How To Make Cold Foam Like Starbucks

To know how to make cold foam like the ones in Starbucks is such a dream. Making cold coffee instead of placing ice in a hot cup is a pleasant experience. But why limit yourself to only ice?

It works well with various frosty brew coffees and other iced coffees. You can add the cold foam to make it more intriguing.

Because of its light, airy texture, cold foam is a good topping for iced coffee. It will give your coffee brew a coolish finish. The foam has a texture and consistency comparable to whipped cream, and it’s easy to manufacture at home.

Because of that, it will melt very fast if you put it as a topping of hot drink.

I have prepared for you some simple methods for making cold foam at home.

I hope you like them.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. What Is Cold Foam?
2. How To Make Cold Foam At Home Like Starbucks?
   • Choose The Best Milk For Cold Foam
   • Prepare The Needed Tools For Cold Foam
   • Recipe
3. Starbucks Cold Foam Drinks
4. Expert Tips
5. F.A.Q.

What Is Cold Foam?

Cold foam is a foamy topping for frosty coffee beverages, including iced coffee, iced cappuccinos, and nitro coffee (frothed nonfat milk). It imitates the frothy steamed milk topping of a latte or cappuccino. That is done at a lower temperature not to melt when it lands in the drink.

Cold foam rests above a thick, frothy drink and settles in as you sip it. It just adds a few calories.

That is because of the nonfat milk, but the moderately sweet crema topping adds a lot of texture! I am suspicious of most trends around here, but this one is delightful.

How To Make Cold Foam At Home Like Starbucks?

Starbucks makes cold foam with nonfat milk and a specific mixer to produce a silky smooth, textured foam with tiny bubbles.

In addition, there are flavored icy foams made with heavy cream. The flavors include salted caramel cream, vanilla sweet cream, and seasonal pumpkin cream cold foams. If you are wondering, you can check my recipe in the blog. You can customize it every time!

Matcha cold foam, strawberry cold foam (strawberry puree sauce blended with cold foam), or pumpkin spice cold foam are all great options for topping your drink.

You can add it to most of the iced beverages at Starbucks for an additional fee. You can also try one of the best Starbucks cold foam drinks.

There are a few steps that you can follow to make the perfect cold foam at home.

Choose the Best Milk For Cold Foam

We often use milk in the coffee industry, not least because of its well-known capacity to produce stable foams for coffee beverages. Several milk components are vital in the formation of sustained foams. Other popular dairy products, such as cheese, yogurt, ice cream, and dairy beverages, may be made with the same components.

Milk fat and milk proteins are essential for making stable milk foams with suitable texture and stability.

Milk proteins help to keep air bubbles in milk foams steady.

Milk fat destabilizes foams while also providing flavor, making things more difficult.

Stable milk foams are thus the result of a delicate balance between the favorable foaming capabilities of milk proteins and the destabilizing milk fat.

Fat

Cow’s milk includes 4-5% fat, made up of a complex variety of lipids.

Milk fat globules range from 0.1 to 10 Вµm and contain triglyceride core.

Proteins, phospholipids, and additional glycerides in milk form a membrane. This natural milk-fat-globule barrier shields the milk fat from oxidation or breakdown by enzymes, resulting in off-flavors in the milk.

Proteins

Caseins and whey proteins, which are present on the surface of fat globules in homogenized milk, are two kinds of proteins.

Caseins account for 80% of the 3-4% protein in cow’s milk. These proteins are in the form of 100-200 nm particles known as casein micelles. Thousands of casein molecules, calcium phosphate, and water make up these casein micelles.

On the other hand, whey proteins compose around 20% of the total protein in milk. We can find them as single proteins or tiny aggregates. However, when milk is heated, substantial aggregation of whey proteins can occur. Commercial pasteurization reduces these effects. However, UHT treatment and sterilization cause widespread clumping of whey proteins, resulting in increased viscosity.

Homogenization

Milk is half-and-half to reduce the tendency of milk fat globules to cream. Due to the reduced density of milk fat, creaming occurs.

Homogenization delays the creaming process by lowering the size of fat globules. That is happening by passing it through a tiny valve at high pressure, causing the fat globules to be disturbed. As a result, the total surface area of fat globules increases, and the absorption of milk proteins by the surface of fat globules happens.

Temperature

While milk foams are richer than skim milk foams, they are often less stable. However, that depends on the foaming process used and the qualities of the milk.

Because of the crystalline structure of milk fat, the shift instability varies when the temperature of the milk changes.

Fat globules that have partially solidified, such as those seen at temperatures below 40 degrees Celsius, are more prone to break during foam production. Ruptured fat globules in the ensuing foam disseminate lipids throughout the surface of air bubbles, speeding up coalescence.

Whole milk foam created at 20-30В°C will only be stable for a few minutes, but when prepared at 50В°C, it will be just as steady as skim milk. As a result, unless you add chemicals to assist stabilization of the foam and prevent the fat from rupturing, whole milk is not a satisfying carrier for a stable cold foam.

Skim milk foams produced by cold agitation and steam injection are both stable. They can stay steady for more than an hour. During that time, the air bubbles somewhat increase, and the quantity of liquid beneath the foam rises, but the foam’s height remains unchanged. That makes skim milk foams ideal for lattes and cappuccinos. It’s because, while the overall amount of foam in the drink drops while it sits, the appearance of the foam on top does not.

Prepare The Needed Tools For Cold Foam

If you’re using milk, whole milk is the best option. If you’re going dairy-free, a dairy-free cream or carton of coconut milk works fantastic! For making the cold foam there are three types of equipment that you can use.

Hand Frother – For this alternative, you can use a portable milk frother. It’s affordable and easy to use.

French press – It is another alternative and maybe one of my favorite ways.

Milk Frothers are more pricey, but I believe they are worth it if you use them every day instead of buying coffee from a coffee shop!

If you want to add a little flavor, then learn more about how to make sweet cream cold foam.

Surprise, you can use and a resealable jar. We all have one of these at home.

Recipe

But how to make cold foam for coffee at home?

This delicacy to top all your homemade iced coffees and cold brews are simple to make: and incredibly spectacular!

The preparation time is 2 minutes.

The ingredients you will need are:

• 1/3 cup half & half;
• two teaspoons sugar (or one tablespoon simple syrup).

Making cold foam with a handheld mixer

Because you obtain bigger, irregular bubbles with this method, it’s the second-best way. But a portable milk frother is easier to clean than a French press.

Using a handheld milk frother, whisk together half and half and sweetness.

To make fluffy cold foam, it should take around 20 seconds.

On top of an iced beverage, pour cool foam.

Cold foam made with a milk frother

If you have a milk frother at home, such as a Nespresso attachment for your coffee machine, you’ll have milk froth in no time.

To get started, you’ll need the following items:

• Milk frother with available cold foam option.
• Low-fat milk, 1/2 cup (0.12 l)

Most milk frothers include the option to cold foam the milk, which is just what you want. It’s better to utilize another milk foam technique if your milk frother doesn’t offer this choice.

1. Fill the milk frother container with cold milk.
2. The milk frother usually has a line that indicates how much liquid you should add. If you go above this line, the milk you get will be less than ideal, so make sure you keep it below the line.
3. If you’re using a Nespresso milk frother, hold and push the button for a few seconds until the small light goes blue. That suggests you’re using the cold foam option.
4. Allow the machine to do its duty and then wait for it to finish. You’ll have delightfully frothy milk on your hands.

That approach is excellent if you need to make milk foam quickly to top your cold brew.

Making cold foam with a French press

The first of two approaches that do not require the usage of a frother is this one. Instead, it employs a French press coffee maker. It only goes to show how adaptable a French press can be. To prepare the foam with a French press, you’ll need the following ingredients:

• A press made in France
• Low-fat milk, 1/2 cup (0.12 l)

First, use the amount of milk given above to generate a fair amount of cool foam. It’ll make enough for two glasses. You can increase the amount of milk used if you intend on preparing extra cups of coffee.

1. Fill a clean French press beaker halfway with cold milk.
2. On top of it, place the plunger and press down.
3. You start making tiny air bubbles by pressing up and down on the French press plunger.
4. Continue to whisk until a lovely thick frothy milk layer forms. For me, it usually takes between 30 and 45 seconds, but it all depends on how much milk you want to create.
5. Also, make sure to clean your French press afterward.

Making cold foam with a jar

If you don’t have any of the following tools, you may make cold foam with a resealable jar. For this approach, you may, for example, use a mason jar.

You might also use a resealable storage jar as I do. An empty well-cleaned jam jar is another option. It doesn’t have to be the most attractive to be effective.

To get started, you’ll need the following tools and ingredients:

• Choice of a resealable jar
• Low-fat milk, 1/2 cup (0.12 l)

The best part about using this jar is that you can easily scoop the foam out of it rather than having to transfer it from your blender to a suitable cup. To produce the foam, follow these steps:

1. Fill your container halfway with chilled milk.
2. Put the cover back on.
3. Begin shaking vigorously until a large number of foam forms. That is approximately the minute mark, according to my calculations.
4. Remove the lid from the jar once it’s fully fluffed, and start utilizing your freshly created foam!

That is the simplest method for creating cold foam at home. You may also use it to prepare a variety of excellent coffee beverages, including iced coffees. It’s incredible!

Starbucks Cold Foam Drinks

With the opening of their Reserve Roastery in Seattle in 2014, Starbucks introduced cold foam.

The original topping for the Americano Con Crema drink was a thick dollop of coffee-spiced froth. For 50 cents, Starbucks now provides it as a topping.

We can decide between a variety of beverages.

The following are some Starbucks cold foam drinks:

• Iced brews
• Cold brews with nitro
• Lattes with ice
• Iced Mochas 
• Iced Cappuccinos 
• Espresso iced
• Iced chai tea latte, iced London Fog tea latte, or iced matcha tea latte
• Dragon drink, violet drink, or pink drink

Note that you can order almost every chilly drink at Starbucks with Cold Foam on top. Just talk to the barista before that. Some of the drinks have whipped cream or very high acid, which is not a good combination for the foam.

This winter (2021), Starbucks has announced several new drinks. You can find them among the best hot Starbucks drinks.

Expert Tips

1. The goal is to achieve tiny, uniform bubbles that don’t seem like bubbles. That is something that the French press performs better than the portable milk frother.
2. The French press produces great cold foam, but cleaning it is painful. Even though the portable milk frother is easier to clean than a French press, the cold foam isn’t as smooth due to the enormous bubbles. However, they both taste delicious and add silky froth to your iced beverage.
3. Make sure the French press isn’t overflowing. The cold foam can increase double or triple in volume. So keep that in mind when you pour the half-and-half into the French press.
4. Check to see whether the French press isn’t too empty. For air to enter the filter, that can happen by immersing it in half-and-half.

F.A.Q.

How do you make cold foam with a blender?

1. Fill the blender cup halfway with cold low-fat milk.
2. Place the cup onto the blender.
3. Turn on the blender and slowly increase its speed.
4. When the cold foam is ready, stop the blender.

What is Starbucks cold foam?

The Starbucks Cold Foam is frothed cold and blended with low-fat milk until it becomes smooth and creamy.

Can I make cold foam without a frother or French press?

Yes, you can use a resealable jar. Fill the jar halfway with milk. Close it with the cap and start shaking it. Do this until it forms a smooth and creamy texture.

What drinks can I add cold foam to?

Because the foam is cold, you can use it as a topping only on cold drinks. If you try to put it on a hot drink it will melt very fast.

Final Words

So, what’s the big deal with cold foam? That’s how fantastic it is. You’ve seen this trend at Starbucks recently, and let me tell you, any culinary trend makes us nervous. But this one stands the test of time!

The answer to a whipped topping for iced coffee beverages is cold foam, and it’s scrumptious. Without containing too many calories, the creamy topping adds the right amount of frothy appeal. Even better, it’s something you can prepare at home!

Did you test the recipe? Please share with me your way of preparing 🙂