Pumpkin Cold Foam {Starbucks Copycat}

This Pumpkin Cold Foam is a Starbucks copycat made with heavy cream, 2% milk, vanilla syrup, and a homemade pumpkin spice sauce. It's thick and creamy and tastes amazing spooned over cold brew, iced coffee, or chai!

Jump to:

• 🧡 Why this recipe works
• 🗒️ Ingredients
• 🎃 Recipe tips
• 🧋 How to use pumpkin cold foam
• 🎉 Variations on recipe
• ⏲️ How to store
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

Do you wish you could put pumpkin cold foam on every drink you make this fall? You can!

Starbucks introduced their pumpkin cream cold foam in 2019 as the topping on its Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew, and it's come back every fall since. Now you can add it to just about any drink on the menu and I totally get why some people do.

But did you know that you can also add it on any drink you make at home? I've already made it for my Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew and my Iced Pumpkin Cream Chai Tea Latte, but this pumpkin cream cold foam deserves a post all of its own. It's made with my homemade pumpkin spice sauce and it has real pumpkin flavor in every sip.

And once you have a jar of the pumpkin sweet cream in your fridge, you can top any drink with it in no time at all!

If you'd rather keep it classic, you can use my plain Sweet Cream Cold Foam recipe instead.

🧡 Why this recipe works

It's made just like Starbucks makes their cold foam: Starbucks makes its pumpkin cream cold foam by mixing pumpkin sauce into its vanilla sweet cream, which is heavy cream, 2% milk, and vanilla syrup. I use that same combination, so it tastes like the real thing.

It actually tastes like pumpkin spice: my pumpkin spice sauce is made with pumpkin puree, sweetened condensed milk, brown sugar, and pumpkin pie spice, so it has lots of pumpkin flavor.

It's easy to make ahead of time: I love that you can stir together the pumpkin sweet cream, keep it in the fridge for about a week, and froth just what you need each morning.

It works well in so many drinks: you can add it to cold brew, iced coffee, iced chai, shaken espresso, matcha… I honestly haven't found a fall drink yet that it doesn't make better!

🗒️ Ingredients

Here's everything you need to make your own pumpkin cold foam at home (be sure to view the recipe card at the bottom of this post for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions):

• Heavy cream
• 2% milk
• Pumpkin spice sauce: you can either make your own with the recipe I share below or you can purchase a bottle of pumpkin spice sauce.
• Vanilla syrup: you can either make it with my vanilla syrup recipe or use a store-bought bottle. If you prefer, you can replace it with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

If you're making your own pumpkin spice sauce, here's what you need:

• Fat-free sweetened condensed milk: you can use regular if you can't find fat-free.
• Pumpkin puree
• Light brown sugar
• Pumpkin pie spice
• Salt
• Vanilla extract

I also recommend purchasing a milk frother as it will make whipping up cold foam so much easier!

🎃 Recipe tips

• Make the pumpkin sauce in advance if you're planning to do it from scratch. It will need a chance to chill in the fridge before you mix it into the cold foam.

• If you don't want to make this, I've found the Torani pumpkin sauce to be a great alternative.

• Stir the sauce as it warms and then take it off the heat once it's just starting to bubble, after about 5 minutes.

• Add all the pumpkin cold foam ingredients to a mason jar or other airtight container and shake it really well. You want the thick pumpkin spice sauce to be fully mixed into the milk, cream, and vanilla syrup and you want to get it nice and frothy.

• Once you add them to the jar, you'll have your pumpkin sweet cream. You can use this as is (it's great added into any coffee drink like a coffee creamer!) or you can whip it into a pumpkin cold foam!

• You can make the pumpkin sweet cream a day or two in advance and keep it in a mason jar or airtight container in your fridge. When you're ready for your drink, whip it into a cold foam.

• Cold foams froth up best with really cold ingredients, so make sure you use cream and milk right out of the fridge. And if you make the sweet cream in advance, keep it chilled until ready to use.

• It's super easy to whip up into a cold foam using an electric frother, but you can also use a hand mixer, or blender. Just add the sweet cream and froth, mix, or blend until the mixture turns into a foam.

• If you don't have any of those devices, you can simply shake the mixture in the mason jar until it's frothy. It will take a little elbow grease and won't likely be as thick and frothy as the coffee store version, but it will do the trick.

• Starbucks usually tops its Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew with a sprinkle of pumpkin spice, so add a pinch of pumpkin pie spice on top if you want the full coffee shop look.

The cold foam comes out thick and creamy with sweet pumpkin spice flavor and a nice hint of vanilla. When you pour it over your drink, it sits right on top of the coffee or chai and slowly swirls in as you sip, so the whole drink gets creamier as you go.

It truly makes any iced coffee taste like a fall treat. And when you keep a jar of the sweet cream in the fridge, it's the easiest at-home coffee upgrade whenever you get a craving!

🧋 How to use pumpkin cold foam

One batch of the cold foam is enough to top about 3 grande-size drinks, using about ⅓ cup each. Here are my favorite ways to use it:

• Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew: the original Starbucks pumpkin cold foam drink! It's cold brew with vanilla syrup and cold foam on top.
• Iced Pumpkin Cream Chai: cold foam works on iced chai lattes, too, and this pumpkin version is one of my most popular Starbucks copycat drinks.
• Iced Pumpkin Cream Shaken Espresso: Starbucks launched this fall shaken espresso with pumpkin cold foam on top in fall 2026.
• Iced coffee: pour it over any iced coffee for an instant fall upgrade.
• Iced latte or iced matcha: it's great on an iced latte or iced matcha latte, too.
• Hot coffee: spoon it over a mug of hot coffee or hot cocoa. It won't hold its shape as long, but it will melt into a creamy pumpkin topping.

The pumpkin spice sauce makes plenty, so save the extra for my Pumpkin Spice Latte or Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino!

🎉 Variations on recipe

As always with my copycat recipes, I try to make them as close to the Starbucks' versions as possible. But when you make them at home, you can make them however you want! Here are some fun twists you can make to the pumpkin cold foam:

• Swap the vanilla syrup for my brown sugar syrup for a deeper, caramel-like flavor.
• Try my cinnamon dolce syrup instead of vanilla for extra cinnamon flavor.
• Use my caramel syrup in place of the vanilla for a pumpkin caramel foam.
• Add a little more pumpkin spice sauce if you want a sweeter, more pumpkin-forward foam. But note that if you add too much, it won't froth up well.
• Use less sauce if you prefer a lighter and less sweet cold foam.
• Add a pinch of extra pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon to the sweet cream for more fall spice.
• Stir in a drop of maple extract or a splash of maple syrup for a maple pumpkin version of the drink.
• Use half-and-half in place of the milk and cream for a lighter foam.
• Top the finished foam with a drizzle of caramel sauce.

⏲️ How to store

Store the pumpkin sweet cream (the unfrothed mixture) in an airtight container in the fridge for about a week. I think mason jars work best. Give it a good shake and froth it right before using, since the foam is best made fresh.

You can keep the pumpkin spice sauce in a jar or other airtight container in the fridge for about a week as well.

I'm so happy to finally give this pumpkin cold foam a post of its own. It's easy, it keeps well in the fridge, and it turns any regular at-home iced coffee into a fancy cafe-style fall drink!

What's your favorite cold foam flavor?

📖 Recipe