Dalgona Coffee

Dalgona coffee recipe

This is a single-serving adaptation of the manufacturer’s metric recipe, not an espresso recipe. Choose plain soluble instant coffee and keep the milk separate until the foam is ready.

Recipe card

Serves: 1
Time: allow about 10 minutes, including roughly 4 to 6 minutes of whipping; judge readiness by texture.

Ingredients

• 4 g plain instant coffee
• 12 g white sugar
• 20 ml hot water
• 170 ml semi-skimmed milk, or a plant-based alternative
• Ice, optional, enough to chill the milk while leaving room for the topping.

Equipment

Kitchen scales, a measuring jug, a deep mixing bowl, an electric hand whisk or balloon whisk, a spoon and a serving glass. An electric whisk is the less laborious choice; hand-whisking is possible, but may take longer.

Method

1. Combine the topping ingredients. Put the instant coffee, sugar and hot water into the bowl. Stir to wet the coffee and sugar.
2. Whip thoroughly. Beat until the dark mixture becomes pale, thick and fluffy. Allow several minutes, moving the whisk through the mixture so that it incorporates evenly.
3. Check the peak. Lift the whisk. The foam should form a mound with a tip that largely holds its shape, rather than immediately running flat.
4. Prepare the milk. Put ice in the glass, if using, then add the milk.
5. Assemble and serve. Spoon the coffee foam over the milk. Serve with a spoon so the drink can be stirred together.

Approximate caffeine: 100 to 180 mg per serving using 4 g NESCAFÉ Original or Gold. The calculation is 4 g ÷ 2 g × the manufacturer’s stated 50 to 90 mg per 2 g. This is a product-specific estimate, not a measurement of the finished drink. During pregnancy, count it towards the NHS maximum of 200 mg daily from all sources; individual sensitivity also varies.

For other drinks to make at home, browse coffee recipes.

Getting the instant coffee, sugar and water ratio right

Many dalgona recipes call for equal volumes of instant coffee, sugar and water. Those ingredients do not have equal weights at equal volumes, so “equal parts” is not an instruction to weigh out identical gram amounts.

The recipe above uses an instant coffee to sugar to water ratio of approximately 1:3:5 by weight, treating 20 ml water as approximately 20 g for kitchen purposes. This is the topping mixture, not a brewing ratio: the milk is added separately.

Use the measured recipe for your first attempt rather than combining spoon measures from different recipes. Once you have a successful baseline, change one ingredient at a time. A university teaching recipe demonstrates a lower-sugar version, but that does not establish that every sugar substitute will behave identically.

Why whipping makes a thick coffee foam

Whipping introduces air into the concentrated coffee mixture. Coffee contains surface-active substances, meaning molecules that act at the boundary between air and water and help bubbles persist. Controlled laboratory research on instant-coffee foams supports this general mechanism, although experiments using added surfactants are not direct tests of a household dalgona recipe.

For the cook, the useful distinction is between bubbly liquid and finished foam. Continue until the mixture becomes thick enough to hold a peak. A few bubbles on a dark, runny surface are not the endpoint described in the recipe.

Do not replace the instant coffee with ground coffee or an ordinary brewed coffee. The published method is built around soluble instant coffee in a small quantity of water; brewed coffee is not a like-for-like substitute.

Variations and serving

Keep the topping method unchanged at first and vary what goes underneath it:

• Dairy-free: use a plant-based milk you enjoy drinking.
• Warm: omit the ice and spoon the foam over warm milk.
• Lower caffeine: choose decaffeinated instant coffee, checking the product information rather than assuming it is caffeine-free.
• Lightly spiced: finish with a little cinnamon instead of changing the whipping mixture.

If you would rather make an iced drink using espresso, follow iced coffee methods instead of trying to substitute espresso into this recipe.

Troubleshooting dalgona coffee

Use the recipe’s stiff-peak endpoint and measured ingredients as your reference. These are practical checks based on the published methods, not results from comparative testing.

The first three checks follow the ingredients and whipping endpoints in the manufacturer and university recipes; stirring before drinking follows the university serving method.

Caffeine and food safety

More milk makes the drink more dilute, but does not remove caffeine from the coffee topping. If caffeine matters to you, weigh the instant coffee and use information for that particular product, not a generic figure for a mug of filter coffee.

EFSA’s 2015 scientific assessment found that single doses up to 200 mg and daily intakes up to 400 mg, spread across the day, raise no safety concerns for healthy non-pregnant adults. These are population benchmarks, not targets; EFSA also notes that 100 mg near bedtime can affect sleep in some adults. Speak to a GP, pharmacist or midwife about personal circumstances, medicines or pregnancy.

Keep milk refrigerated according to its packaging and prepare the drink close to serving. Food Standards Agency guidance recommends a fridge temperature between 0 and 5°C and keeping chilled food out for the shortest practical time during preparation.