10 Starbucks Drinks To Top With Caramel Cold Foam

Starbucks Cold Foam is a delicious addition to nearly any iced coffee drink (and even some teas and Refreshers). With cold foam added, you bring in more flavor, creaminess, and add an extra special touch. There are plenty of cold foam offerings already on the menu, but it's always fun to try something different. For a unique cold foam flavor that doesn't already exist on the menu, order your drink with caramel cold foam.

Unlike other cold foam flavors used in drinks across the menu, you'll need to order caramel cold foam as a specialty. Your barista may ask if you mean salted caramel cream cold foam, but if you politely say that you'd just like to keep it to basic caramel, they'll understand your intent. This will be a request you'll need to make in person at the counter or through the drive-through, so be prepared to (gasp) talk to a person.

There are plenty of drinks for which caramel cold foam can be a great addition, but there are also some that it works especially well on. As a former barista who worked at Starbucks, I give you an inside look at which drinks best suit this sweet and creamy add.

Perhaps no caramel drink is more iconic to Starbucks than a Caramel Macchiato. Though you can order it hot or iced, in order for the cold foam to be an enjoyable addition, I recommend going iced here.

An iced caramel macchiato begins with pumps of vanilla syrup at the bottom of your cup. That's followed by ice and milk with a topping of espresso and thick caramel drizzle. With an iced caramel macchiato with caramel cold foam, you'll want to specify that the caramel drizzle should follow the cold foam. Since you need to order caramel cold foam in person at the counter or in the drive-through, this is an easy enough adjustment to request.

I've ordered an iced caramel macchiato with the salted caramel cold foam, and it's enjoyable, but there's also a whole lot going on. Keeping it simple and just going with a caramel cold foam will no doubt make for an even better drink because you can focus more on pulling out the caramel and vanilla flavors that come in the drink before any additions are made.

Since Starbucks first introduced cold foam flavors as a topping to cold brew, many different iterations of the combination have come and gone from the menu, with some coming back with the seasons and others simply fading into history with other discontinued Starbucks drinks and syrup creations.

Starbucks baristas begin steeping the cold brew well in advance of that coffee actually arriving at the end of the bar, ready for you to sip. In fact, different from Starbucks' iced coffee, the cold brew is steeped for many hours right in-house. Though there are defined drinks that come with particular cold foams, many of them come with extra flavoring syrup in the coffee as well. For a more pure cold brew experience, choose a cold brew coffee and add cold foam to it. After all, it is one of the best add-ins you can get for Starbucks cold brew.

One of my favorite drinks at Starbucks is the Iced Brown Sugar Oatmilk Shaken Espresso. It has so many opportunities for adjustment with ingredient swaps and additions. In fact, one of my favorite ways to get the drink is with some white chocolate added with a topper of salted caramel cold foam. Like the caramel macchiato, it would benefit from a simpler, but similar, addition like the caramel cold foam.

Though the iced brown sugar shaken espresso has, well, a shaken preparation, the cold foam on the drink doesn't get added until the end. If you want to keep the drink a dairy-free version, be sure to order a dairy-free caramel cold foam. Otherwise, the cold foam will most certainly have dairy in it.

One of my favorite Starbucks swaps of all time is changing out regular Starbucks signature espresso with the blonde espresso roast. I find that this change makes my drinks a little smoother, and with a sweetener added in, they become easy to drink, even for those who might be new to the espresso world. There are a few drinks that already use the blonde espresso roast as part of the basic recipe for the drink. One of those drinks is an Iced Blonde Vanilla Latte.

This drink is a combination of vanilla syrup, milk, espresso, and ice. Since a lot of the drink is already milk, you might be hesitant to add still more milk on top, but with the addition of a caramel cold foam, the drink goes from enjoyable to something far more luxurious. This isn't the type of drink you order on a regular Tuesday morning. Instead, reserve this one for occasions when you want an extra unique treat. Between the vanilla and caramel flavors, it is super sweet and might remind you more of dessert than anything else.

Meet iced coffee's older sister: the Iced Caffé Americano. This potent drink is a simple combination of cold water, espresso, and ice. Rather than using cold brew or iced coffee as the base, this one gets its caffeine and flavor from the same espresso used in espresso hot and iced drinks, like lattes, macchiatos, and cappuccinos.

If you want a little sweetness on top of your iced caffé Americano, caramel cold foam is the perfect choice. It'll give a little extra flavoring and creaminess all while looking lovely atop your iced Americano. Since the iced Americano tends to be pretty strong in flavor, even if you are used to a typical iced coffee, you might find that the iced Americano needs just a little help to become milder and manageable. For an even smoother Starbucks iced coffee experience, go for an iced blonde caffè Americano.

For lovers of chocolate and coffee, the Iced Caffé Mocha is absolutely ideal. This drink includes espresso, Starbucks' mocha sauce, milk, ice, and a topping of whipped cream. Although whipped cream can be delicious, sometimes, it can be a little less than enjoyable, even in an iced drink. I have found that rather than sinking into the drink, the whip tends to sit on top of the ice as a nice hat rather than anything too tasty.

To remedy this, I love swapping out whipped cream with cold foam. Adding a caramel cold foam to the top of an iced caffé mocha will give you flavors of both chocolate and caramel and create something of a Snickers flavor. There's nearly no better compliment to caramel than chocolate, so this duo is made to be together. If you still want to retain a little chocolate on top of the cold foam, also ask for the cup to be lined with mocha sauce and for a nice drizzle on top of the cold foam. Again, since caramel cold foam is a request you'll have to make at the counter in person or at the drive-through, adding in something like a caramel drizzle is super easy to do.

I imagine if you are reading this, you are absolutely obsessed with caramel flavors. So, no doubt, you already know about the Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino. This drink uses a dark caramel syrup and blends it with the coffee base, combined with milk and, of course, ice. On top of the whipped cream at the bottom of the cup, more of that dark caramel sauce is added in, then the drink, followed by yet still more caramel drizzle and whipped cream with a caramel and sugar crumbly top. If you love caramel, this is the Frappuccino you should be ordering. If you are obsessed with caramel, swap out the plain whipped cream with caramel cold foam.

So many of the Frappuccinos come with whipped cream on top, but very few actually are enhanced by this addition. Swapping out the whipped cream here for still more caramel flavor seems very fitting in light of just how many caramel flavor aspects are already in the recipe. That said, the caramel used throughout the drink will be different from the caramel used in your cold foam, provided that you do not ask the barista to use caramel sauce in place of typical caramel syrup in the foam.

A Caramel Frappuccino is many customers' first order at Starbucks. It was for me, so I guess you could say it was the start of my obsession with coffee. My opinions sure have changed since then, but it was a first step, and it's still one I look back on fondly. The Caramel Frappuccino is a much more toned-down version of a Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino. This one, rather than all the extra whipped cream and additions, is a basic Frappuccino mixture flavor, using the coffee base and flavoring it with caramel syrup. Like the Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino, it comes with whipped cream, but just like that drink, this also can be swapped out for cold foam.

Just as the caramel cold foam pairs nicely with the Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino, it also complements the Caramel Frappuccino in this more toned-down version. If you still want that extra caramel swirl on top, you can definitely request it, and your barista won't think twice about it.

Imagine the Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino, but swap everything out with chocolate or cookies, and you have the Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino. It also has a layer of whipped cream at the bottom with chocolate and cookie crumbles, followed by a drink full of mocha flavors and Frappuccino chips. To really pull in those candy bar feels, the whipped cream on top can be swapped out for any flavor, but for an especially candy bar-from-the-checkout kind of feel, ask for caramel cold foam on top instead of whipped cream. Since the cookie crumbles are such a significant part of the filling of this drink, be sure to ask your barista to still top it with the mocha drizzle and cookie crumbles.

This is the type of drink that feels like it captures childlike energy, but is made for an adult. Make no mistake about it: the Frappuccino made with coffee certainly has caffeine in it, so it's not ideal for young Starbucks fans, but rather more for those who are young at heart. This is yet another drink where the caramel cold foam works even better than the salted caramel cream cold foam. Adding both salt and caramel to an already heavily flavored drink will simply be too much.

The closest drink on the Starbucks roster to a vanilla milkshake is the Vanilla Bean Crème Frappuccino. It's perfectly sweet and a little light, and as a caffeine-free drink, it's ideal for later-in-the-day snacks. For a more interesting additional flavor for the Frappuccino, I love caramel cold foam instead of the whipped cream.

Since the Vanilla Bean Crème Frappuccino has such a basic flavor, the caramel on top of that is pretty mild. It's an easy base to flavor with the caramel cold foam. If you want to add still more caramel flavor, I recommend drizzling caramel around the cup and over the cold foam. With the base of the drink being white, the caramel color will really pop and make for an interesting and appetizing look.