Jung Il-woo Reflects on Bringing Dalgona Coffee to Global Fame During the Pandemic

Actor Jung Il-woo says he was the person who first introduced dalgona coffee, the whipped drink that went viral worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic, on Korean television. He shared the story in a new YouTube interview alongside longtime friend and fellow actor Ahn Jae-hyun.

The YouTube channel Aldalttalhan Chamgyeon posted the video on July 21 under the title "Actor Jung Il-woo Marks 20-Year Debut Anniversary in a High-Energy Chat with 10-Year Friend Ahn Jae-hyun."

Looking back on the variety shows he has appeared on, Jung Il-woo brought up his time on KBS2's "Stars' Top Recipe at Fun-Staurant," which led naturally into the dalgona coffee story. Ahn Jae-hyun said, "During the COVID-19 period, the first coffee Jung Il-woo developed on 'Stars' Top Recipe at Fun-Staurant' was dalgona coffee. He was also the first person to show it on television."

Jung Il-woo recalled that the moment led to global press attention. "I did interviews with The New York Times and the BBC because of it," he said. "They told me the dalgona coffee recipe was the number one search term worldwide on Google at that time."

Ahn Jae-hyun then joked that Jung Il-woo's name got lost as the drink took off. "Somehow, only 'dalgona' spread around the world. His name got dropped." Comedian Heo Kyung-hwan added that Jung Il-woo should have filed a patent. Jung Il-woo laughed and admitted, "That thought never even crossed my mind."

Dalgona coffee is made by whisking instant coffee, sugar, and hot water until the mixture turns creamy, then spooning it over a glass of milk. It exploded in popularity in 2020, when the pandemic kept people at home for long stretches. Online, it also spread under the nickname "the coffee you stir n times," a nod to the arm workout it required.

Jung Il-woo first recreated the drink on "Stars' Top Recipe at Fun-Staurant" in early 2020, based on a coffee he had tried at a restaurant in Macau. On the show, he described it as tasting "like the dalgona candy sold outside schools." The recipe spread quickly after that, first in South Korea and then across social media platforms overseas.

The moment stands as one of the more unusual crossovers between Korean variety TV and global pop culture. A single segment on a domestic food show ended up shaping a worldwide pandemic-era trend, even as the actor behind it quietly stepped out of the spotlight the drink created.