Want to learn how to make pumpkin cold foam? Jump into our guide and discover the best and easiest Starbucks pumpkin cold foam copycat recipe.

It’s pumpkin season, and you all know what that means: seasonal pumpkin drinks and toppings in Starbucks!

And the top of my list of favorites is Pumpkin Cream Cold Foam.

If you love this one as much as I do, this article is for you. Since I’m the homemade-copycat-recipe master, I’ll show you how to make Pumpkin Cold Foam.

It is super-easy and delicious, maybe even better than the original.

So, let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work!

Table of Contents

What Is Pumpkin Cream Cold Foam?

coffee with pumpkin cold foam — Pumpkin cold foam is the usual topping for Starbucks cold brew

Some flavors and aromas can warm up your heart during the cold fall and winter days. Think about hot chocolate, cinnamon, or caramel.

For me, it’s the pumpkin. Anything with pumpkin immediately teleports me to my family’s kitchen during the winter holidays. Everybody gathered around the table, talking, laughing, and eating. And one of the desserts was always my mom’s famous pumpkin pie.

So, it’s not surprising that I have a particular sweet tooth for all Starbucks coffees and drinks with pumpkin flavor.

And my personal favorite is one of their most excellent add-ins, Pumpkin Cream Cold Foam. It’s a crown on top of their Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew. But it can go so well with many other beverages.

So do you want to know how they actually make Pumpkin Cream Cold Foam in Starbucks?

The first thing to know, Pumpkin Cream Cold Foam is a pumpkin season twist on their famous Sweet Cream Cold Foam.

Through the years, they launched more than a few flavors of sweet cream cold foam that became an immediate hit:

Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Foam
Chocolate Cream
Irish Cream
Salted Caramel Cream Cold Foam

Sweet cream cold foam is a replacement for regular milk foam.

Regular milk foam isn’t that long-lasting. Often it will dissolve and disappear in your drink very fast. And that wasn’t working for some of Starbucks’ drinks, especially cold ones. So, they came up with a cold foam idea.

It’s made from cream, milk, and syrups. All of those go to special super-fast blenders. So it’s technically whipped cream more than regular milk foam.

In the case of Starbucks Pumpkin Cold Foam, the ingredients are:

sweet cream
2% milk
pumpkin spice sauce
vanilla syrup

And the result is out of this world.

The texture is amazingly light but creamy and smooth. It will change and elevate the structure of the drink, giving it thickness and silkiness. It will also build up the flavor, adding pumpkin and vanilla tones to it.

Pumpkin cold foam is the usual topping for Starbucks cold brew, but it goes well with other cold coffee drinks too.

How To Make Pumpkin Cream Cold Foam?

Now, are you ready to make your own homemade Pumpkin Cream Cold Foam?

So am I!

I promise you. You’re gonna love this Starbucks Pumpkin Cold Foam copycat recipe. It’s super easy, and it comes together in just a few minutes.

And I don’t want to be a braggart, but I think it’s even better than one from Starbucks. It will be more flavorful and thicker than the original.

You can use it to elevate many different drinks, such as iced coffee, but also desserts.

Ingredients

2 – 3 tbsp of heavy cream – heavy cream, also called heavy whipping cream, is the main ingredient. It gives us that beautiful structure of cream cold foam, thick and rich as we like it. It’s also the most caloric ingredient since it’s made from 36 – 40% of milk fat. Knowing that, don’t be too generous with it because if you put too much, you will get too dense a texture, more like ice cream. And we’re aiming for a light and foamy structure. My advice is to try first with 2 tbsp and see do you like the results. If it’s too fluid, add another one.
½ cup of milk – it’s totally up to you which type of milk you will use. You can even use non-dairy milk (coconut milk is my favorite). It’s only important not to use milk with too much fat. Heavy cream is already packed with milk fat. And with too much fat, it will be more difficult to get that frothy, light texture.
1 – 2 tbsp of pumpkin puree – get canned pumpkin puree. It’s the real stuff. The taste will be incomparable. Yes, it’s so much easier to just add a few drops of pumpkin syrup, but it’s just not the same. Plus, it will go so well with the texture of the heavy cream. High chance you have some leftovers after the holidays in your kitchen.
pumpkin spice – it will add some more nuances to it. It’s a spice blend with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Be careful with it, and don’t go over the top because it’s really strong and overwhelming. Start with just a pinch of it and see how you like it. If it’s not enough for you, add a little bit more. You can buy pumpkin pie spice in almost any store, or you can easily make it yourself.
vanilla syrup or extract (optional) – vanilla shouldn’t be the dominant taste here, but it will nicely complement the pumpkin flavor. You can use syrup or extract. Vanilla syrup is sugar syrup with vanilla extract. And vanilla extract comes from raw vanilla beans soaked in alcohol. It’s pure, without anything added. The only thing to have in mind is the amount of sugar you’re putting in your Pumpkin Foam mixture. If you’re using syrup, make sure you go easy on other sweeteners. You can buy vanilla syrup everywhere or make it on your own.
sugar or any other type of sweetener (optional) – this depends on your personal taste.

Equipment

handheld electric frother, blender, or hand mixer
mixing bowl or large mason jar

For this Pumpkin Cold Foam recipe, I recommend you avoid an electric milk frother with a chamber because it is difficult to clean, and the mixture will be thick and sticky. Cleaning the frother’s chamber would be a real nightmare.

Step-By-Step Instructions

Making Pumpkin Cream Cold Foam couldn’t be easier:

Mix heavy cream, milk, and vanilla syrup. Heavy cream and milk should be cold. Add these ingredients to the mixing bowl and mix them. It takes a little bit of patience for a nice structure, so mix it for about 30 seconds.
Add pumpkin puree and pumpkin spice. Pour puree and spice blend on the side of the mixing bowl with whipped cream, so they don’t flatten previously whipped cream.
Blend it all together! One more time, be patient and mix it as long as it takes to blend all the flavors and get the texture. Top your beverage with it, and enjoy!

Storing tips

If you made too much, don’t throw the leftovers away!

Put it in some kind of airtight container or mason jar with an airtight lid, and leave it in the refrigerator. This way, it will stay good for days, even a week.

You can tell if it’s still good by smelling it. If it has a funky smell or taste, it has gone bad.

While it’s stored in a fridge, it will lose its bubbly structure. But, before using it again, just mix it again quickly, and it will be as good as the first day.

Cold Brew Coffee with Pumpkin Cold Foam

One of the drinks that go perfectly with pumpkin spice cold foam is cold brew coffee.

Now I’ll show you how to make a cold brew with Pumpkin Cream Cold Foam by yourself. It’s really a no-brainer, it’s done in a blink of an eye, and it will save you some cash.

Making a cold brew isn’t difficult at all. It just takes time.

Cold brew is made by steeping coffee grounds in cold water for a long period of time. You will need coarsely ground coffee to avoid over-extraction.

Steeping the coffee grounds should take from 8 to 12 hours, sometimes even 24 hours (depending on the type of coffee and your preferences.)

When brewing time is over, just filter out the coffee grounds.

You’ll have a smooth, highly caffeinated but less acidic cup of coffee. Make yourself a bigger batch, store it in a fridge, and you’ll always have a ready cup of cold brew.