PSA: You Can Meal Prep Whipped Coffee
Yup, seriously. Here’s how to freeze dalgona coffee.
Ana Rocio Garcia Franco/Getty
If you’ve tried ultra-trendy dalgona coffee, you know this drink is worth the hype (and the seemingly endless number of Instagram pics). Originally from South Korea, the beverage is comprised of instant coffee, sugar, hot water and milk. To make it, whisk together equal parts instant coffee powder, sugar and hot water into a caramel-colored foam and then place that foam on top of your milk.
Sounds easy, right?
However, if you’ve tried dalgona coffee, you also know that whipping up the smooth, golden-brown foam can take forever. Seriously — if you don’t have a hand mixer or milk frother to make the job easier, you might find yourself whisking for upwards of 20 minutes!
Savvy TikTok and Instagram users have brainstormed ways to make the process less strenuous, and while these hacks can certainly give your biceps a break, I stumbled upon yet another easy way to get your dalgona coffee fix every day, minus the upper body workout.
Two words: meal prep.
In a video that has amassed 1.7 million views and counting, TikTok user @melanie_locke preps her dalgona coffee for the week by making a few batches of the foam, storing the foam in a plastic container and freezing it overnight. In the morning, she simply takes the foam out and scoops some out on top of her milk for whipped coffee in a flash. What also interested me was that in her video, @melanie_locke mentions that this version of dalgona coffee tastes the same but the texture resembles more of “an affogato-like ice cream.”
Eager to meal prep it myself, I grabbed my supplies, threw three tablespoons of each ingredient into a tall glass and rolled the whisk between my hands until I reached that luscious foam. I then transferred the foam into a small plastic container and repeated the process until the plastic container was full.
I popped the container into the freezer and let it sit overnight, anxiously looking forward to my simplified morning caffeine boost. The next day, I removed my foam-filled plastic container from the freezer and used an ice cream scoop to spoon out two scoops of the frozen mixture. I plopped them on top of my milk and stirred everything up.
I will admit that the foam took longer to mix with the milk than usual, but once they combined the drink tasted exactly the same. The only major difference I found was the texture, just like @melanie_locke mentioned. The texture of this dalgona coffee wasn’t bad by any means; instead of feeling smooth and creamy, it was slightly thinner with a few icy chunks here and there. The drink felt like drinking melted coffee-flavored ice cream, and I had zero complaints.
All in all, the next time I want dalgona coffee more than once a week, I would absolutely meal prep it. And, I’m looking forward to trying this method out with chocolate, strawberry, matcha and more!
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