Iced Pecan Crunch Oatmilk Latte {Starbucks Copycat}

The Starbucks Iced Pecan Crunch Oatmilk Latte pairs blonde espresso with pecan syrup and oat milk topped with a light and airy nondairy vanilla cold foam. With this easy copycat recipe, you can recreate the fall iced latte at home, complete with pecan crunch topping!

Jump to:

• 🧋 What is the Iced Pecan Crunch Oatmilk Latte?
• 🗒 Ingredients
• 🌰 How to make pecan syrup
• 🥣 How to make pecan crunch topping
• ☁️ How to make cold foam
• Increase Pecan Flavor
• 👩‍🍳 How to make drink
• 🎉 Variations on recipe
• ☕️ More nutty Starbucks drink recipes
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

Have you tried the pecan drinks at Starbucks yet? The overall consensus is that they're pretty awesome and totally customizable. Something tells me they'll make their way to the permanent fall menu!

I shared with you my copycat recipe for the hot Pecan Crunch Oatmilk Latte and today I'm back to show you how to make the Iced Pecan Crunch Oatmilk Latte.

Though both coffee drinks have very similar names, they're actually pretty different drinks, which is why I'm devoting a separate blog post to each drink.

And now you'll have your pick of both the hot or iced pecan drink depending on what the fall weather is putting you in the mood for!

🧋 What is the Iced Pecan Crunch Oatmilk Latte?

So, how is the iced pecan latte different than the hot one? Well, of course, it's served over ice, but it is also topped with a delicious vanilla sweet cream cold foam.

Just like the hot version, it's made with blonde espresso, pecan syrup, and oat milk.

I'm actually pretty surprised Starbucks opted to top the iced latte with a vanilla sweet cream instead of their new salted pecan cold foam, but I'm pretty sure it's because they wanted to keep the drink dairy-free and they don't make a nondairy version of it. But I will tell you how!

🗒 Ingredients

Just like with the hot drink, there are a few different components to this drink. But you are certainly welcome to use store-bought versions of some of them instead of making everything homemade.

I'm all about making things as easy as possible, but I also want to share the homemade details with you so you can make the drink as close to the original as possible.

Here's everything you need for the drink (be sure to view the recipe card at the bottom of this post for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions):

• Brewed blonde-roast espresso that's been cooled: you can use strongly brewed coffee if you prefer.
  
• Pecan syrup: I share my homemade recipe in this post. If you prefer you can use store-bought, but note that most pecan syrups are "butter pecan," which will change the flavor profile a bit (but still be delicious!). This pure pecan syrup is the closest I can find.
  
• Oat milk: to keep the drink as close to Starbucks' as possible, use oat milk (I recommend barista style or extra creamy). However, you can use any dairy or non-dairy alternative you want.
  
• Pecan crunch topping: I'll show you how to make this, too. It's very easy!

Here's what you'll need if you're making your own pecan syrup:

• Water
• Granulated sugar
• Chopped pecans (salted or unsalted): if you prefer, you can substitute with pecan extract
• Salt: only use if your pecans aren't salted

For the nondairy cold foam:

• Soy milk: I use a soy milk and oat milk combo because that's what Starbucks does, but you can stick to one or the other if you want. Use barista style or extra creamy if possible.
• Oat milk: use barista style or extra creamy if possible.
• Vanilla syrup: homemade with this vanilla syrup recipe or store-bought. Or you can increase the pecan flavor of your drink and use pecan syrup instead of vanilla.
• Soy lecithin powder: this is an optional ingredient that helps the nondairy milks froth up a little better, but the cold foam will still work without it.
• Soy protein isolate: this is another optional ingredient that helps thicken the froth, but you can make the foam without it.

If you aren't dairy-free, you can feel free to make the cold foam with dairy milk (or whatever alternative you prefer). Here's my standard Starbucks cold foam recipe.

And for the pecan crunch topping:

• Pecans (salted or unsalted)
• Granulated sugar
• Salt: only use if your pecans aren't salted

🌰 How to make pecan syrup

Like all my simple syrup recipes, this pecan syrup is very easy to make with just 3 ingredients.

To start, I recommend toasting the pecans. You can do it right in the medium saucepan you'll be making the syrup in.

You can also toast the nuts for the pecan crunch topping now, too. Just add an additional ¼ cup of pecans and be sure to remove ¼ cup of nuts to set aside to cool after toasting.

Toast over medium heat while you stir or shake saucepan frequently so they don't burn. It should take about 3-5 minutes, until the nuts are darkening and are fragrant.

Put water, sugar, and chopped pecans in a medium saucepan and bring mixture to a boil.

Once boiling, lower the heat and let simmer for about 10 minutes, until the mixture has thickened a bit.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in salt if you used unsalted pecans.

I recommend letting the syrup rest for about 30 minutes to let the pecan flavor continue to steep into the syrup (if you don't have time to do this, it will still be fine).

Then, strain the mixture into a bowl, leaving the nuts behind.

I highly recommend saving the pecans for snacking or topping ice cream with! They're so tasty.

Keep the mixture in the bowl or transfer it into a mason jar and place in fridge to cool completely.

The syrup will continue to thicken as it cools. It should stay fresh in your fridge for about a month.

The pecan simple syrup is so nutty and fall-like!

🥣 How to make pecan crunch topping

Next up, make the pecan crunch topping. You can make this days ahead of time if you want as it keeps well in an airtight container at room temperature.

It's just two ingredients - toasted pecans and granulated sugar.

If you didn't toast your pecans with the syrup nuts, you can do this now, wither in your toaster oven or conventional oven.

Once cooled, crush the nuts in your food processor, blender, or in a bag with a mallet or rolling pin.

Put them in a bowl.

And mix them together with the sugar. Mix in salt if you're using unsalted pecans.

The pecan flavor will infuse into the sugar more and more as the mixture rests. But you can certainly use it right away.

Keep the topping stored in an airtight container at room temperature.

☁️ How to make cold foam

Now let's talk about the nondairy vanilla cold foam! Starbucks cold foams are actually really easy to make at home.

The nondairy versions don't froth up quite as good as the ones with dairy milk, but they're awesome for anyone who is dairy-free.

I'm showing you how to make the dairy-free vanilla cold foam here, but if you want to use regular milk, use this cold foam recipe.

I always look at Starbucks' ingredient lists when developing my copycat recipes and for this cold foam, they use more soy milk than oat milk. So, I do that here, as well, but if you only want to use one or the other, I think that would be fine. Try to find barista-style or extra creamy versions of the milk if you can.

Starbucks also adds soy lecithin and soy isolate protein to their mixture as these ingredients enhance the frothing and stability of nondairy milks. In my testing, I found that they do indeed help, but that you can still get a decent froth without them.

Add soy milk, oat milk, vanilla simple syrup (or pecan!), and soy lecithin and soy isolate protein if using to a mason jar and shake to combine.

If you don't have a jar, you can simply stir all the ingredients together in a bowl.

If you're not using this right away, you can keep it in an airtight container in your fridge. This is your nondairy vanilla sweet cream and you can use it as is in coffee, tea, etc. if you want.

I recommend turning it into a cold foam right before you're ready to enjoy your drink.

To turn it into a cold foam, you can either use an electric frother, hand mixer, or blender. I love my electric frother.

Just add the sweet cream and froth, mix, or blend until the mixture turns into a foam. Alternatively, you can shake the mixture in a mason jar until it's frothy.

And it's ready to be added to your iced latte!

👩‍🍳 How to make drink

Now for the easy part- making the Iced Pecan Crunch Oatmilk Latte!

Just add pecan syrup and espresso to a glass filled with ice.

And add your oat milk to the glass.

You can stir it if you want.

And then top your drink with about ⅓ cup of nondairy vanilla cold foam.

Sprinkle pecan crunch topping over cold foam.

This is iced pecan perfection! It's somehow both refreshing and totally comforting at the same time.

I've never consciously equated pecans with the fall season, but they really are the essence of autumn. And I'm here for it!

Even though Starbucks has both hot and iced versions of the pecan latte, I have a feeling their iced latte will majorly outsell the hot latte.

We seem to really love our iced coffee, often year-round, here in the U.S.!

🎉 Variations on recipe

I developed this recipe to be as close to the Starbucks iced pecan latte recipe as possible. But just like you can customize your drink at Starbucks, it's easy to make this drink exactly how you want it at home!

Here are some ideas for variations and substitutions:

• Use the dairy or non-dairy alternative of your choice: Starbucks uses oat milk for their iced latte and soy milk and oat milk for their cold foam, but you can use whatever milk or non-dairy milk you want.

• Use pecan syrup in your cold foam instead of vanilla syrup. It just feels right for a pecan latte to have pecan cold foam, right? And it's so easy to swap the syrups out, especially since you'll already have the pecan one at the ready. I'd add a little more salt to turn it into the perfect salted pecan foam.

• Add a caramel drizzle or line the cup in caramel sauce before making the drink: pecan and caramel are the best combination!

• Add additional flavored syrups of your choice: Use syrups that complement pecan flavor, like brown sugar syrup or vanilla syrup.

• For more caffeine, consider adding an additional shot of espresso.

• In addition to the pecan crunch topping, sprinkle on some ground cinnamon and/or nutmeg. Pumpkin spice would also be delicious.

When you make this iced pecan latte at home, the options really are endless!

And if you're looking for the perfect latte pairing, you need to try these pecan pie muffins!

I can't wait to come up with new drinks and recipes to use the homemade pecan syrup in.

In the meantime, I'll be enjoying iced pecan lattes all fall long and probably straight through the holidays!

📖 Recipe