Dalgona Coffee — The Bereiken Way

In early 2020, a South Korean actor filmed himself making whipped coffee and the video became one of the most viewed food videos in internet history. Dalgona coffee — named after a Korean street candy with a similar caramel-foam texture — swept through lockdown kitchens globally. Four years later it has settled from viral trend into everyday ritual for millions of people. Here is why Bereiken Classic makes it better than any other instant.

The physics of whipped coffee is this: you are beating air into a concentrated mixture of instant coffee, sugar, and hot water until the proteins and starches in the coffee granules form a foam matrix. The quality of that foam depends on the dissolved solids in your instant coffee — and Arabica, being more complex in its organic compound profile, produces a denser, more stable foam than Robusta.

In practice: Bereiken Classic whips to a stiff, glossy peak in about 3 minutes with a hand whisk, or 90 seconds with a hand mixer. The foam holds for longer than cheaper instant coffees, and does not weep liquid as quickly. The taste, critically, is coffee — not just sweet foam.

Make the whipped foam the same way, but pour it over hot (not boiling) milk instead of cold. Add a pinch of cinnamon on top. The foam melts slowly into the milk — subtler than the cold version, more like a café cappuccino.

Substitute Bereiken Caramel for Classic. Use brown sugar instead of white — the molasses notes in brown sugar amplify the caramel flavour of the coffee. Serve over oat milk with one extra cube of ice.

Use Bereiken Mocha and add half a teaspoon of unsweetened cocoa powder to the whipping mixture. The foam becomes darker, richer, and more intensely chocolatey. Serve over whole milk for the full effect.