, it also gave me a damn bonus of a sleepless night. Such a cheap thrill that I couldn’t forget!
From my point of view, if you want to kill your time and follow the trend, just give it a try. But if you crave for one kind of coffee to stick to these homebound days *no Starbucks available*, this run-of-the-mill Dalgona Coffee shouldn’t be in your list.
In a nutshell, there is always a long story behind a snap of fancy things. Sometimes, it merely “meets your eyes” with no value added or with an overrated insight/content/quality. Sometimes, it goes beyond what you see or “More than meets the eyes”. Taking pics and uploading on social media may take a minute but the process to reach the intended result is really something. Hope this article means something to you <3.
Comments