Dalgona - Korean Sugar Candy

South Korean candies called "dalgona" are created with melted sugar and baking soda. It is still consumed as a throwback street snack from the 1960s. A small amount of baking soda added to melted sugar causes the baking soda to thermally decompose and release carbon dioxide, which causes the liquidized sugar to inflate and turn into a crunchy, light candy as it cools.

Usually, a cookie cutter is used to imprint an image, such as a star or a heart, on the candy by pouring the creamy beige liquid onto a flat surface, pressing it flat, and stamping. As a challenge, customers attempt to cut their way around the snack's outline without destroying the image. A free dalgona is traditionally given to the customer by the vendor if this trimming is finished without shattering the candy.

In addition to pastries like scones, modern cafes in Seoul feature unique dalgona coffee beverages, which consist of dalgona-flavored coffee cream piled above iced tea or coffee. Dalgona was also used by some cafes to make sweets like souffles and bingsu.

In an episode of the Netflix series Squid Game, Dalgona made an appearance. The second game in the series is a lethal variant of the Dalgona challenge. The candy's popularity was revived in South Korea and its global ubiquity increased as a result of the film's success and widespread appeal. In addition, people have started using social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok to share cooking recipes and challenges related to making their own candies at home.