BackWhy millennials can’t stop stirring coffee
For young professionals, making Dalgona coffee as seen on social media is a way to escape the depressing news cycle
PremiumMillennials often get blamed for killing mayonnaise, and for good reason. Growing up, I always hated mayonnaise. I could never quite place its flavour on my palate and something about its texture unnerved me. There are plenty of other, and healthier, condiments we can add to our sandwiches, such as hummus, and the great millennial obsession, avocado. And I know I’m not alone. I can’t think of a single friend who enjoys the taste of mayo or chooses to add it to their meal.
Although we may have killed mayonnaise for good, millennials have brought something back: phenti hui coffee.
In the past three weeks, it has become nearly impossible to scroll an Instagram or TikTok feed without coming across a friend or influencer whipping up some coffee, sugar and hot water to make themselves a glass of Dalgona coffee.
What is this coffee and why has it suddenly become so popular?
Inspired by street candy, Dalgona coffee became a craze when food bloggers in South Korea began their quarantine. We don’t know its exact origin story or who transformed it from toffee to coffee, but we do know it went viral quickly: the hashtag “DalgonaCoffee" has racked up thousands of posts and millions of views across TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.
But most older Indians are familiar with this recent fad invading our social media feeds, albeit under a different name: phenti hui coffee. Made by furiously whisking coffee powder, sugar and hot water to a creamy paste, and then by adding boiling hot milk, phenti hui coffee is my staple when I’m visiting my grandmother’s house in Bhopal.
The coronavirus lockdown has given millennial working professionals plenty of time to do things we’ve always wanted to do, but never had the time. Some of my friends are finally starting their reading lists, most are binge-watching Netflix (including the Tiger King documentary), while others are unleashing their inner chefs.
The lockdown has also deprived us of our workday caffeine. Whether it’s pre-made from the fridge-sized Coffee Day machine present in most office spaces, or handmade by Starbucks, Café Coffee Day, or Blue Tokai, the sudden drop in our supply of cappuccinos and iced lattes is being whipped up by the Instagram-inspired baristas among us.
This is because at a fundamental level, being in the kitchen and trying something we’ve learned on social media allows us to escape a depressing news cycle, which is fostering an utter sense of helplessness. It gives us absolute control over an environment where we are singularly responsible for the outcome.
Having grown up in an era of globalization and instant gratification, the closure of what we have taken for granted—our food supply chains, transportation systems, and improvement services such as gyms and salons—has hit us hard.
While Dalgona coffee might seem like the second coming of avocado toast to older generations, for millennials and post-millennials it is something more important: In retaking control of our supply of fancy coffee drinks, we’re slowly resuming the agency snatched away by coronavirus. If we can’t buy it, we will make it.
This is why Dalgona (see recipe below) has taken off at the right time. For most amateur cooks or those with minimally-stocked pantries, making a cup of Dalgona coffee doesn’t even require a trip to the grocery store. And that’s the beauty of it.
Dalgona Coffee
RECIPE One glass
1 tablespoon instant coffee
1 tablespoon hot water
Sugar (to taste) You need to maintain a 1:1:1 ratio between the coffee, sugar and water. I personally can’t drink sweetened coffee, so I used two teaspoons instead. I felt even those were a lot, but you need some sugar to add creaminess and body to the mixture. u300ml milk or an alt-milk (which can also be made overnight at home, using almonds or walnuts).
METHOD
Measure your coffee, sugar and hot water and pour the ingredients into a bowl (I recommend a medium to large size steel or toughened plastic bowl if you’ve never whipped anything before).
The water should be hot or boiling to help the coffee and sugar dissolve. Now whisk. Most Instagram and TikTok recipes use an electric mixer (on medium setting) since those are easier and faster, but you can use a hand whisk (great forearm workout guaranteed as well). If you’re using an electric mixer, it should take you around two minutes to reach a thick paste. Don’t whisk for longer because your paste could get too thick, making it hard to mix with milk. Once you’re done, decide how you want your Dalgona—hot or cold. Given summer is upon us, cold coffee is the default drink of the season. Add ice to your glass, pour cold milk over it, and then add the Dalgona paste on top. If you want it hot, add your Dalgona paste to the cup first, and then pour in the boiling hot milk. Most of the mixture will dissolve, but you will be left with a cappuccino-like foam on top.
Once you’re done, you are obliged to take many photos of your creation and upload them on Instagram. Maybe even tag me @VivanMarwaha.
Vivan Marwaha is a policy consultant and author of What Millennials Want, a forthcoming book by Penguin Random House. He tweets @VivanMarwaha.Write to us at businessoflife@livemint.com
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