How To Make Cold Foam At Home Like Pro Barista!

Last updated on October 26th, 2023 at 16:40

When you learn how to make cold foam at home like a professional barista, you can and will end up saving a small fortune as you will make it better and more delicious than the version that you get at Starbucks.

A nice little side effect is your home can become a cool hang out for your friends as they want one of your great coffees with cold foam topping.

How To Make Cold Foam At Home

When you read this article attentively you will learn how to make cold foam at home for a number of different coffee drinks and have a list of drinks that it goes well with over and beyond just adding it to cold brew coffee and iced coffee.

You’ll also see just how easy it is to make with a frother and with various items that you already have in your kitchen cupboard.

Read: Coconut milk cold foam

What Is Cold Foam?

Cold foam is a frothy topping that you see on cold coffee drinks like cold brew, iced coffee, nitro cold brew coffee and iced cappuccinos at Starbucks and your local gourmet coffee shop. The frothy topping is made with nonfat milk and simulates the frothy topping that you get with steamed milk used on a latte.

Cold foam is designed to sit on top of your coffee and create a lovely and delicious two-tier drink where you get the flavor of the cold foam (if flavored) texture and the coffee together.

You are not supposed to mix it into your drink but enjoy the sweet cream topping.

What Is The Best Milk For Making Cold Foam

Even though the first thought of nice thick and creamy foam is to use whole milk or heavy cream even though they do work and make great cold foam they are not the best. Despite some experts loving the use of skim milk or non-fat milk as it is known, that creates the best quality of cold foam in terms of foam, creaminess, taste and stability of the cold foam.

Non-fat milk works perfectly due to the higher percentage of protein when compared to other types of milk.

This is in stark contrast to steamed milk where whole fat milk makes both the best steamed milk and foamed milk. With these types of milk a high fat content is needed to protect the bubbles and ensure they are small and not too large and provide you with the perfect canvas and texture for latte art.

The alternative milk for making cold foam and getting fluffy milk foam is coconut milk. It’s a three-way tie with almond milk and oat milk. Soy milk can also be used but in my opinion it doesn’t make cold foam as well as the other three.

(If you are curious, the best of the best alternative milks is coconut milk).

If you see a cold foam recipe listing heavy cream or whole fat milk, switch it out for skim milk!

Read: How to make starbucks cold foam

How To Make Cold Foam At Home With Frother

To be clear, I’ll not only detail how to make cold foam at home with frother I’ll also detail how you can make it without an electric milk frother using some item that you already have.

Let’s get to the ingredients.

Ingredients For Making Cold Foam At Home

Okay, let’s get to the ingredients that you will need for making cold foam at home.

Milk Or Alternative Milk Of Your Choice

As I have already mentioned, non-fat, skim milk is the best due to the high percentage of protein than other milks. Coconut milk and almond milk as well as oat milk are great choices. These are all better than heavy cream and half-and-half cream.

Fresh cold milk is best. Ensure that the milk that you choose is nice and cold.

The Sweetener Of Your Choice

At Latte Love Brew we highly recommend that use of simple syrup as a sweetener or a liquid alternative or equivalent such as agave or liquid stevia. Using liquid sweeteners provides a more even distribution of sweetness in your coffee, milk and toppings. Liquid sweeteners have the advantage of leaving no residue.

You can easily make your own by using the sweetener of your choice and dissolving it in a 50% sweetener and 50% water solution and heating gently and stir well as it dissolves.

Honey and maple syrup are great options too.

Read: How to make cold foam

Vanilla Extract Or Vanilla Pod

If you love vanilla syrup, you can of course use that or make your own homemade vanilla syrup. All that is needed is a vanilla extract or using a vanilla pod.

A fresh vanilla pod is best as you can get quite exotic and use French vanilla or Madagascar vanilla pod. Simply use two and slice them. Add them to your sugar (or alternative sweetener) and water mix and stir well while your sweetener is dissolving.

Let your solution simmer for 40 to 45 min at a low heat. Leave your solution to cool before transferring to a container. Let it extract for 12 to 24 hours and then filter out your vanilla pods using a cheesecloth. You may need to filter two or three times to remove all residue.

Adding vanilla to this cold foam formula will turn it into that tasty vanilla sweet cream cold foam you see at Starbucks.

How To Make Cold Foam At Home With A Frother Or Without A Frother

Making cold foam at home with a frother or without a frother is easy. As long as you have gathered the ingredients, you can make it at home as long as you have at least some tool in your kitchen that will work well.

Milk Frother

Obviously this is the easiest and most convenient way of making your cold foam. It’s also the fastest. A good quality electric handheld milk frother will cost less than US$30 online or from all major retail outlets.

Add your ingredients into a bowl, mix well and transfer to a tall glass for frothing. Insert your milk frother to the bottom and froth for about a minute while moving your wand from bottom to top to evenly mix and distribute the ingredients.

When you have the required consistency, stop frothing and pour onto your cold brew coffee. If you need to pour it over the back of a tablespoon to diffuse your pour.

Immersion Blender

By all means, an immersion blender is like a larger version of a handheld milk frother. Use the same method and technique as above.

Regular Blender

A regular countertop blender is usually too big to use unless you want to make a large batch. A smaller smoothie blender is perfect too. Add your ingredients to the pitcher and blend at a high speed for a minute and then pour your cold foam onto your cold brew coffee or iced coffee over the back of a tablespoon.

Manual Hand Pump Milk Frother Or French Press

Both these pieces of coffee equipment work in the same manner. If you find yourself using your French press regularly to make cold foam, frothy foam milk for your coffee drinks, it will be worth it to invest in a manual hand pump milk frother.

The results are slightly better with a manual hand pump milk frother, and you will save your French press from wear and tear.

While you can add the ingredients and use your French press, personally I notice you get better results if you take the extra step and effort to use a bowl and mix your ingredients properly before you add the mix to your French press.

Fill your French press to no more than a third to half full. Close the lid and pump the plunger for 45 seconds to a minute until the solution expands to twice the volume.

Pour onto your coffee drink. Diffuse over a tablespoon if needed.

A Manual Balloon Whisk

A manual balloon whisk is easy to use and perhaps requires the most effort and makes the most mess. Add your ingredients to a wide brimmed bowl and mix well with a hand whisk with vigor and energy for a minute or two until you get the consistency required.

Pour your solution onto your coffee beverage and diffuse it while pouring if you need to.

Cocktail Shaker Or Mason Jar

Start by adding your ingredients to a bowl and mixing them, and then transferring to an ice-cold cocktail shaker or mason jar for a better quality foam. Close the lid and shake well for 45 seconds to a minute.

Making The Cold Foam

To make your cold foam it is very easy. Follow the ingredient list amounts and ratios as indicated below:

• 1 teaspoon of liquid sweetener like simple syrup or vanilla syrup.
• 1/4 cup of non-fat milk or an alternative milk of your choice.
• 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract (or two vanilla pods if you are making your own flavored vanilla syrup).

Add your milk and sweetener to a tall pitcher, jar or tall glass and mix well. Add your handheld frother to your milk solution.

Start to froth your milk and when it starts to thicken and stabilize stop whisking.

Pour your cold foam onto your cold brew or iced latte or iced cappuccino.

Alternatively you can use any one of the methods for creating the cold foam that I have mentioned above if you don’t have a milk frother.

Drinks That Use Cold Foam

There are many beverages that use cold foam, here are some of the best ones:

• Cold Brew Coffee.
• Iced Coffee.
• Iced Latte.
• Iced Cappuccino.
• Iced vanilla latte.
• Iced mocha.
• Iced espresso.
• Iced chai latte.
• Iced white chocolate mocha.

Frequently Asked Questions About How To Make Cold Foam At Home

How Is Cold Foam Made?

Cold foam is frothed dairy milk, or if requested, frothed non-dairy plant or nut based milk like oat milk, coconut milk or almond milk. It’s often sweetened with a pump or two of syrup, with salted caramel and vanilla being popular choices. It’s very similar to steamed milk, with the exception that it is cold.

How Do You Make Cold Foam Stay?

To make cold foam stay and a slightly greater consistency, submerge your milk frother and use your frother for a little longer than you usually would. Froth slowly and evenly moving it through your milk from bottom to top until it is stable and even.

When pouring, pour over the back of a tablespoon to diffuse it.

How Do You Make Cold Foam Without A Machine?

There are many ways in which you can make cold foam without a machine. You can use a French press, a hand pump milk frother, a hand blender, a manual balloon whisk or an ice-cold mason jar.

Is Cold Foam Just Whipped Cream?

No, whipped cream is much thicker and holds its shape perfectly well. Cold foam, and sweet cream cold foam is frothy and more liquid and can easily be poured into your drink, similar to steamed milk.

Can You Make Cold Foam Without A Milk Frother?

Yes, you can make cold foam without the need for a milk frother. Of course a handheld milk frother and immersion blender are the best and easiest ways. You can also use a regular blender, a hand held whisk, a French press, a hand pump milk frother and a mason jar.

What Is Used For Cold Foam?

Cold foam milk is made with nonfat milk or low fat milk. Starbucks style Vanilla sweet cream has vanilla syrup to make it a sweet cream cold foam.

Final Thoughts – How To Make Cold Foam At Home

Learning how to make cold foam at home is fun and I strongly advise that you master making it with a variety of methods and find which is best for you. Plus, you have a back-up method or two when your frother is lost, misplaced or broken.

Which way to make it do you prefer? Do you add your own special ingredient? Find us on Facebook/Meta.