Iced coffee is back to being a daily staple with warmer weather, and it’s always a good idea to have lots of ways to spice up your iced coffee routine. One way to create a new drink is to learn how to make cold foam toppings for your cold brew or iced lattes! Vanilla sweet cream cold foam is a warm-weather staple and you’ll be creating amazing drinks in no time topped with this delicate and fluffy cold foam.
Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Foam at Home
This coffee shop favorite is a thick, fluffy foam that is a perfect topping to iced coffee or cold brew. While drinking the coffee, the perfectly sweet cold foam melts down into the coffee, adding a rich and creamy finish to strong coffee. You might think vanilla sweet cream cold foam would be difficult to make at home, but it’s surprisingly easy to make and doesn’t really require any special equipment.
What You’ll Need to Make Cold Foam
First, you will need both milk and cream to make vanilla sweet cream cold foam. To achieve a close replica to barista-style cold foam, you’ll need 2% milk and heavy cream. This mixture of milk and cream ensures a good fat content and a great texture, resulting in a smooth and thick foam reminiscent of melting ice cream.
Next, you’ll need vanilla syrup. Coffee syrup is the best option here, since it can be used in both coffee drinks and to make cold foam. The sugar in the syrup helps to act as a binder, creating a fluffy foam that is perfectly sweet, and it is already melted down to liquid form so the cold foam will not be grainy. Since the vanilla syrup is clear, it won’t tint the cold foam the way vanilla extract would.
Making the cold foam can vary based on the equipment you have available to you. There are a few methods to making the cold foam: using a high-powered blender, using a handheld battery-powered foaming whisk, or using a handheld whisk. Each method has its virtues: a handheld whisk is something every household has, but will take longer and will not be as fluffy as the barista version, a battery-powered foaming whisk will create a great texture and is the perfect “fast” method and creates very little mess, but to get the closest result to barista-style vanilla sweet cream cold foam, you’ll want to use a high-powered blender. A blender creates the best whipped texture, and it is a very fast method!
You can also use other styles of blenders, such as an immersion blender, a smoothie-style blender, or even a stand or handheld mixer. Creating cold foam is easy and can be adapted to whatever equipment you have on hand.
How to Make Cold Foam
You’ll need:
- ½ cup of 2% milk
- 1 cup of heavy cream (whipping cream is the same thing!)
- 6 Tablespoons vanilla coffee syrup
Mix the milk, cream, and coffee syrup together in a jar. Refrigerate the mixture, and pour just what you need at a time into a bowl, cup, or blender, depending on the method you’ll be using.
For a blender, pulse the mixture until it becomes fluffy and foamy, but don’t whip to stiff peaks. You aren’t going for a whipped cream texture, but rather a soft and pourable foam.
Using a handheld battery-powered foaming whisk, move the whisk up and down in the vanilla sweet cream cold foam until a fluffy foam begins to form. A frothing pitcher used for frothing milk for lattes works exceptionally well to hold the sweet cream mixture while frothing it, and has a pour spout to make adding the finished vanilla sweet cream cold foam to your coffee.
How to Use Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Foam
The resulting vanilla sweet cream cold foam is excellent on many coffee drinks, and even for other types of iced drinks! Top cold brew or an iced coffee with the cold foam, or even your favorite iced latte. Contrast an iced mocha with the soft vanilla foam. This vanilla sweet cream cold brew is also delicious atop an iced matcha latte.
Keep a pitcher of homemade cold brew coffee in your fridge to quickly create a great iced coffee, and top it with your homemade vanilla sweet cream cold foam! Our dark roast cold brew is a perfect complement to the delicate sweetness of the cold foam and comes in packs for easy brewing.
Other Variations of Cold Foam
Create a dairy-free version of the vanilla sweet cream cold foam by replacing the 2% milk with almond milk and the heavy cream with dairy-free creamer or coconut milk. You may need to adjust the cream to milk ratio if you are using coconut milk, as coconut milk is very thick and hardens up in the fridge. Make the cold foam the same way you would normally.
You can also experiment with other flavors in the cold foam. Nutty flavors work well, as well as coconut, or even cinnamon. You can match the cold foam flavor to your favorite iced coffee flavor to enhance the taste.
Elevate Your Iced Coffee At Home!
Once you know how to make vanilla sweet cream cold foam at home, you can always keep it on hand to add delicious and decadent cold foam to your favorite iced coffee! Keep a jar of vanilla sweet cream cold foam in your fridge next to your favorite cold brew and you’ll always be moments away from a great cup of iced coffee!
