Cold foam is cold milk and cream aerated until it is thick enough to float on an iced coffee instead of sinking into it. No heat, no steam wand. The fastest home version is 45ml of thickened cream, 30ml of full cream milk and 15ml of syrup, frothed straight from the fridge for about 30 seconds. The version that lasts a whole morning is the same mix charged in a cream whipper.
Almost every cold foam recipe online is American and asks for heavy cream, which Australian supermarkets do not sell. Thickened cream is the swap, and it behaves a little differently because of what is added to it, so the ratios below are written for what you can actually buy here.
The short answer
| What to do | |
|---|---|
| Base | 45ml thickened cream and 30ml full cream milk |
| Sweetener | 15ml vanilla or caramel syrup |
| Temperature | Everything straight out of the fridge |
| Handheld frother | 30 to 45 seconds, wand near the bottom of a tall glass |
| Jar method | Shake hard for about 60 seconds |
| Cream whipper | One 8g nitrous oxide charger per 500ml, shaken and chilled |
| Texture you want | Pourable, like thin custard, not stiff peaks |
| Keeps | Two to three days in the fridge, or the cream’s use-by date if that comes first |
What cold foam actually is
Hot milk froth holds its bubbles because steam changes the proteins in the milk as it heats. Cold foam has no heat to work with, so it leans on two things instead. Protein builds the walls around each bubble, and fat gives the foam enough body to sit still on a cold drink.
That balance is the whole trick. Skim milk on its own will foam up fast and then collapse into the coffee within a minute, because there is nothing holding the structure together. Straight cream goes the other way and turns into whipped cream, which sits on top as a solid lump rather than pouring in a smooth layer. Cream plus milk lands between the two, which is why the standard recipe uses both.
Cold foam floats because it is less dense than the coffee under it. Pour it gently over the back of a spoon onto cold, undiluted coffee and it stays as a separate layer. Pour it fast onto a drink that has warmed up or gone watery from melting ice and it folds straight in.
What to use instead of heavy cream in Australia
American recipes call for heavy cream or heavy whipping cream at around 36 per cent fat. Here is what is on the shelf at Coles and Woolworths and how each one behaves in cold foam.
| Cream | Fat | In cold foam |
|---|---|---|
| Thickened cream | About 35 per cent, with gelatine or vegetable gum added | The easiest swap. The added thickener helps the foam hold its shape for longer. |
| Pure cream | About 35 to 40 per cent, nothing added | Cleaner flavour and a looser foam. Fine, but drink it sooner. |
| Double cream | Around 45 per cent and up | Too rich on its own. Cut it with more milk or save it for dolloping. |
| Full cream milk | About 3.5 per cent | The other half of the mix. It thins the cream out so the foam pours. |
| Barista oat milk | Varies | The best dairy-free option, because the added protein and stabilisers do the same job as cream. |
If you have run into this problem before with an American recipe, our guide to what Cool Whip is and what Australians use instead covers the same gap on the dessert side.
Four ways to make cold foam
| Method | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Jar and a hard shake | One drink, no equipment at all | Takes about a minute of shaking and the foam is coarser |
| Handheld wand frother | One or two drinks, quickest everyday option | Easy to overrun it, which turns the mix grainy |
| Blender or stick blender | Three or four drinks at once | Goes from foam to whipped cream in seconds |
| Cream whipper | A batch that tops drinks all morning or a whole service | Needs a charger and at least half an hour of chill time |
For one iced latte on a Tuesday, a wand frother is hard to beat. The whipper earns its place the moment you are making more than a couple, because you make the foam once and every drink after that gets topped in about two seconds.
How to make cold foam in a cream whipper
This makes enough to top roughly eight to ten drinks. Scale the ratio up or down, but never fill the whipper more than halfway.
- 150ml thickened cream
- 100ml full cream milk
- 50ml vanilla syrup, or two tablespoons of sugar dissolved in a splash of hot water and cooled
- A pinch of salt, optional, which sharpens the sweetness
- Stir everything together until the sugar has fully dissolved. Undissolved sugar sits at the bottom and blocks the nozzle.
- Strain it into a 500ml whipper if you have used anything with pulp or grounds in it.
- Screw the head on firmly.
- Charge it with one 8g cream charger.
- Shake it gently, about four or five times. Cold foam needs less shaking than whipped cream, and a hard shake here will give you a stiff topping instead of a pourable one.
- Chill it for at least 30 minutes. Do not freeze it.
- Hold the whipper upside down and dispense a short burst over the back of a spoon onto the drink.
- Keep it in the fridge between drinks. Never use more than two chargers in a 500ml whipper, and never unscrew the head while there is still gas inside.
If you are picking a whipper for this, our guide to choosing a whipped cream dispenser covers sizes and materials, and the Skywhip Pro 500ml cream whipper is the size most home kitchens want. Chargers come in 8.2g SupremeWhip for small batches or larger food-grade cream chargers if you are running through them.
Flavour variations
Keep the cream and milk ratio the same and change what you sweeten it with.
- Salted caramel. Caramel syrup with a proper pinch of salt, on cold brew.
- Brown sugar. Brown sugar dissolved in a splash of hot water, which gives a toffee note vanilla does not.
- Matcha. A teaspoon of matcha whisked into the milk before you add the cream. Our matcha whipped cream recipe uses the same base at a thicker ratio.
- Chocolate. A tablespoon of cocoa sifted in and dissolved properly, following the method in our chocolate whipped cream guide.
- Cinnamon. A pinch stirred through vanilla syrup, which works on an iced chai as well as coffee.
Dairy-free cold foam
Barista oat milk is the one that works reliably, because the protein and stabilisers added to make it steam well do the same job here. Use it on its own rather than trying to split it into a cream and milk mix. Soy barista milk is the next best. Almond and rice milk foam poorly because there is not enough protein in them to hold a bubble.
If you want a genuinely thick dairy-free topping rather than a pourable foam, that is a different job and our guide to vegan whipped cream in Australia covers what actually whips.
Why your cold foam will not hold
- It sinks straight into the coffee. Either the foam is too thin or the drink underneath is too warm or too watery. Use fresh ice and pour over the back of a spoon.
- It went grainy or split. You overran it. Stop frothing the moment it thickens, because past that point you are making butter.
- It will not thicken at all. The cream is probably not cold enough, or it is a light or reduced-fat cream. Our guide to why cream will not whip goes through the same causes in more detail.
- It holds for two minutes and then collapses. Not enough fat in the mix. Shift the ratio towards the cream.
- You want it to last on a dessert rather than a drink. That needs stabilising, which our guide to stabilising whipped cream explains.
Cold foam is not whipped cream, and it is not nitro
These three get mixed up constantly and they are three different things. Cold foam is aerated milk and cream poured on top of a drink as a layer you drink through. Whipped cream is thicker, holds its shape and sits as a dollop, which is the Viennese approach in our einspanner guide. Nitro coffee is gas dissolved into the coffee itself rather than into a topping, which is covered in what nitro cold brew is and how to make nitro cold brew at home.
There is a fourth relative worth knowing about if you are behind a bar, which is protein-based cocktail foam made with egg white or aquafaba.
Frequently asked questions
What is the 3-2-1 rule for cold foam?
Three parts cream, two parts milk, one part syrup. In American recipes that is three tablespoons, two tablespoons and one tablespoon, which works out to roughly 45ml, 30ml and 15ml here.
What is heavy cream in Australia for cold foam?
Thickened cream. It sits at about 35 per cent fat with a thickener added, which makes it the closest thing on the shelf and slightly more forgiving than American heavy cream.
Is cold foam just whipped milk?
Close, but milk alone will not hold. Cold foam is milk with enough cream in it to give the bubbles something to hang on to, aerated cold rather than steamed.
How do you make cold foam without a frother?
Put the cream, milk and syrup in a jar with a tight lid and shake hard for about a minute. A French press works too, by pumping the plunger twenty or thirty times.
How long does cold foam last?
Made in a whipper and kept in the fridge it holds for two to three days, or until the cream’s use-by date if that comes first. Made in a jar, it starts separating within about ten minutes, so make that version per drink.
Can you put cold foam on hot coffee?
You can, but it melts into the drink quickly because the heat breaks the foam down. Cold foam is built for iced drinks, and on a hot coffee you are better off with whipped cream.
How many chargers do I need for cold foam?
One 8g charger for a 500ml whipper. If it will not dispense, shake it again and give it more time in the fridge. Never use more than two.
Get chargers delivered across Melbourne
We deliver food-grade cream chargers and dispensers across Melbourne in 10 to 15 minutes in the CBD and around 30 minutes to the suburbs, including late nights and weekends. Pay by cash, card or PAYID. Cafés and venues going through them in volume can order through cream charger wholesale in Melbourne. All sales are 18+ for culinary use.
