Starbucks Cold Foam Drinks: 10 Best + Secret Drinks

Summer is right around the corner, so it’s time to switch your order. This season, we’re spicing it up with the 10 best Starbucks cold foam drinks, more decadent than plain iced coffees with milk.

If you’ve never had cold foam, but you love frothed milk over your latte, you’re in for a treat. We have more than a few cold foam drink suggestions from Starbucks that might become your new favorites.

Topics Explored

1. What Is Cold Foam?
2. Types of Starbucks Cold Foams
3. Top 10 Starbucks Cold Foam Drinks
4. More Questions

Cold foam originated as a method to satisfy the need for a layered iced coffee that wasn’t a frappucino. Thanks to social media, which is nowadays responsible for almost all popular drinks, avid espresso lovers got their foamy goodness.⁽¹⁾ 

As a result, cold brew and iced lattes finally got their meringue-like topping that holds up!

Types of Starbucks Cold Foams

The best thing about cold foam is the option to have it plain or mixed with flavorings and sweeteners. This allows you to upgrade your regular cold brew without much effort.

Starbucks currently offers plain, salted caramel and vanilla sweet cream cold foam.

Standard Cold Foam

The standard cold foam is a classic frothed cold milk with no additions. It’s a good option for those that don’t want to alter the taste of their coffee too much. 

However, since cold foam uses skim milk, the taste might not be everyone’s preference. It’s more watery and not as creamy as hot foam, which uses whole milk.

Salted Caramel Cream Cold Foam

Salted caramel is a crowd favorite, even in foam form. Starbucks’ salted caramel cream foam is made with vanilla sweet cream and caramel syrup. 

It works wonderfully with a tall glass of cold brew.

Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Foam

Vanilla sweet cream cold foam is rich, creamy, and fragrant, transforming every black coffee into a decadent drink. It’s heavier than plain cold foam since it contains cream besides milk.

Starbucks also provides a recipe for a homemade version, including powdered sugar and vanilla extract.

Top 10 Starbucks Cold Foam Drinks

Starbucks popularized the cold foam, so it’s natural for them to have the best drinks. If you’re wondering which drinks contain cold foam, we’ve selected the best-tasting ones.

Scroll down for the best Starbucks cold foam drinks to drench your thirst. Hint: it’s not only coffees!

1. Vanilla Sweet Cream Nitro

Flavor:

Regular robust cold brew gets a creamier upgrade with the subtly sweet vanilla sweet cream as a topping. This drink includes the nitro cold brew over ice and a layer of vanilla cold foam on top. As the liquids meet, they create a mystical-looking drink.⁽²⁾

2. Iced Butter Cookie Latte (Secret Menu)

Flavor:

The iced butter cookie latte uses the iced chai tea latte as a base with a few swaps. Ask for oat milk instead of regular milk, add hazelnut syrup and vanilla sweet cream cold foam on top. 

It tastes like a butter cookie with a hint of spices and caffeine.

3. Pink Drink with Vanilla Cold Foam

Flavor:

It’s impossible to have missed the Pink Drink craze that’s been going on for the last few years. This drink is essentially a strawberry acai refresher made with coconut milk instead of water and topped with vanilla cold foam. 

It’s refreshing and creamy with an intense fruity flavor.

4. Fluffy Iced Caramel Macchiato

Flavor:

The fluffy iced caramel macchiato is a new take on the cloud macchiato. The base is espresso over ice with milk, vanilla, and caramel syrup. Then it’s topped with double the vanilla cold foam. 

If you’re a fan of the staple drink, you’d love this upgraded version.

5. Salted Caramel Cream Cold Brew

Flavor:

Salted caramel cream turns the plain cold brew into a creamy drink with nuanced flavor.⁽³⁾ The base is simple, cold brew over ice. The topping, however, is made with vanilla sweet cream, milk, vanilla, and caramel syrup.

Although there’s a lot of vanilla, it’s far from overpowering.

6. Extra Foggy London Fog (Secret Menu)

Flavor:

London fog, but make it extra foggy with a dollop of cold foam. Take the base of the London fog, which includes milk, an infusion of lavender, black tea, and bergamot, and top it with cold foam. The fragrant milky drink becomes extra comforting.

7. Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew

Flavor:

It’s easy to get bored of cold brew on its own. Keep the caffeine but change the texture with delicious cold foam.⁽⁴⁾

Add some vanilla syrup to the regular cold brew and top it with vanilla sweet cream foam.

8. Vietnamese Iced Coffee (Secret Menu)

Flavor:

Vietnamese iced coffee uses iced shaken espresso as a base but elevates the bare taste. Add an extra shot of espresso to the base drink and top with extra vanilla cold foam. 

Even espresso purists would love to indulge in this combo!

9. Matcha Pink Drink (Secret Menu)

Flavor:

Pink matcha uses the pink drink, a strawberry acai refresher with coconut milk, and tops it generously with cold foam mixed with a scoop of matcha powder. The end result is a fusion of two contrasting colors with crunchy freeze-dried strawberries floating around.

10. Salted Honey Almond Cold Brew (Secret Menu)

Flavor:

If you want to skip the dairy but still make your cold brew creamier, this is your drink. Start with a cold brew with almond milk and add honey blend. Top it with salted caramel cold cream for some extra creaminess.

Summary

Milky foamy drinks are not meant to be hot only, and cold foam is here to change that. The Starbucks cold foam drinks list is more than tempting, from simple drinks like cold brew to complicated infusions like London Fog. 

If you can’t find something that catches your eye, you still have the option to make your own cold foam drink. We recommend combining the cold foam with lighter drinks, so you get the full creamy effect.

More Questions

Can you add cold foam to any Starbucks drink?

You’re free to add cold foam to any cold drink at Starbucks, from iced tea to coffee. You can’t add it to hot drinks because it will melt right away. 

You also can’t add it to frappucinos since they usually include whipped cream as a topping. Pair the cold foam with something lighter, like an iced macchiato or cold brew.

Is Starbucks cold foam whipped cream?

The cold foam and whipped cream are based on the same idea, but cold foam uses non-fat milk. There’s also a difference in the texture; cold foam has a lighter, airy texture with microbubbles. 

This is primarily due to the low fat content, unlike whipped cream, which has a dense and creamier feel.

Can cold foam be made with almond milk?

You can’t get almond cold foam at Starbucks, but you can try to make it at home. Cold foam keeps up because of the high protein and low fat content, which almond milk can’t replicate.

But if you do decide to make it at home, use barista-style almond milk and be ready for a less stable foam.