How To Make Homemade Cold Foam (Simple Guide)
Making delicious drinks at home instead of hitting the local Starbucks can save you a lot of money. However, some of the ingredients are hard to find, and not everyone knows how to make certain types of drinks. Luckily, if the cold foam is your problem, you’ve come to the right place.
To make homemade cold foam, you need some sugar, 2% milk, and heavy whipping cream. It’s easiest to make if you have a frother or a French press, but you can also make it with a whisk, blender, handheld mixer, or a jar with a secure lid. There are other recipe varieties you can use, as well.
This article will give you a few different recipes for making cold foam, including one copycat recipe for Starbucks cold foam. I’ll also give you instructions on making the foam if you don’t have a frother or French press handy.
How Do You Make Cold Foam
One of the questions I hear most often when making lattes, cold brews, and other drinks at home is, “How to make cold foam at home?”
If that’s what you came here hoping to find out, you’re in luck. I have several easy cold foam recipes in my repertoire that require no more than five ingredients.
But first, let’s look at a few things you need to make the process a bit simpler.
Easiest Ways To Make Cold Foam
The easiest ways to make cold foam are either with a frother or a French press.
If you have a French press, all you have to do is add your ingredients to it, replace the cap, and work the plunger up and down for about 30 seconds to a minute. That’s all it takes. Then you pour the cold foam on your drink and enjoy.
Making cold foam with a milk frother is even quicker and easier, although the bubbles are a little larger. Again, add your ingredients to a cup. Use the milk frother to whisk them for about 20 seconds. Then pour your cold form on your beverage.
If you plan to make many drinks using cold foam and don’t already have a milk frother, I suggest you get one. They’re not all that expensive, are easy to clean, and turn frothing and creating cold foam into such simple processes.
In my house, we use the Zulay Original Handheld Milk Frother from Amazon.com. It comes in several different colors to fit your kitchen decor, runs off batteries, and is exceptionally easy to use.
But if you don’t want to invest in a French press or frother, you’re not out of luck. You can still make foam with other tools.
How Do You Make Cold Foam Without a Frother?
If you don’t have a frother or a French press, though, don’t fret; you can still make delicious cold foam, and while it may take a little longer, it isn’t much more complex than using any of the other methods.
Let’s start by looking at two more relatively simple ways: the blender and the hand mixer.
How Do You Make Cold Foam in a Blender?
If you’re using a blender to make cold foam, pour your ingredients into the blender cup and start blending. You’ll want to start at the lowest speed and gradually work your way up to the highest. Once the milk is all smooth, creamy, and fluffy, it’s ready to serve.
How Do You Make Cold Foam With a Hand Mixer?
Using the handheld mixer to make cold foam is almost precisely the same as using the blender. The only real difference is in quantity and that you have to be a little more careful. (The hand mixer can be a lot messier than the blender since there’s no lid.)
Even so, if you’re making a smaller batch of foam, you may want to use the mixer. It’s easier to clean than the blender. Unless you already have your blender sitting out, ready for use, it’s a pain in the butt to dig it out for one cup of caffeinated yumminess.
Again, be sure you start with the mixer on the lowest setting. Otherwise, you’ll throw milk all over your kitchen. The longer you mix it, the foamier it’ll get. As that happens, you can increase the mixer’s speed.
How Do You Make Cold Foam in a Jar?
This method isn’t my favorite one to make cold foam, but if you’re in a pinch and don’t have any of the other items I’ve outlined above, then you can use a jar to make it.
You don’t need any particular type of jar—any container with a tightly sealable lid will work. Pour your ingredients into it, put the top on tightly, and begin shaking it as vigorously as possible.
It takes a good one to two minutes to get the milk to start foaming up, which is why I’m not too fond of this method.
It takes longer, and it’s likely to make your arm start hurting after a while, but if you have no other options, this is how you can make it.
What Ingredients Do You Need To Make Cold Foam?
Honestly, all you really need to make cold foam is milk, preferably 2%, 1%, or skim, as they turn out the best foam. However, you can use other ingredients if you wish for something sweeter or look for a specific flavor variation.
For example, if you want to make vanilla cold foam, you can use milk and a bit of vanilla syrup or vanilla extract. Additionally, you can add a dash of sugar to your milk to make the foam sweeter.
If you’re looking for a delicious, more decadent foam, try using half 2% milk, half heavy whipping cream, and a dash of sugar. It’s thick, creamy, sweet, and supremely foamy, one of my favorite ways to make it. But, of course, you could also use half-and-half and sugar instead.
Can You Make Cold Foam With a Creamer?
You can absolutely make cold foam with coffee creamer! That’s one of the easiest ways to make it if you’re looking for flavored cold foam.
Because coffee creamer comes in all different flavors, you can use it to make a wide variety of flavored cold foam options, including hazelnut, caramel macchiato, and toasted marshmallow mocha.
You can make the foam using any of the methods listed above; just be sure you don’t fill anything over halfway full because the cream will nearly double in size once it becomes foam.
Other Cold Foam Ingredients
Other ways to make cold foam include using the following ingredient combinations:
- Heavy cream, 2% milk, vanilla bean, simple syrup, salt
- Skim milk, kosher salt, maple syrup
- Sweetened condensed milk, heavy whipping cream, vanilla extract
- Heavy cream, golden latte mix
- Skim milk, honey syrup, salt
Any of these combinations will help you make delicious, fluffy cold foam.
Starbucks Copycat Cold Foam Recipe
Generally, Starbucks uses something they call Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Foam on their drinks. If that’s the cold foam you’re hoping to make, you can use this recipe, which I originally discovered on Grounds to Brew.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup (250 mL) heavy cream
- ½ cup (125 mL) 2% milk
- 6 tablespoons (90 mL) vanilla syrup
Instructions:
- Start by making the vanilla sweet cream by pouring all the ingredients into a jar or bottle.
- Using ½ cup (125 mL) of the cream at a time, turn the cream into cold foam using one of the above methods.
Is Cold Foam Just Whipped Cream?
Authentic cold foam is not whipped cream. Whipped cream is, unsurprisingly, a cream-based product.
Cold foam, on the other hand, is a milk-based product. So your cold foam could look and taste quite similar to whipped cream, but the two are pretty different depending on the ingredients you use.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, this article gave you plenty of ideas on how to make the fluffiest, tastiest cold foam imaginable. No matter which ingredients you add and which tool you use, it’s a relatively easy thing to make.
