The Dalgona Coffee Recipe Is Harder To Make Than It Looks

People aren't just making bread and posting it to Instagram during coronavirus quarantine, they're making a fun whipped coffee, too.

Dalgona coffee is a beautiful coffee cloud that sits on top of milk to get you ready to successfully work from home. And much like other popular ways people have used to entertain themselves while spending more time at home, this viral beauty can be attributed to social media.

Every Chain and Delivery Service Offering Free Delivery Right Now

So while I am not on TikTok, I was the only member of The Daily Meal staff with instant coffee currently at home, so I boldly joined the caffeinated ranks.

Equal parts hot water, instant coffee and sugar, after 400 whisks I was supposed to have magnificent whipped coffee to put on top of milk like something straight off the Starbucks secret menu. The only thing I learned, however, is I am apparently the only person on the internet who cannot accomplish these things.

The instructions I found left a lot to be desired, but they said I could do this by stirring. So even though I have a hand mixer, I decided to go for the stir. I stirred and stirred and stirred. It definitely whipped up a little, but never got to the cloudy goodness I was promised.

I stirred for 14 minutes and all I got was a goopy mess.

When I could stir no more and my cloud wasn't getting any cloudier, I put it over some whole milk and ice and tried it anyways. Since I was making this for one, I opted for only 1 tablespoon of instant coffee, 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 tablespoon of water.

It was strong.

Since I wasn't at the office due to social distancing, I had to use my husband as my botched experiment guinea pig. His review: "hard pass."

I love strong coffee, but I feel like I might be up for days after this experiment. If I had to do it all over again, I would try the hand mixer, but really, I think I will just stick with these tips and recipes for great, easy at-home coffee.