How to make a Dalgona style coffee with your Nespresso machine

It's the word (and beverage) on everyone's lips - the creamy, fluffy coffee goodness that has taken the internet by storm, and sky-rocketed our daily caffeine intake.

Mmmm... DALGONA COFFEE.

Adding a little pizzazz to our newly-found isolated reality, this simple 3-ingredient coffee concoction is, really, the only friend you'll ever need during social distancing!
Inspired by the popular Korean street food snack called Dalgona, this whipped coffee is generally created using instant coffee, sugar and water. However, with a couple of recipe tweaks, we've put our own spin on the delicious pick-me-up!

Make Dalgona coffee with your pod/capsule machine or espresso. Whipped, creamy liquid coffee - yum!

Images via @stepheats_ using our Bluecup capsules

How to make Dalgona-style whipped iced coffee with espresso

1. Start with some good quality ground coffee beans

First thing's first - we always recommend sourcing a yummy, full-bodied coffee from your local roaster or cafe (Bonus: these businesses can certainly use our support at the moment)! The taste of your Dalgona, is obviously going to come down to the coffee you use.

For optimal flavour and coffee strength, we love a strong, dark blend, or Italian-style roast to get the most out of your Dalgona. For our brew, we selected this Crema Joe Bespoke Blend - a smooth, rich blend that combines notes of Dutch cocoa and toasted nuts, yum!

2. Brew 2 espresso shots

We're using reusable capsules with our Nespresso machine, however you can use an Espresso machine, Moka Pot or AeroPress, as long as you can extract a fairly intense espresso. If using brewed coffee, you could use about 1/2 cup of double-strength instead. Either way, this is where your choice of coffee blend really comes into play.

If you're using a pod machine like us, use a refillable pod so you can choose a freshly roasted, quality coffee for best results (reusable capsules are currently available for Nespresso OriginalLine, VertuoLine, Aldi K-Fee, Dolce Gusto or Caffitaly machines).

3. Here's the sweet part - add sugar!

Add 1 tablespoon of the espresso to a small bowl or jug (ensuring the liquid is hot enough to dissolve the sugar), followed by 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar.

For a deep, complex flavour, like toffee or caramel, we used dark brown sugar for our creamy coffee.

Dark brown sugar recipe: Dalgona whipped TikTok coffee. Try coconut sugar for a healthy twist

4. Whip it! Whip it good!

Using an electric hand beater (preferred for speed), whisk the coffee and sugar together until the mixture is thick, and aerated. The soft peaks you are ideally aiming for are a little trickier to achieve using real espresso, but you should still be able to get a lovely thick whip.

Whipped: How to make Dalgona coffee with espresso rather than instant

5. Pour in the espresso

This is where we vary our recipe ever-so-slightly. We LOVE a good iced latte, and working remotely sure does seem to require a heck of a lot of caffeine, so we wanted something a little stronger, and less milky.

So, throw some ice in your favourite glass, or a jar, pour the remaining espresso over the top, and follow it up with a big dash of milk.