How to Make Cold Foam

Have you ever wondered how to make cold foam at home? Wonder no longer! It's so easy to make the perfect, foamy addition to cold brew coffee.

Seriously, it takes like 20 seconds and TWO ingredients to whip some of this cold foam up. Not exaggerating. The first time that I made it, I almost couldn't believe just how easy it was to make such a fun, tasty, and impressive looking addition to my cold coffee.

I mean, just look at the volume of that foam! And in addition to being pretty, it tastes great and has a nice texture, too. Froth some up the next time that you have a cold coffee and you'll feel like you hit the drive thru at Starbucks. But, you know, without shelling out all the $$$.

Looking for more Starbucks copycat recipes? Try my Caramel Macchiato or Irish Cream Cold Brew!

Jump to:

• 🌟 Why You'll Love This Recipe
• 💭 What is cold foam?
• 💭 What's the difference between Sweet Cream Cold Foam and Cold Foam?
• 📝 Ingredients
• 🔀 Substitutions or Variations
• 👩🏻‍🍳 How to make cold foam for coffee
• 👩🏻‍🍳 How to make cold foam without a frother
• 🔗 Other coffee drinks
• 🔗 Cold foam variations
• ❓ FAQs/Tips and tricks
• ✨ Recipe

🌟 Why You'll Love This Recipe

It's easy to make. All you need to do is froth a couple of ingredients and pour it onto a cold brew!
It only requires TWO ingredients. That's it! Just TWO ingredients!
It tastes great. This cold foam is light and sweet and has a fantastic texture on top of cold coffee drinks.

💭 What is cold foam?

You know how for hot coffee drinks like lattes or cappuccinos how there's a layer of foamed milk on top? Well, this is the answer to that, but for cold coffee drinks.

Cold foam is super frothy topping for cold brew, iced coffee, and/or iced lattes that's made from frothed nonfat milk. And because it's made with cold milk (instead of hot, steamed milk like in the hot drinks), it won't melt down into the drink. It will float right on top and kind of seep down into the drink over time.

This recipe will produce a cold foam that's just like the Starbucks cold foam recipe.

💭 What's the difference between Sweet Cream Cold Foam and Cold Foam?

Sweet cream cold foam--another Starbucks treat--is made with heavy cream, 2% milk, and vanilla simple syrup. Due to the higher fat content in the cream and 2% milk, this sweet cream cold foam is a little thicker, heavier, and creamier than cold foam.

Cold Foam, on the other hand, is made with just skim milk and vanilla simple syrup. The resulting foam is lightly sweet and very, well, foamy! It has a ton of tiny bubbles, and isn't very creamy. It's very light, and sits right on top of your cold coffee.

📝 Ingredients

To make the cold foam itself, you only need TWO ingredients!

• Skim milk: When you think of foam on top of coffee, skim milk might not be the milk that you initially imagine to be behind all of those glorious bubbles. But, surprise, because it foams beautifully!
• Vanilla syrup: The cold foam should be lightly sweetened. You can really use whatever flavor syrup you want, but I've found that vanilla is a really good choice. You can use store bought syrup or make homemade vanilla syrup, too.

Of course, you'll also need your favorite store bought or homemade cold brew coffee, along with any sweetener that you desire.

🔀 Substitutions or Variations

• Make it a different flavor. You can use a different flavored syrup if you don't want to use vanilla.
• Use store bought cold coffee. You can use a store bought iced or cold brew coffee, if you'd prefer to do that over making your own.

👩🏻‍🍳 How to make cold foam for coffee

It's so much easier than you think. Let's walk through the steps.

👩🏻‍🍳 How to make cold foam without a frother

Though I think that using a handheld milk frother is the easiest method for making cold foam at home, you do have other options!

One alternative method is to use a French press. All that you need to do is pour the milk and vanilla syrup into the bottom of the French press and pump it using quick and short pumps until the milk begins to foam.

You can also use an immersion blender! This method will be pretty similar to when you're using a frother: just put the milk and syrup into a glass/jar/whatever. Submerge the immersion blender into the milk and let 'er rip. Stop when the cold foam is stabilized and v foamy.

If you're making a large quantity of cold foam, you could also use a regular blender. Just put the ingredients into the blender and blend until the cold foam is voluminous.

🔗 Other coffee drinks

Looking for other coffee drinks? Of course you are. Take a look at the recipes linked below from A Nerd Cooks and other fabulous bloggers. There's a little something for everyone here.

• Iced White Chocolate Mocha from Bake and Bacon
• Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew from Sweet Tea and Thyme
• Cookie Butter Coffee Creamer from Jaylynn Little
• Matcha Cold Foam from Coffee at Three

🔗 Cold foam variations

Fortunately for you and for me, there are so many variations on cold foam (thanks, Starbucks!). Check out all of the versions that I've shared, below!

❓ FAQs/Tips and tricks

I'd love to know what you thought of this recipe! Don't forget to leave a comment and ⭐️ star rating below!

✨ Recipe