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If you’ve followed the blog for awhile now, you know that I love chocolate and I love Starbucks. My favorite order in the winter is the Cafe Mocha.
Now that it’s summer (eep we’re already in mid-July, not much longer to go!), I do crave drinks on the colder side unless it’s a first-thing-in-the-morning situation going on. While I’m not much of a coffee drinker, I really enjoy cold brews (that are sweetened!). When the chocolate cold brew came out I had to have it right away! I’m a major chocoholic, and the chocolate cold brew and me were a match made in heaven! As you can guess, my mind was totally blown!
The downside of Starbucks is that it is expensive. While it’s a nice treat to have, I really wanted to make my own. The part that got me the most curious was how to make the cold foam. Not only did I learn how to make the perfect foam, but I’ve also included a homemade vanilla syrup for it! Going outside does have its advantages as it can inspire you to make new creations you wouldn’t have otherwise made! If you’re in a rut in the kitchen, I do recommend you enjoy a treat outdoors and see what you’d like to recreate! I give more details about this in my 5 Tips To Make Cooking Fun! free guide! To get it, make sure you sign up for the newsletter! You’ll also get my one-month Live to Cook challenge! If you try this out or just participate in the challenge in general, then be sure to tag me on Instagram so I can see and share what you’ve made!
Don’t forget to watch the video so you can watch how to make the entire recipe from start to finish - including the cold brew, vanilla syrup, and assembly! If you’re not already, make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel! Don’t forget to hit the bell button on YouTube so you receive the notifications when the video recipes are premiering! I love to record the recipes to give you a full picture of what’s going on! Let’s get brewing!
What is in Starbucks Chocolate Cream Cold brew?▼
Before we get on to the recipe, let’s break down what exactly is this cold brew. Here is how Starbucks officially defines the drink:
Starbucks® Cold Brew sweetened with vanilla syrup and topped with a silky, chocolaty cream cold foam.
source: Starbucks.com
Well, that’s pretty vague! What’s in this syrup and what makes up this magical chocolaty cold foam? I like to look at ingredient lists to give me some guidance of how to replicate the components of the drink, so let’s check out the ingredient list that came from the Nutritional Facts page.
ICE, BREWED COFFEE, CHOCOLATE CREAM [VANILLA SWEET CREAM (CREAM (CREAM, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, CARAGEENAN), MILK, VANILLA SYRUP (SUGAR, WATER, NATURAL FLAVORS, POTASSIUM SORBATE, CITRIC ACID)), CHOCOLATE MALT POWDER (CANE SUGAR, COCOA POWDER PROCESSED WITH ALKALI, NATURAL MALT FLAVOR (FROM BARLEY), NATURAL FLAVORS, SUNFLOWER OIL)], VANILLA SYRUP [SUGAR, WATER, NATURAL FLAVORS, POTASSIUM SORBATE, CITRIC ACID]
source: Starbucks.com
Hm, quite a lot going on here! I guarantee my recipe won’t be so complicated! There may seem like a lot going on, but if you prep the cold brew and syrup in advance, then to assemble the actual drink is super easy and fast!
WHY MAKE THIS Chocolate Foam Cold Brew
I totally recommend you make this cold brew today! It’ll be awesome to whip up for the summer whenever you have both a cold brew craving and a chocolate one - satisfy them together with this drink!
- Simple: You just need to make the foam and top it over your cold brew!
- Fast: If you have your cold brew and vanilla syrup ready, then this can honestly take you 5 minutes or less to get it ready!
- Customizable: You can adjust the sweetness, chocolatiness, coffee-ness all based on your preferences - you’ve got full control!
- Minimal ingredients: We’re going all-natural with this recipe by making everything from scratch, as I pride myself in doing! As you saw above, there are quite a lot of processed ingredients going on there!
- Cost effective: If you make your own cold brew and vanilla syrup, then you can make big batches and the cost per serving will be extremely small! Making the chocolate cold foam is also pretty cheap too!
- Time-saver: Again, if you’ve got cold brew and vanilla syrup ready, the only active time will be to make the foam, and that only takes about a minute or two! You’ll save plenty of time not having to go to the Starbucks shop itself and come home to enjoy! Not to mention if you’re ordering in person (even with mobile at peak hours!), you’re typically dealing with a long wait line!
- Easy to prep: Have your vanilla syrup and cold brew ready to go for whenever you’re craving this drink!
- CHOCOLATEY: Chocolate lovers, you need this in your life! Not to brag or anything, but I like mine a bit better than the Starbucks version because it really reminds me of a coffee-infused chocolate milk! You’ll really enjoy the chocolate decadence with the cold brew vibes!
Equipment for Cold Brew
You will need to ensure you have a few pieces of equipment for the best cold brew! However, I will discuss alternatives to make this recipe accessible to everyone!
- Whisk: If making your own vanilla syrup, you’ll need a whisk to blend together your sugar, water and vanilla mixture.
- Blender: Used to grind your coffee beans. If you have a coffee grinder, then definitely use it!
- Mixing bowl: You’ll need this to make your cold brew. Add the water and coffee grind mixture into the bowl and let the cold brew brew!
- Ladle: This was handy to efficiently transfer the cold brew into the fine mesh strainer or the French press.
- Fine mesh strainer: If making your own cold brew, you need to strain out the coffee grinds when you’re ready to use it. This method is slow and messy, but if you don’t have a French press, then this is how you can extract the coffee grinds from your cold brew.
- French press: This is the cleanest way to strain out the coffee when making your cold brew. If you have a French press then certainly use it to finish your cold brew and discard the coffee grinds!
- Frother: For this recipe, I’ll use a handheld frother. We’ll need it to make our chocolate cream cold foam!
- Measuring cup: I’m using this to measure out my milk and heavy cream, and I’ll actually be frothing my chocolate cream cold foam directly in the measuring cup!
- Mason jar: If making your own vanilla syrup, this can be handy to transfer your vanilla syrup in to store and serve! You could also use a squeeze bottle and squeeze in your syrup into the cold foam mixture. To feel like a Starbucks barista, get a glass syrup bottle and a pump!
- Glass syrup bottle: I’m transferring my cold brew into a jar to store for later - you may have extra cold brew!
- Serving glass: You can use your favourite glass, but I really enjoy the ones I have linked here because they retain cold and heat well. You don’t feel the heat or cold on the outside, so you can comfortably carry your drink from the kitchen to wherever you want to enjoy it - and your drink will stay hot or cold longer!
- Stainless steel straws: I always find drinking from a straw more fun! I really enjoy the stainless steel straws because they’re large and of course environmentally-friendly! I much prefer them over plastic straws because they don’t get crushed.
Ingredients
We’ll review the ingredients that we need to make the chocolate cold foam, the cold brew itself, and for the entire drink. For all ingredients and their quantities, scroll to the bottom of this post for the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD and save the recipe for later! The recipe card will also allow you to scale all ingredient quantities based on how many glasses of cold brew you want to make - so you can make this just for yourself or serve this as a refresher for a pool party!
For the Chocolate Cold Foam
- Heavy cream: This is a must, and you won’t be able to make your cold foam without it! The heavy cream will be whisked with the other ingredients to make our awesome chocolate cold foam to top the drink.
- Milk: If you don’t have milk, then you’ll end up with whipped cream. Milk turns this into a foam. I’m using 1% milk because that’s what I had on hand. Starbucks uses 2% milk for their foam. I wouldn’t recommend skim milk as there won’t be enough fat content.
- Cocoa powder: The Starbucks recipe uses chocolate malt powder. I’m using cocoa powder because that’s what I had on hand, and I find this will give a decadent and rich cocoa flavor to our foam!
- Vanilla syrup: I’m going to use my Quick Vanilla Syrup for Coffee here. This is integral for our recipe, as the vanilla syrup is what will make our foam a “sweet cream” cold foam! I’ll quickly describe how to make it, but be sure to check out the recipe for more details and tips and tricks to make vanilla syrup for coffee - plus bonus uses! You will have loads left over!
For the Cold Brew
- Whole coffee beans: I’ve actually found chocolate coffee beans, so if you can find some I recommend that for this recipe! It’ll further enhance your chocolate cream cold foam!
- Water: To add the ground coffee in and let it brew.
For the Cold Brew
- Ice cubes
- Cold brew coffee
- Cold foam
- Additional vanilla syrup, if desired
How to Make Chocolate Cream Cold Brew
For the Cold Brew
Take the whole coffee beans and add them to a food processor. Grind them to a medium coarse consistency.
Add the ground coffee to a large bowl or jar and add water. Mix well, and refrigerate for at least 10 hours or for up to 24 hours.
Strain the coffee over a large bowl or jar using a fine mesh coffee filter or cheesecloth or using a French press.
For the Vanilla Syrup
In a saucepan, add the water and sugar and turn on the heat. Whisk well and warm the mixture until the sugar has completely dissolved.
Once dissolved, add the vanilla extract, turn off the heat and pour out the vanilla syrup into a mason jar for storage.
For the Chocolate Cream Foam
In a bowl or measuring cup, add the cream, milk, cocoa powder and vanilla syrup.
Using a frother, froth this mixture until it has reached the consistency of soft whipped cream. Alternatively, you can use a stand mixer, hand mixer or manually whisk until this consistency is reached.
For the Cold Brew
Fill the serving cup or glass with ice. Pour a portion of cold brew, leaving a 1 1/2 inch gap at the top of the glass.
If desired, sweeten the cold brew with the vanilla syrup and mix well.
Top with the chocolate cold foam.
Enjoy!
Questions You May Have!
What’s the difference between chocolate foam and whipped cream?▼
To be honest with you I was actually about to make a chocolate whipped cream to top the drink instead of actual foam! There IS a difference!
The foam is made from cold milk that is frothed, and in our case with the chocolate cold foam, we just add some chocolate flavour! If you check out the ingredients list above, you’ll notice that the foam is made with milk and heavy cream. We need our milk to flatten out the heavy cream. If we only had chocolate and heavy cream, then you’d get whipped cream!
When I had tasted the drink, it really tasted creamy to me. So yes I did think it was chocolate whipped cream, and it is close to it, but not quite!
Do I have to use heavy cream to make the cold foam?▼
Yes you do. Heavy cream is also called whipping cream, and it’s for a reason! You need this type of cream to get the airiness when you will froth all the ingredients to make the cold foam. Heavy cream is the thickest cream you can get, and if you use less fat creams, then your final product won’t be foamy and it will sink to the bottom of your drink.
How Can I blend the coffee beans without a coffee grinder?▼
I actually don’t have a coffee grinder either, so I just use my blender! You’ll want to make sure you have a strong enough blender to break down the coffee beans.
What if I don’t have a hand Frother to make the Chocolate Cream cold foam?▼
That’s fine! I used a hand frother to make this chocolate cream cold foam, but Starbucks uses a nifty milk frother! If you have an espresso machine with a frother, then totally go for it! If you have none of these, then you can use a blender, but it may not be as airy.
Is this Cold Brew Coffee Sweet?▼
No, at Starbucks the drink itself isn’t sweetened. The only part of the drink that’s sweetened is the chocolate cream cold foam. You can sweeten the actual cold brew if the drink isn’t sweet enough for you as I’ll describe in the next section!
How Can I adjust the sweetness of the cold brew?▼
The standard drink isn’t actually sweetened. I didn’t sweeten it in the video, but later on I actually did sweeten it because I wanted more sweetness! All you need to do is add some extra vanilla syrup to the cold brew itself. I recommend you do this after adding your foam since the foam is sweetened already - you don’t want to over-sweeten your drink!
How can I Switch up the Cold Brew?▼
My objective with this recipe was to replicate the drink from Starbucks, however, you can totally mix and match different variations to create your own version! Here are some fun ideas! Let me know in the comments what you try!
Pair with difference syrups: A vanilla syrup is part of the standard recipe, but the beauty of cooking (or in this case brewing!) at home is that you can explore your creativity and let your imagination run wild! If your intention is to replicate the Starbucks standard recipe, then follow these steps! However, if you want to explore, then why not try different syrups? Here are some flavour options:
Garnishes: At Starbucks, we just have the chocolate cream cold foam on top. That’s fine of course! However, you could make this drink even prettier and more delicious by garnishing with a shaved chocolate bar (you’ll need a microplane for that), adding a drizzle of my Cafe Mocha Chocolate Syrup, or adding some chocolate chips!
Make it dairy-free: You won’t get identical results making your chocolate cream without the heavy cream and dairy milk. However, you can use coconut cream and a non-dairy milk instead. You’ll need to use more coconut cream to milk because coconut cream is not as thick as coconut milk.
Alternate sweeteners:For this recipe, I used table sugar as my sweetener. If you want to use natural sweeteners, then try brown sugar, honey, cane sugar, or maple syrup and find out what you enjoy the most!
Can I use Iced Coffee instead?▼
Sure, that can save you time! However, we can no longer call the drink a “cold brew,” as you won’t be using cold brew! Iced coffee is instant, but the flavours won’t be as strong and intense as cold brew. That’s why cold brew is a premium! Cold brew allows the time for the coffee flavours to seep into the water and create an amazing experience! Nothing is stopping you from using iced coffee, but results won’t be the same!
Can I use a store-bought cold brew?▼
Yes why not! However, I’m going to be honest and say that if you’re using a store-bought cold brew, you won’t save as much money as if you made your own!
If you do want to use a prepared cold brew, I recommend Starbucks or even Javy coffee concentrate!
Can I use a store-bought vanilla syrup?▼
Sure! Again, however, keep in mind that the syrups are quite pricey, and I’ve outlined how easy it is to make your own! If you follow my homemade vanilla syrup recipe, you’ll see you can make a lot to have for later! I really recommend it, I’m sure it will last awhile, and it’s very multipurpose so you can use it to flavour your other coffee drinks or you could even use it in smoothies and oatmeal!
What if I don’t want the caffeine?▼
If you want less caffeine, then you can make your cold brew with decaf coffee. However, keep in mind that you’ll get a slightly less intense taste than from regular coffee. If you have heart issues or you’re just watching your caffeine content, then this can be a great alternative for you though.
What to do with extra chocolate cold foam?▼
If you have more cold foam, then you can top it in so many ways! Feel free to top it over any iced coffee or tea drinks! Here are some ideas:
- Iced coffee
- Iced cappuccino
- Iced latte
- Iced mocha
- Iced chai
- Iced tea
Can I make This Cold Brew ahead of time?▼
Well, not entirely. Cold brew has to be made ahead of time as that’s what cold brew is by definition. You need at least 10 hours for the cold brew to brew. Additionally, if you’re making your own vanilla syrup, then that can also be prepared in advance.
However, you can’t make the chocolate cold foam ahead of time because it will no longer be frothy over your coffee. Technically you could try, and I actually did have some extra that I saved for the next morning. It was fine but not as airy as when I had first made it. If you do have extra, perhaps enjoy it with a spoon like ice cream - to be totally honest I ate so much of this as ice cream! You could try to top your cold foam over your cold brew and wrap the glass with plastic wrap. Again, I did that, and while it was delicious, it was just the appearance and frothiness that wasn’t as good as it could have been had I enjoyed it fresh. Confession: I filmed the recipe video at 11 pm so I didn’t want caffeine at night!
If you want to enjoy lots of cold brew, then I recommend you make a large batch of cold brew and vanilla syrup and have those ready to go. Then, all you need to do is make your chocolate cream cold foam on the spot and top your drink! The foam is actually the easiest part of the recipe, and it will only take about a minute!
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