Dalgona: a small pan, a pressed shape, a game
Dalgona is a thin Korean candy made by mixing melted sugar with baking soda and pressing it flat. A star or triangle is stamped into it, and the game is to remove the shape without breaking it.
How it is made
Dalgona starts with sugar and baking soda. Melted sugar is mixed with baking soda, spread and pressed flat on a work surface, then stamped with a patterned mold.
The stamp leaves a star, triangle or other outline inside the candy, which becomes the game board.
The game
Players try to separate the inner shape along the stamped line without breaking it, chipping away the edge while keeping the center whole.
Too much force snaps the candy. A star and a triangle give players different outlines to follow.
A school-gate snack
The photographs show the tools side by side: a small pan for heating sugar, a metal worktop and a round press. Melting and pressing happen in one spot. Both the wide shot and the close-up of sugar being stirred were taken on June 29, 2008.
A 2020 KOREA magazine feature recalled students buying freshly made dalgona at stationery shops outside their schools through the early 2000s. Watching it being made and playing the game were part of the snack.
Sources & context
2026-10-15T03:04:56.143Z
Korea.net · October 21, 2021 hands-on dalgona report ↗Korea.net / KOREA magazine · 2020 cultural feature ↗Ian Armstrong · first archive photograph and reviewed license ↗Ian Armstrong · second archive photograph and reviewed license ↗Creative Commons · exact license terms ↗A dalgona-making station, photographed June 29, 2008. An archival image, not a guide to a currently operating stall. Ian Armstrong, “Korean snack-Bokki-01.jpg,” CC BY-SA 2.0. Unmodified.
A closer view of sugar being heated, photographed on the same day, June 29, 2008. Ian Armstrong, “Korean snack-Bokki-02.jpg,” CC BY-SA 2.0. Unmodified.