How to Make Fluffy, Cloudlike Cold Foam at Home

Sorry to the old-school cappuccino heads out there, but cold foam is here to stay. What might’ve at first seemed like a gimmicky new way to sell photo-savvy caffeine parfaits to teens has become an established part of the coffee shop industrial complex. Why? Because people appreciate a little softness with their cold-brew coffee; a pillowy complement for an otherwise hyperconcentrated stimulant salvo in a cup.

Starbucks typically gets credit for popularizing cold foam in 2018, but other chains and indie espresso shops quickly caught on. So, too, did the extensive list of online resources offering copycat cold foam recipes and other methods on how to make cold foam at home.

In an attempt to consolidate the popular knowledge online, I, with the help of a few coworkers, conducted a comprehensive test of the most common cold foam making methods, and tested how well a wide range of dairy and nondairy milks actually foam up. I also aimed to answer some of the most frequently asked questions about cold foam online.

What is cold foam exactly?

Cold foam is a light and frothy milk-based topping typically served over cold brew, iced coffee, or iced tea. Unlike the hot steamed foam you’d find on a latte or cappuccino, cold foam is made by vigorously aerating milk using a blender, special frothing device, or a French press or by simply shaking milk in a jar. The ideal cold foam is both fluffy and pourable; it seeps gradually into your preferred coffee drink or iced beverage over time. It adds a sumptuous, creamy texture to any beverage, and often doubles as a vehicle for sweeteners and flavorings—see Starbucks vanilla sweet cream cold foam and pumpkin cream cold brew as some well-known examples.  

Is cold foam just whipped cream?

No! Although they do have some similarities, scientifically speaking. Both are colloidal suspensions of air and dairy, but they form under very different circumstances. Cold foam forms when cold milk is agitated enough that tiny air particles are suspended in an elastic network of proteins. Fats, in this instance, will weigh down this elastic suspension, and cause the foam to deflate faster. It’s the same reason that egg whites can’t form stiff peaks with the presence of fat. But wait, doesn’t whipped cream need fat in order to have structure? Yes, but, whipped cream requires a lot more force and air—enough to denature the stable lipid membrane encasing the fat globules and encourage the particles to coalesce around air molecules.

Which milk makes the best cold foam? 

We compared nonfat milk, 2% milk, whole milk, half-and-half, heavy cream, and coffee creamer to test how each frothed. For dairy-free milks, we included almond milk, oat milk, and soy milk, as well as special barista blends and whipping cream substitutes to see how much of a difference added stabilizers and gums made. We also tested whether adding sweeteners or flavorings, like simple syrup or vanilla extract, had any impact on how well the milks foamed.

Our test confirmed the available conventional wisdom online, which is that cold foam made from skim milk is generally the best: It flattens into liquid the slowest and has the smoothest texture and mouthfeel. As mentioned earlier, fat molecules weigh down frothed milk foam—which gets its structure from the proteins in milk—and cause the foam to collapse faster.

This isn’t to say that you can’t use milk with a higher fat percentage to make cold foam, you just shouldn’t expect the same structure and longevity. While we found that electric milk frothers are often too weak to produce a sturdy whole milk foam, we did have success with the French press method. An immersion blender also works great, but felt a little extreme. You could also try a sweetener with an added stabilizer, like gum syrup, to get a more desirable result.

With store-bought nondairy milks, the foaming capabilities depended on whether or not they included stabilizers, regardless of the type of milk. Look for “barista blends,” which typically have added thickeners in the product specifically for the purpose of making hot or cold foam. We wouldn’t really recommend heavy cream substitutes for cold foam—they have so many stabilizers in them that they achieve a firm, whipped structure in a matter of seconds. The result is more like a whipped cream than a cold foam.

The best tool for making cold foam

We tested the most common methods discussed online for making cold foam and discovered that each technique has its own set of pros and cons. 

There are several specialty electric milk frothers available online that can make both hot and cold foam at home, but they’ll set you back forty bucks or more. Many foam lovers on our staff love the Nespresso Aeroccino. The most significant advantage to using a frothing machine like this one is how hands-off it is. All you need to do is pour the milk in and press a button. I tested the Spinn foam maker, which was impressively silent, but it was really only suitable for cold-frothing skim milk.

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Spinn Milk Frother

$99

Amazon

You've likely seen these little gadgets that look like tiny immersion blenders. The frothing method here is basically the same as with a countertop frothing machine, just way less expensive. Plus, the method allows for more control over the amount of time you froth. The downside is that you have to hold it in your hand the entire time.

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Powerful Handheld Milk Frother

$10 $8 (20% off)

Amazon

I hate to inform you that this method produced the richest, most velvety foam out of any of the ones we tested, because it requires a lot of undignified sloshing, and a greater volume of milk than the other methods because the plunger of a French press does not reach all the way to the bottom of the vessel. Still, the end result was easily the best texture, and this method was also the only one that produced truly satisfactory foam out of whole milk. 

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Bodum Chambord French Press

$30

Target

$40

Amazon

Would you like to do the most work and receive the worst result? Then use the ol’ jar. The problem here is that there isn’t anything inside the jar to assist in the aeration apart from the jostling of the milk itself. If you are truly in desperate need of foam and you don’t mind a work out, go for it. But if you want cold foam to be a regular feature of your iced coffee drink ritual, one of the other products above is definitely worth it. 

How long does cold foam last? 

This will vary based on the method and type of milk, but we found that well-frothed nonfat milk foam maintains a fluffy and consistent cap over an iced latte for roughly 30 minutes and slightly less over hot drinks. After that, the foam will start to sink and deflate, and will appear slightly pock-marked from the popped bubbles. You will quickly get a sense of how resilient your cold foam is as soon as you stop frothing it. The finer the bubbles, the longer it will last.

What happens if you make cold foam and then store it in the fridge? It will just go back to being milk. Cold foam is really an à la minute sort of drink topping.