There are two types of people in the world: those that can’t wait for the heat of summer and the ones that dread it every year. Sure, it’s great to go to the beach with family and have a break from my daughter’s busy school schedule that we keep for 9 months out of the year. But despite those benefits, summer this year has become unbearably hot in so many places. I’m personally one of those people that prefers cooler weather. I find the muggy, 100-degree days of August in North Carolina to be unbearable and hide in the air conditioning as much as possible.
Walking out of the house into the stifling heat with a cup of scalding hot coffee in my hand also makes me cringe. That’s why we cold brew our coffee at home during the summer months, and I have just discovered a new way to enjoy my cold brew that makes it even more delicious.
Cold brew topped with cold foam has been a trendy summer drink in coffee shops for a few years now, but I never realized I could make it at home until recently. The following recipe is a combination of homemade cold foam combined with our Som’s Café signature cold brew and sweet salted caramel, a perfect treat for a hot August day.
Som’s Cafe Signature Cold Brew with Salted Caramel Cold Foam
The first thing you will need to make this recipe is cold brew coffee. You can find directions for making our signature cold brew using Beginnings Blend coffee https://somscafe.com/soms-cafe-cold-brew/. If you are local you could also contact us via text at 919-559-3038 to order and pick it up at Perkin’s Orchard in Durham.
Once you have mastered brewing cold brew, you can follow these instructions to make cold foam at home. This process is actually a lot easier than I ever realized. The key to making cold foam is to use skim milk. While making the stiff foam for an espresso beverage requires milk with a high fat content, making cold foam requires a milk with high protein content. Skim milk has the highest protein content of any dairy milk, and that’s why it is the best choice for making cold foam. You will also need a mixing bowl and either an emersion blender or a milk frothing wand. I used an emersion blender and will be referencing that in the instructions, but a milk frother should work just as well.
Ingredients
- Som’s Café Signature Cold Brew Coffee
- Skim milk
- Caramel or Salted Caramel coffee syrup
- Caramel or Salted Caramel sauce topping
- Sea Salt
Directions
- Fill a 16oz glass half way full with cold brew coffee. Add 1oz caramel or salted caramel syrup to
the cold brew and stir. If you can’t find salted caramel coffee syrup, regular caramel will work just fine because you will be topping your drink with sea salt and can also add a pinch to the coffee depending on your preference. If you don’t like salted caramel and just want to use plain caramel flavoring, that’s fine too. - Next, you are going to create the cold foam. Pour about 1-1.5 cups of skim milk into a small mixing bowl. You need to have enough milk in the bowl to be able to submerge the wand on the emersion blender into the milk.
- Add about 1/4oz of the caramel syrup to the milk before you froth it to give the cold foam itself a slight caramel flavor.
- Turn the emersion blender onto the lowest setting and blend the milk until you can see small bubbles have formed on the surface of the milk. If you have some larger bubbles in your milk, give the bowl a gentle tap to break up the larger bubbles. You should be left with a loose microfoam that looks similar to the wet foam that is used in a café latte.
- Fill your glass of coffee with ice up to about an inch below the surface of the glass. If you want your coffee extra milky, you can leave more room at the top of the glass for extra cold foam.
- Take a large mixing or serving spoon (don’t use a slotted spoon) and use it to scoop the caramel cold foam onto the top of the glass of cold brew.
- Top the cold foam with a drizzle of caramel or salted caramel sauce and a pinch of sea salt. The cold foam should sit on top of the ice and then start to sink down into the coffee, creating layered effect.
Now you have created a trendy, delicious beverage that looks cool and will keep you cool and sufficiently caffeinated as you face another long, hot summer day. If you make this take a picture and tag us on social media @Soms_Cafe and we’ll send you a special gift.
