Where this trend actually came from
Most viral food trends arrive with a name attached and no real paper trail behind it. This one is the exception. Our desk went looking for the actual chain of events behind dalgona coffee, expecting the usual tangle of TikTok folklore, and instead found something closer to a documented itinerary.
In January 2020, South Korean actor Jung Il-woo was filming an episode of the Korean variety program "Stars' Top Recipe at Fun-Restaurant" on location in Macau. While there, he visited a small, longtime local café and was served a whipped coffee drink made by hand-beating instant coffee, sugar, and hot water until it turned thick, pale, and foam-like. Struck by the resemblance to dalgona, the honeycomb-textured Korean street candy, he gave the drink that nickname on air. The clip aired and circulated, and within weeks the term "dalgona coffee" had attached itself permanently to the drink.
From there it moved fast. Early 2020 was the beginning of pandemic lockdowns across much of the world, and a slow, visually satisfying, ingredient-light recipe was exactly the kind of thing that spread on TikTok. Creator @imhannahcho posted one of the tutorials credited with helping push the trend past Korea and into a genuinely global craze that spring.
The name attached to this trend
This one checks out. Jung Il-woo's connection to dalgona coffee is not an internet rumor — it is a documented broadcast moment, and he has spoken publicly since about being the person who introduced it to a mass audience. The café itself also has a real identity: our desk found it identified as Hon Kee Café, a modest, decades-old shipyard café in Macau, with owner Leong Kam Hon crediting the vigorous stirring technique to visitors he learned it from years earlier. Both ends of the story are attributable to real people, not vague "some TikToker" attribution.
What the claim actually is
The claim circulating online is fairly specific: that this whipped coffee drink was "invented" in this single moment — actor visits café, drink gets a name, world goes wild for it. That's the version worth checking, because "invented" is doing a lot of work in a claim like that.
What we found
The Macau television moment is real and well-documented, and it is genuinely what set off the worldwide viral wave in 2020. But whisked or "beaten" coffee is not a new invention that started in that café. Similar hand-beaten coffee preparations have long, independent histories in India (where it's often called phenti hui coffee) and Pakistan, and the technique was already established in Macau's own café culture before 2020 as well. What Jung Il-woo's TV appearance did was put a name on a specific version of an old technique and hand it to a global audience at the exact moment people were stuck at home with time to whisk something 400 times. The virality is new. The whisking is not.
The Verdict
True, with an honest footnote. The Jung Il-woo/Macau/January 2020 origin story for the viral name and craze is real and verifiable — it is not the origin of hand-whipped coffee itself, which predates it in multiple countries. Both things can be true at once, and we think they should both be said out loud.
How to make it
- Combine 2 tablespoons instant coffee, 2 tablespoons sugar, and 2 tablespoons hot water in a bowl.
- Whip vigorously with a whisk or hand mixer until the mixture turns pale, thick, and holds stiff, glossy peaks — traditionally done by hand roughly 400 times, though a hand mixer gets you there in a couple of minutes.
- Fill a glass with milk, hot or cold, adding ice if you want it iced.
- Spoon the whipped coffee mixture on top so it sits in a mound over the milk.
- Stir together just before drinking.
What you'll need
- Instant coffeethe base of the whipped layer — needed for the foam to form properlySee on Amazon
- Milk frother or hand mixerthe modern shortcut for the traditional 400-whisk stepSee on Amazon
- Glass coffee mugfor the classic layered look, whipped coffee visibly sitting over milkSee on Amazon
As an Amazon Associate, Daily Wellness Chronicle earns from qualifying purchases. These links open a live Amazon search for each item, not a specific listing we control — prices and sellers may vary.
Sources
- "Stars' Top Recipe at Fun-Staurant," Wikipedia — episode and broadcast history.
- Lonely Planet, "How Dalgona coffee became the internet's favorite quarantine drink."
- Matador Network, "The True Origin of the Internet-Famous Dalgona Coffee."
- KBIZoom, "Jung Il Woo Says He Introduced Dalgona Coffee Before It Went Global."