Salted Caramel Cream Cold Brew {Starbucks Copycat}

This Salted Caramel Cream Cold Brew is a perfect Starbucks copycat. This iced coffee with caramel and salted cold foam is the perfect treat!

How to make salted caramel cold brews

1. Make the cold brew coffee by mixing water and coffee grinds together in a large pitcher. Let sit overnight and then drain through a mesh sieve or tablecloth. 
2. In a saucepan, mix sugar and water on medium-low heat until sugar dissolves into a caramel syrup. Let cool for at least 1 hour and store in the fridge up to one month.
3. Mix whipping cream, milk, sugar and salt to a large, tall glass or to a large bowl. Whip together to make a stiff foam texture.
4. Pour cold brew over ice and caramel syrup in a tall glass. Top with caramel cold foam. Serve immediately over iced cold brew and enjoy!

Ingredients and substitutions

• Water
• Ground coffee – if you’d like to speed up this recipe, you can purchase pre-made cold brew. If you do purchase a pre-made bottled version, opt for an unsweetened version to lessen the sugar count.   
• Salted cold foam (see below)
• Caramel syrup (see below)

Caramel syrup

• Sugar – to make caramel syrup without the sugar, you can substitute sugar with molasses, monk fruit, agave syrup or brown sugar. 
• Boiling water

Salted cold foam

• Whipping cream – I suggest using whipping cream so that the texture is as close to cold foam as possible. If you’re in a pinch, leave it out entirely or replace it with sweetened condensed milk. 
• Milk – I use 2% milk for this recipe because that’s what Starbucks uses. Use any other dairy or non dairy milk of your choice. 
• Sugar – replace sugar with a sugar substitute listed above.
• Sea salt – sea salt is used to compliment the caramel flavours.

Is this drink healthy?

Cold brew is one of the healthier drinks that you can have. On its own, cold brew coffee has no sugar and a very low calorie count. Enjoying the sweet cream version that's listed in this recipe will add fat, calories, and carbs, but the good news is that you can control the amount of sugar and sweet cream that you add.  Overall, add however much of each ingredient to make this drink fit into your lifestyle. 

Is this this cold brew super sweet?

While there is sugar in the caramel syrup, this isn’t a super sweet drink at all. If you have concerns about the sweetness levels, you're able to adjust it to your desire. To make this drink less sweet, make sure the cold brew that you're using an unsweetened cold brew (if using a bottled version) and alter the amount of syrup and cold foam that you add into the drink. 

How does this compare to the Starbucks cold brew?

Just like this recipe, the Starbucks cold brew is flavoured with a caramel syrup and topped with salted caramel cream foam on top. However, there are a few differences within the nutritional facts. When you buy this drink at Starbucks, a grande will run you about 230 calories and 23 grams of sugar. By making your own cream and syrup, you are saving a lot of those calories in this version. With my version, you can save up to 40 calories with my version, and even more if you skip the whipping cream – approximately 50 more calories can be shaved off if you just use just milk for the cold foam. Be weary, if you decide to skip the whipping cream, the texture of the cold foam may be different.

More iced coffee recipes

• Iced coffee – 3 ways (caramel, vanilla and mocha)
• Iced coconut milk caramel macchiatos
• Pumpkin cream cold brew

Meal prep tools for this recipe

• Get some cheesecloth to strain the coffee
• Pick up some coffee beans or pre-ground coffee such as Lavazza
• You may need a coffee grinder if you're using fresh whole beans
• And if you're feeling lazy and just want your coffee already, these iced coffee syrups are an amazing way to jazz up your summer drinks!