This cold brew drink is sweet, creamy, slightly salty, and not bitter whatsoever! The salted maple cold foam adds a delicious creamy texture and flavor to the coffee, which is only accentuated by the silky maple syrup and salt.

It’s the perfect treat for the cooler days and when you want to experience some autumn flavor. The cold foam is super easy to make with just three ingredients, and if you make a big batch of cold brew, you can enjoy this drink multiple days in a row!

Here’s how to make a salted maple cold foam cold brew!

What is Cold Foam?

With all the different cafe drinks these days, keeping track of what is what can be confusing. A cold foam is simply a frothed cold milk that creates a soft and fluffy foam layer, perfect for topping lattes, coffees, teas, etc.

Cold foam itself is often used interchangeably with sweet cream and sweet cream cold foam. Traditionally, it’s made with 2% milk, but these days, you can use any milk you’d like, from oat milk to half and half.

Sweet cream cold foam mixes heavy cream and milk to give you a fluffier, creamier cold foam. These are delicious on more robust coffees like black or cold brew coffee, like this drink!

Cold foams are usually vanilla or sweet cream flavored, but it’s the perfect palette to add different flavors, too. Especially around the holidays, you’ll see all sorts of festive flavors like pumpkin, peppermint, lavender, maple, etc.

How to Make Cold Foam

You can use any milk with a high protein percentage to make cold foam. Lower-fat milk, like 1 or 2%, is perfect for creating a traditional cold foam, and oat milk is a great dairy alternative. You can froth your milk sweetened or unsweetened; both will work.

Generally, you want to use a frother to get a good cold foam because it aerates milk really well. You can use an electric or handheld frother! My favorite hack, though, is to use a French press to froth milk. It gets you the creamiest, fluffiest cold foam ever!

You want to froth your foam until it doubles in size, where the foam is almost half or equal to the amount of milk used.

Is Maple Syrup Good in Coffee?

Maple syrup is a great sweetener for coffee! It has a mild flavor, doesn’t overpower coffee, and adds a subtle maple or caramel taste to your drink. Maple also works well with flavors like cinnamon, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt, so the flavor combinations are endless.

It’s also the easiest sweetener to use because it dissolves almost instantly into your drink, even cold! Because maple syrup has such a high water content, you can add it to any of your iced drinks, and you won’t need to stir it constantly for it to dissolve.

It’s also a pretty economical sweetener as well. You don’t need much maple syrup to sweeten a drink, and since it comes in a medium-sized bottle, it will last you a while.

Why Add Salt to Maple Syrup?

Sweet and salty is a classic taste combination across all cultures, cuisines, and drinks, too! But it’s scientifically proven that salt brings out the sweetness.

Food Science Break: When you eat something sweet with a little salt, the salt binds to the sweet taste receptors on your tongue, enhancing the sweet taste and your experience. It also helps mask more offputting tastes like bitterness, metal, etc.

Adding salt to maple syrup will give you an even better-tasting maple syrup than you would’ve ever known. It also helps balance out any bitterness in your coffee (adding a little bit of salt to coffee is a known hack)!

What is Cold Brew Coffee?

Cold brew coffee is one of the easiest coffees to make and requires no fancy equipment. You make cold brew coffee by steeping coffee grounds in room temperature or cold water for 16-22 hours. This slowly “brews” the coffee over time, giving you a strong coffee.

Because the coffee brews slowly, none of the sourness or bitterness you taste in a hot brewed coffee is there, making it a favorite amongst many people. Cold brew coffee is smooth, silky, and slightly sweet, which is delicious by itself or mixed with a little milk and sugar.

Cold brew coffee can also be high in caffeine, especially if you make a concentrated version.

How to Make Cold Brew Coffee

To make cold brew coffee, grind coffee beans or buy preground coffee beans and weigh 1:10 coffee beans to water ratio. For example, 20g of coffee means you’ll need 2000g of water.

This will give you a medium-strength brew, similar to brewed coffee. However, you can play around with the ratios to find your ideal taste. Some people like using a 1:6 ratio for a strong, concentrated cold brew, while others like a 1:12 ratio for a more palatable drink.

Let the coffee grounds and water sit in a lidded bottle or jar on the counter or in the fridge, ideally overnight. The next day, your cold brew coffee will be dark brown and ready to consume! If your coffee is strong, you can dilute it with some water.

How to Make Salted Maple Cold Foam Cold Brew

Here’s what you’ll need to make salted maple cold foam cold brew at home:

• Ground coffee beans
• Water
• Maple syrup
• Vanilla extract
• Milk or half and half
• Ice
• Salt

Salted Maple Cold Foam Cold Brew Recipe

First, make your cold brew a day in advance. Grind coffee beans using a coffee grinder, or use preground coffee beans.

Weigh out your beans and water, then add it to a large enough jar, pot, or pitcher with a lid. Stir the coffee grounds in the water until well incorporated. Leave the coffee on the counter or in the fridge for at least 16 hours and no longer than 24. The cold brew coffee should be dark brown and opaque when finished.

For the maple cold foam, add maple syrup, vanilla, milk or half-and-half, and a pinch of salt to a small cup or frother machine. Froth your milk until fluffy foam forms about half or equal in size to the milk.

Add ice and cold brew coffee to a separate cup, then top with your salted maple cold foam.

Mix and enjoy!

Cold Brew Alternatives

If you don’t have cold brew or want a different coffee, you can use decaffeinated beans or even brewed coffee.

Decaf beans vary in quality depending on where you get them, but you really won’t be able to tell the difference in flavor (hopefully) once you turn it into a cold brew.

Brewed coffee will still taste amazing with this maple cold foam, but you’ll have some acidity and bitterness in the drink because of the brewing method. Cold brew is unique because it has such a smooth and sweet taste.

Tips

Here are some tips for making an amazing salted maple cold foam cold brew at home!

• You can make a sweet cream cold foam instead with heavy cream, a splash of milk, maple syrup, and salt! Whip the mixture until it doubles in size and is still pourable.
• Buy premade cold brew coffee from the store instead of making it for convenience. You’ll find it in the refrigerated section of any grocery store.