Make this easy lavender cold brew with a fluffy cream cold foam and smooth cold brew coffee on the bottom. It’s a cheap way to recreate Starbucks’ lavender cold brew and enjoy a sweet and creamy cold brew coffee with minimal effort. It’s the perfect spring coffee drink that’s subtly floral and delicious!

Here’s how to make this lavender cold foam cold brew at home!

Lavender Cold Brew Takeaways:

• Add a little purple food coloring or ube extract for a light purple color!
• Make your own cold brew coffee. It’s so easy and foolproof.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe:

• It tastes just like Starbucks, or even better, for a fraction of the cost.
• It’s easy and only takes 2 ingredients to make the drink! (More for each component.)
• You can’t go wrong with cold brew coffee and a sweet, fluffy cream top!

What is Cold Brew?

Cold brew is a cold extraction method involving ground coffee beans (or tea) immersed in room temperature or cold water for 12 to 24 hours. Heat is what draws out bitter components, so cold brewing coffee keeps it smooth, not bitter, and not sour. It’s a very easy, foolproof brewing method that anyone can replicate that produces delicious coffee!

It originally was super popular in Japanese coffee shops in the early 2000’s and eventually made its way to American coffee chains like Starbucks and Peet’s Coffee. Because of its high caffeine content and smooth flavor, it skyrocketed in popularity, eventually making its way into people’s kitchens and routines.

Now, it’s still popular, with new or seasonal variations involving flavored cold foams, cream tops, and flavors. Like this lavender cold brew!

What is Lavender Cold Brew?

Lavender cold brew is just cold brew flavored with lavender syrup or lavender cold foam! This recipe is specifically for a lavender cream cold foam cold brew, which gets the lavender flavor from the cream top.

This is different from a lavender cold foam latte, which is made with milk and espresso.

It’s super easy to make at home; you can even make the components at home without having to buy anything from the store. The base is a classic cold brew coffee with ice, then topped with a fluffy lavender cold foam.

It has a balanced sweet and floral flavor, which complements the smooth coffee well. Lavender is quite a strong floral flavor, but cold brew coffee also has a strong coffee flavor, so no flavor overpowers the other.

What is Lavender Cold Foam

Sweet cream cold foam, or cold foam for short, is a fluffy whipped topping for drinks. It’s basically softly whipped pourable cream! You can enjoy it plain or flavored, like this lavender cold foam!

Lavender cold foam is made with heavy cream, milk, and lavender syrup. It’s normally uncolored or slightly pink since lavender turns syrup a light purple or grayish color, but many shops use food coloring or strongly colored syrups for a purple color.

Cold foam used to be only popular at coffee chains, but now you can find cream tops and cold foams at almost every specialty coffee shop.

Do Lavender and Cold Brew Go Together?

Yes! Lavender is such an amazing floral flavor pairing for coffee. On its own, lavender can be super overpowering, but it only adds to coffee’s strong flavor. In coffee, the lavender adds a subtle floral note that balances coffee’s bold and sometimes bitter flavor.

Cold brew coffee tends to be smooth and sweet, so it’s the perfect canvas for a soft floral flavor. I think it complements lavender more since there’s no bitterness the flavor has to go through to get to you!

Lavender Cold Brew Recipe: Ingredients

Here’s what you’ll need to make a lavender cold foam cold brew:

• Cold Brew — You can buy premade cold brew from the grocery store or make your own at home, in which you’ll need:
  • Coffee Beans — I like using a 1:8 ratio of ground coffee to water for a concentrate that you dilute with water. It uses up less space in my fridge, and the flavor is adjustable later! I like a medium roast coffee for my cold brew.
  • Water — Any filtered water is perfect for cold brew! Just make sure it’s either cold or room temperature.
• Ice
• Lavender Syrup — I use a homemade lavender syrup made from culinary lavender, water, and sugar, but you can use a premade syrup from the store (or attempt your own syrup).
• Heavy Cream — Whipping cream with 35% milkfat or more is ideal for a soft, fluffy texture. Half and half won’t whip up as nicely.
• Milk — Use 2% or whole milk. You can also use your favorite non-dairy milk alternative, like oat or soy.
• Dried Lavender (Optional) — As a garnish, use a sprig of dried lavender! You can also add a sprinkle of dried lavender buds, but I like the look of the whole sprig.

How to Make a Lavender Cold Brew

1. Buy or Make Cold Brew. To make cold brew coffee, grind coffee beans into a coarse size similar to sea salt or peppercorns. Add the grounds and room temperature (or cold) water to a large bottle and stir until the water coats every ground.
2. Let the coffee hang out on the counter or in the fridge for at least 12 hours, no more than 18. Ideally, you do this overnight. Then, once brewed, remove the grounds.
3. Whip Lavender Foam. Add lavender syrup, heavy cream, and milk to a cup and, using a handheld frother, whip the cream until soft and fluffy but still pourable. If you’d like color, add purple food coloring before whipping.
4. Assemble Drink. Add ice and cold brew coffee to a separate glass, then top off with water if you have a strong concentrate. Add your whipped lavender cold foam on top and garnish with a sprig of dried lavender.
5. Mix and Enjoy!

Tips for the Best Lavender Cold Brew

• Use Culinary Grade Lavender: Culinary-grade lavender is made from English lavender, which has less camphor in it. Camphor is the oil that gives lavender its floral and woody scent. Culinary lavender is milder than regular dried lavender, which is best for cooking! If you use non-culinary lavender, you’ll find that your syrup is extremely soapy or fragrant.
• Don’t Overwhip the Cold Foam: If you accidentally make whipped cream, you can still use it, but it will break apart in your cold brew and not mix as smoothly. You can get it back to a cold foam state by adding a little more milk or cream, then rewhipping.
• Use Food Coloring: Lavender isn’t naturally super purple; it’s more of a muted purple-gray. But for a light purple color, add food coloring to the cold foam. I like using ube extract because it’s super bright, and a little goes a long way.

FAQ’s

What can I use besides cold brew coffee?

You can use regular brewed coffee or espresso as a cold brew replacement. It doesn’t have to be plain, either. You can add a splash of cream or milk to make it creamier.

Is cold foam healthy?

Technically, no, it’s just sweetened cream with a little bit of milk. It’s not as calorie-dense as regular whipped cream or ice cream, but it’s not far off!

Other Coffee Recipes to Try

This lavender cream cold brew is so easy to make and tastes incredible every time! If you want other easy coffee drinks, here are some other coffee recipes to try next:

• Honey Lavender Latte
• Mint Mojito Coffee
• Washington Americano
• Rosemary Latte
• Rose Latte