Starbucks Sweet Cream Cold Foam Recipe

If you love Starbucks sweet cream cold foam like I do you're in luck because it's a breeze to make! Make this easy Starbucks copycat recipe to satisfy all your cold brew and iced coffee dreams.

To say I love coffee is an understatement. I drink it every morning and afternoon without fail. I prefer to make my coffee at home but occasionally I will treat myself to a Starbucks specialty drink. One of my favorite drinks at Starbucks is a vanilla cold brew with vanilla sweet cream cold foam on top.

This cold foam recipe is an exact copycat of Starbuck's vanilla cold foam.

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Jump to:

• What is sweet cream cold foam?
• Sweet Cream Cold Foam Ingredients
• How to make Starbucks Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Foam at home
• Tips to make the best cold foam:
• Variations
• FAQs
• Delicious desserts that go excellent with coffee
• How to make Starbucks Sweet Cream Cold Foam

What is sweet cream cold foam?

Sweet cream cold foam is a creamy foam made from vanilla syrup, heavy cream, and 2% milk. It's typically poured on top of cold brew, but can be enjoyed on iced coffee and hot coffee too!

Sweet Cream Cold Foam Ingredients

I already knew the three ingredients in Starbucks vanilla sweet cream cold foam were:

1. Vanilla syrup - Sugar and vanilla extract can be used as well, but the upside to vanilla syrup is the sugar is already dissolved into a simple syrup. This means the sugar and vanilla flavor will disperse evenly throughout the sweet cream. It also means the sweet cream cold foam will be silky smooth!
2. Heavy cream - Heavy cream is an essential ingredient to Starbucks sweet cream foam. Without it, the mixture wouldn't whip into a fluffy, creamy foam!
3. 2% Milk - Milk prevents the mixture from getting too stiff. If you only used vanilla and heavy cream, you would just have whipped cream!

Now that I had the ingredients I just needed the perfect ratio! I thought the ratio would be harder to obtain. My first idea was to call and ask my local Starbucks what exactly was in it. I expected some hesitation but instead I was told the exact ratio. Here it is:

• 1 part vanilla syrup
• 2 parts heavy cream
• 1 part 2% Milk

How to make Starbucks Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Foam at home

So the only thing left to do was test out methods. I tested out four and one bested the other three. All of them work though!

1. Blender method
2. Jar method
3. Immersion blender method - The best method with the creamiest foam!
4. Whisk method

Method One - a blender

I started with using what I thought would be the best method because it's what Starbucks seems to use - a blender. Ultimately, there was too much surface area, and although it got foamy, it didn't get thick enough and immediately mixed with the espresso.

In my experience, the best part of sweet cream cold foam is that it's thick enough to linger on the coffee a while before finally mixing into it.

Method Two - A jar

The second method was to measure all the ingredients into a jar and then screw the lid on tightly and shake, shake, shake!

This method worked better than the blender and I would recommend it only if you don't have the tool for method three. The cold foam doubled in size compared to the blender method, but it sunk into the coffee faster than I prefer it to.

Method Three - An immersion blender

Immersion blenders come with a tall plastic cup to blend inside of - make sure to use this. Unlike the blender, the surface area is much smaller and blends the mixture into a much thicker vanilla cold foam.

This method without a doubt worked the best. The cold foam was thick, creamy, and didn't immediately mix into my iced coffee. It was exactly how I love it from Starbucks. An electric milk frother works great too!

Method Four - A bowl and a whisk

The last method I use was a bowl with a whisk. Simply pour the ingredients into a large bowl and whisk, whisk, whisk! While this method works okay, it took a lot of arm strength. Also, the sweet cream cold foam wasn't as thick as the immersion blender.

Tips to make the best cold foam:

• Use cold heavy cream. The fat in the cream stays emulsified longer when it's cold. You can't make stable whipped cream with warm heavy cream. The same idea applies here. We don't want whipped cream but we do want it to thicken up and stay thick for a while.
• Use vanilla syrup. I love kitchen hacks and cheats but in this recipe I would opt for vanilla syrup over sugar. If you don't have vanilla syrup you can buy some online or make it yourself. It's super simple and all you need are equal parts sugar and water plus vanilla extract. Here is a perfect recipe.
• Remember the ratio. This recipe is enough for 2 drinks but you can adjust it as necessary. Want to make sweet cream cold foam cold brews for 4 people? Just double the recipe. Ultimately if you just remember 2 parts heavy cream, 1 part 2% milk, and 1 part vanilla, you're in business.

Variations

Vanilla sweet cream cold foam is easy to customize! Here are a few delicious variations:

• Pumpkin Sweet Cream Cold Foam: Add a tablespoon of pumpkin sauce to the mixture before frothing! Sprinkle the top with pumpkin pie spice.
• Caramel Sweet Cream Cold Foam: Add a tablespoon of caramel sauce to the mixture before frothing.

FAQs

Delicious desserts that go excellent with coffee

• Triple Berry Crisp with Oat Crumble
• Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
• Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies