Dalgona Challenge

Dalgona (달고나) is a Korean candy made with molten sugar and baking soda. It used to be popular street food in the 70s and 80s and is still considered a traditional snack today. Dalgona Challenge is one of the games featured in the movie Squid Game, so recently, this candy has become famous and popular again in Korea as well as many places around the world.

Dalgona was originally a term used to refer to expensive glucose candies without molds, while ppopgi were originally candies made from sugar and moldable into stars and circles. From the 70s-80s to the early 2000s, when the popularity of '뽑기 (ppopgi)' was very high, the media did not have a big influence, so the name often differed from region to region. However, in later generations, the popularity of smartphones and media influence increased, and the influence of the Seoul/Gyeonggi region, where there was a lot of media before, increased. Since then, local names have lost their influence, and most Korean middle and high school students now call them dalgona.

How to play Dalgona Challenge:

• When a little baking soda is mixed into the molasses, they thermally decompose into carbon dioxide, causing the molasses to swell and become crunchy and tasteless when left to cool and harden. Usually, the sugar solution is poured onto a flat surface, then flattened and molded with various patterns. Diners will try poking around the molded edge without breaking it. If the figure can be split without breaking the candy, the buyer receives another free Dalgona.