The coffee industry is no stranger to sudden trends and patterns. In the 1980s latte art was invented out of a trendy craze in the US. Today, 40 years on, having a latte at a cafe without a beautiful rosetta or heart design just seems odd. However, some trends aren’t as long-lasting as latte art. For example: Recently, the global coffee giant, Starbucks, introduced the ‘blonde espresso‘ (an espresso coffee made with lightly roasted beans) which is merely yuck.
This leads us to the current coffee craze, TikTok coffee, or otherwise known as Dalgona, Beaten or whipped coffee. Made up of instant coffee, sugar and hot water, it’s whisked until it’s creamy then finished by adding cold or hot milk. It’s debatable whether it’s worth all of this hype, so determine whether its a latte art trend or a blonde espresso trend – we decided to give it a go ourselves.
Recipe
The recipe we followed was ‘Jessica In The Kitchen’s’, which we thought was pretty accurate to all of the ones you see on TikTok. To try it out with us, you can find her full recipe with tips here!
In short – you’ll need:
- 2 x tablespoons of instant coffee (we’re already sceptical)
- 2 x tablespoons of sugar
- 2 x tablespoons of boiled water
- 1 cup of milk
Instructions:
Pour the instant coffee, sugar and boiling water into a bowl and whisk for around 8 minutes, or until it’s a creamy consistency. Pour the milk into a glass, and scoop the whipped coffee gently on top with a spoon. Stir together and you’re done!
Our review
Starting out, we were expecting it to be a fail, the little amount of water surely couldn’t make so much whipped coffee. After about a minute, though, we could see it starting to come together. Over the 8 minutes, it was actually pretty fun to see!
Now, you could use an electric mixer instead of hand whisking, however, most people on the app hand whisk. We wanted to keep the recipe as ~*authentic*~ as possible to get the most accurate experience. Whipping coffee for 8 minutes every morning is definitely not fun, so we wouldn’t recommend it for your first coffee. When you’re half asleep and barely functioning; there are better coffees to make your morning.
After mixing the ingredients, it was another surprise to see that our whipped coffee did float on the surface of our milk! Yay – we were doing it right! It also looks really cool in photos, which is another reason why it’s easy to understand how it’s so trendy.
The last thing we actually had to do was try it. It tasted as you’d think it would – like sugar & instant coffee in a creamy consistency like pudding. As someone who is used to drinking coffee without sugar, the overwhelming presence of it was a lot to process. The coffee flavour itself wasn’t too bad. It was just your standard instant coffee from the shops, so if you’re ok with that, then you should love this drink. We wouldn’t recommend this for espresso or long black drinkers who enjoy the natural coffee characteristics.
Final Thoughts
Overall, it’s a fun drink to make. It was enjoyable to see the coffee whip up and form a consistency that usually isn’t associated with coffee unless you’re drinking a frappe. We don’t see it becoming a standard drink offered in coffee shops around Australia. Nor do we recommend this for the most dedicated of coffee lovers who appreciate coffee for the complexity of flavours it offers.
Our final verdict is: it is a ‘blond espresso’ type trend, but it was a fun trend to try!
