In the earliest days of lockdown, the bored took to TikTok, an oddity in itself, and DIY’d dalgona coffee — an easily replicated beverage containing instant coffee powder, sugar and hot water, whipped into a foam — which first gained popularity as a viral challenge on South Korean social channels before finding its way to the app.
Now the app hosts a bevy of java-enthusiast creators, like the mesmerizingly chaotic @canonryder, who often records videos while making his daily brew. Deftly lifting his entire body up onto a kitchen counter in a cross-legged position, Ryder concocts a mix of bottled concentrate, wacky-flavored creamer like Fruity Pebbles or Funfetti, a mysterious, Mason-jarred hybrid of syrups including brown sugar, cinnamon, and caramel that commenters have deemed “liquid,” complete with a saucy drizzle.
Of course, TikTok isn’t the first platform to champion overstimulated post-coffee culture. There’s a longstanding YouTube genre of people going to popular chains and ordering intricate “secret menu” beverages, with CVS-receipt-long lists of ingredients. Indeed, maybe this all started with second wave coffee houses, whose myriad flavor choices have made it the ultimate purveyor in post-coffee customization.
But perhaps the ultimate symbol of the post-coffee trend dates back to the same era: the espresso martini, a classique scene-y beverage that has come back into orbit among the Instagram set. With a few espresso beans suspended in its foamy surface, it’s an aesthetic signifier of the ’90s power lunch, retrofitted for the work-from-home-forever demographic.