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    Home » Drinks » Starbucks Sweet Cream Cold Foam Recipe

    Starbucks Sweet Cream Cold Foam Recipe

    March 27, 2021 by Carolyn 6 Comments

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    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.

    an iced coffee with sweet cream cold foam

    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.

    Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. In other words, if you click a link and purchase something I will receive a commission at no cost to you. I only recommend products I use and enjoy myself.

    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

    ingredients for sweet cream cold foam

    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

    cold brew with sweet cream cold foam

    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

    a jar of heavy cream, vanilla, and milk

    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.

    a jar of vanilla sweet cream cold foam

    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.

    sweet cream cold foam with an immersion blender

    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!

    a cup of vanilla sweet cream cold foam

    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.

    a bowl of starbucks sweet cream cold foam

    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

    What is the difference between cold foam and sweet cream at Starbucks?

    Cold foam is simply frothed milk with vanilla syrup. It's much lighter than sweet cream cold foam, and tastes more like a foam. Sweet cream cold foam is made with heavy cream, milk and vanilla syrup. It's also frothed but tastes more like a softly whipped cream!

    Is sweet cream cold foam the same as whipped cream?

    Nope! Whipped cream is made with heavy whipping cream and vanilla syrup. It is whipped to stiff peaks, which means it holds its shape! Sweet cream cold foam is very similar but it also has milk in it. The addition of milk prevents the cream from whipping to stiff peaks.

    Delicious desserts that go excellent with coffee

    • Triple Berry Crisp with Oat Crumble
    • Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
    • Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
    cold brew with vanilla sweet cream cold foam

    How to make Starbucks Sweet Cream Cold Foam

    Carolyn
    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 recipe to satisfy all your cold brew and iced coffee dreams. This recipe makes enough for 2 coffees.
    5 from 6 votes
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    Prep Time 5 mins
    Cook Time 0 mins
    Course Drinks
    Cuisine American
    Servings 2
    Calories 150 kcal

    Equipment

    • Immersion blender or if you don't have one a glass jar with a tightly fitting lid

    Ingredients
      

    • 2 oz. Heavy cream (4 tbsp)
    • 1 oz. Vanilla syrup (2 tbsp)
    • 1 oz. 2% Milk (2 tbsp)

    Instructions
     

    • Measure all the ingredients in a tall cup, use an immersion blender to blend all three ingredients until thick and foamy. An electric milk frother works too!
    • Pour immediately on to cold brew or iced coffee. Enjoy.

    If you don't have an immersion blender:

    • Measure all three ingredients into a jar with a tightly fitting lid. Shake the jar really well until the mixture turns thick and creamy. Use immediately.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 150kcal
    Keyword coffee
    Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Ashley VonderBecke

      April 27, 2021 at 1:39 am

      5 stars
      Immersion blender for the win!

      Reply
    2. TIffany

      April 27, 2021 at 1:42 am

      5 stars
      Who knew Starbucks would offer up recipes haha. I have attempted to make this in the past to no avail. I’m not sure if it was my ingredients (pretty sure I left out heavy cream... whoops) or the fact that I used a blender. Either way, I’m happy to have a sure fire way to get it to work. I will be using this for my summer cold brews. Thanks for posting!

      Reply
      • Ansley

        May 01, 2021 at 1:26 am

        5 stars
        Gosh your coffee is killer! Thanks for the delicious pick-me-up!

        Reply
    3. Lois

      April 27, 2021 at 2:12 am

      5 stars
      We are about to get a new espresso machine and my husband loves his sweet cream cold brew. Can't wait to try this.

      Reply
    4. Jane

      September 05, 2021 at 12:02 pm

      5 stars
      Love this!! Made a couple of modifications due to what I had at home. I could not find any syrup that wasn't sugar free so I used a little drizzle of coffee caramel and instead of milk I used my creamer. Still turned out just like the Starbucks foam I love!! 🤗

      Reply
      • Carolyn

        September 07, 2021 at 3:46 am

        Wow, that's great!! Thanks for sharing what you used!

        Reply

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    Hi! I'm Carolyn

    Hi I'm Carolyn - Coffee Drinker, Mom, Celiac. I found out 5 years ago I had Celiac Disease and after a few tearful goodbyes I gave wheat the boot. Now I love to create incredible gluten free recipes anyone can enjoy! about me!

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