Hello, friends! It’s been a while, but now that I‘ve got all this time on my hands I thought I‘d post more often. Over quarantine, I‘ve been doing a lot of things, albeit not very productive, but one thing I’ve been enjoying the most is making drinks! I’ve been watching an absurd amount of cafe vlogs, so I thought I’d give it a try myself.
In this blog, you’ll find the recipes of my three favorite drinks that I’ve really been enjoying, and be sure to stick around to the end of the post for an important announcement.
Ok, enough rambling; here are my recipes for my yummy strawberry milk, super-easy matcha latte, and my take on the dalgona latte! Each recipe makes one large drink :)
Strawberry Milk 🍓🥛
Especially during the summer season, I found myself buying lots of strawberries that sadly almost always went bad. To ensure that this never happened again, I decided to make strawberry milk, and I’ve been loving it ever since.
Ingredients:
5 large strawberries, chopped into small chunks
2 tablespoons honey
Milk (I use oat milk)
Splash of vanilla extract
Optional: strawberry for garnish hehe
Directions:
1) In a bowl, combine strawberries, honey, and vanilla.
2) Using a large spoon, mash the strawberries until desired consistency. You can use a blender, but I like a lot of strawberry chunks in mine.
3) Spoon the strawberry mixture into a large glass, top with milk, stir, and enjoy 🥰
Matcha Latte 🍵🥛
This one is seriously so quick to make, which probably explains why I can’t sleep at night 🙃 Drink caffeine responsibly and in moderation, kids.
Ingredients:
1 teaspoon matcha powder (I use the Sunfood brand)
1 teaspoon sugar (I use xylitol sugar)
1/4 cup hot water
Milk (again, I use oat milk)
Splash of vanilla extract
Ice
Directions: 1) Stir together matcha powder, sugar, vanilla extract, and water.
2) In a large glass, pour matcha mixture over ice, top with milk, stir, and enjoy 🥰
Dalgona Latte ☕️🥛
I’m sure by now we’ve all seen the Tik Tok famous trend, but I’m about to show you what the real dalgona is. Dalgona is a Korean sugar snack that is often sold on the streets. Today, I will be using it as a topping for my coffee, but it’s really good with just milk as well!
Ingredients
For the dalgona (this makes a bunch so that you can save it for later):
8-10 tablespoons plain sugar (my mum says that brown sugar tastes better ^-^)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
For the coffee:
1 tablespoon instant coffee
1 tablespoon sugar (again, I use xylitol sugar)
1 tablespoon hot water
Milk (again, I use oat milk)
Ice
Directions:
Dalgona:
1) Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2) In a saucepan over medium heat, completely melt sugar, stirring continuously to prevent burning.
3) Add in baking soda and continue stirring until baking soda is completely dissolved; the color should lighten and the texture should become fluffier.
4) As soon as the baking soda is dissolved, pour the sugar onto a baking sheet and allow to cool.
5) Once cool, crush into smaller pieces and store in an airtight container.
Coffee:
1) Whisk together instant coffee, sugar, and hot water until color lightens and peaks form.
2) In a large glass, pour milk over ice, dollop on coffee mixture, top with dalgona bits, stir, and enjoy 🥰
AAAAAAAANNNNNNDDDDD that‘s it! I hope you guys like these recipes, and if you try them out, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @innicco. Wormy approves of these drinks, so you should, too.
Now onto the heavier stuff...
The uprise of COVID-19 has magnified the severity of preexisting issues such as racial injustice, police brutality, and climate change, just to name a few. As heartbreaking as these events are, I am glad to see people using their voices and their platforms to advocate for their beliefs. Silence is not neutrality, and I commend all of those who are doing anything to bring attention to the issues at hand. No matter how small your action is, it will be seen by somebody, and it will impact somebody.
Though all of the aforementioned issues are extremely relevant, one that has been getting to me nowadays is child domestic violence. I am very thankful and fortunate to have a healthy relationship with my family, but there are many who do not. With the rise of Stay at Home orders across the United States, many children are bound to homes where they unfortunately become victims of physical, mental, emotional, and sexual abuse.
I want to use my platform to help out in any way I can. This is a very real, very scary issue that was always there but has been magnified by the effects of COVID-19. With Pride Month right around the corner, I have decided that starting June 1, I am going to donate 10% of innicco proceeds to PFLAG (https://pflag.org/about) and 10% to The Trevor Project (https://www.thetrevorproject.org/about/) to help LGBTQ+ youth across America.
Additionally on June 1, I will be releasing a Pride Month temporary tattoo on my site. 100% of the tattoo proceeds will go towards the organizations above.
Here is a link on how you can also support LGBTQ+ businesses: https://www.finimpact.com/support-lgbtq-owned-small-businesses/
If you stuck around this far, thank you, thank you, thank you! I will be posting consistently now on Wednesdays and Saturdays, so stay tuned. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for other posts, please let me know down in the comments!
With love,
Yune Kim