The Home Ludens refer to people who enjoy spending time at home for doing such as cooking and cultural activities. With the recent coronavirus disease, social distancing is implemented to prevent the spread including working from home and online classes, which generated a significant number of ‘home ludens’, affecting the entire society. The demand for convenient food is increasing sharply, and the online shopping industry is also growing at a fast rate. In addition, home-baking, home-gardening, home-workout, and home-entertainment, home-cafe are all becoming a cultural trend as a part of being ‘home ludens’.

# Worldwide Trend, Dalgona Coffee

Dalgona coffee is made by stirring coffee 400 times with equal proportions of instant coffee, sugar and hot water. It is called dalgona coffee because its taste is similar to the sweetness of dalgona(a candy made with baking soda in sugar) that brings back old childhood memories. Starting from YouTube, ‘Dalgona Coffee, with 400 stirs’ is becoming popular and is recognized as a kind of killing time play for home ludens. The K-pop stars such as Kang Daniel and Twice are also uploading dalgona coffee making videos, and social media is gaining enormous popularity with over 220,000 related content uploaded. As a sequel of 1000 series, ‘soufflé omelette with 1000 stirs’ and ‘ice cream with 1000 massage’ are also catching up with stay home movement.

#Making Dalgona Coffee

Ingredients: 2 tablespoons of instant coffee, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 2 tablespoons of hot water, 1 cup of milk

*Recipe

1. In a medium bowl, combine sugar, coffee and hot water. Vigorously whisk until mixture turns yellow.

2. Fill a glass with milk. Then dollop and swirl the mixture. Now you’re done.

# Korea’s dalgona coffee lands in Europe

The New York Times and BBC, as well as several leading European media outlets that bring up cool fashion style such as Vogue and Esquire, are introducing dalgona coffee saying that Korean coffee drink is the latest food trend to take over the internet which is globally popularized. Belgian Elle Magazine also drove for the #DalgonaCoffeeChallenge campaign. While wide COVID-19 outbreaks have devastated Europe, and which is still happening, the Korean government’s effective response and its ability to control the pandemic is earning praises from European countries and their citizens. The positive impression, began with as a best practice to fight off the virus’ transmission, brings attention to other fields such as Korean democracy and ICT technology. There are some opinions that the new dalgona coffee trend is also part of it.

# Evolving home ludens culture

In Korea, online shopping malls are releasing not only the coffee products, but also gadgets that can decorate a ‘home cafe’, such as coffee machines and coffee supplies. Sales of coffee appliances such as espresso machines, coffee makers and coffee grinders are increasing significantly. Moreover, ‘home drinking’ for those who enjoy sipping at home are also on the rise, creating new cultural trends. In fact, Jeju beer exceeded twice the sales during the first quarter of this year compared to the peak season last year. Although beer is not in the highest time of year, Jeju beer is enjoying the booming popularity and cited that the increase in ‘home drinker’ as one of the factors leading to rapid sales growth. As more people find pleasure in leisure life at indoors, items including board games, DIY items, and home cinema related products are also popular.