Ube Cold Foam

by John Cannon 3 min read Updated: May 27, 2026

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Ube is the ingredient responsible for that beautiful violet-color you’ve been seeing in drinks at your local coffee shop lately. The sweet potato-like root vegetable comes from the Philippines and is known for its nutty sweetness, but especially for its vibrant purple color. If not prepared by itself, it’s often used in traditional desserts. But more recently, ube is being used as an ingredient in coffee recipes; especially cold foam, as seen on TikTok (or Instagram reels, if you’re closer to my age).

Below is our Ube Cold Foam recipe for you to use atop your iced lattes, pancakes, fruit bowls, or any other use you can think of.

Before we begin, know that you’ll find lots of ube syrups or flavorings that don’t have a shred of ube in them. I wanted to approach this recipe making sure we honor the impact this Austronesian crop is having on coffee culture, so I’m aiming to use the real thing.

While it’s entirely possible to come up with ube syrups or extracts with actual fresh ube, I still wanted to keep it simple, so I’m using an ube powder. Because of that, we needed to make a bit of an emulsion by mixing the ube powder with water — easy enough.

Recipe Details

Complexity - Low
Serves - 1
Prep Time - 5 minutes
Cost - ($)

Equipment

Hand frother
Measuring spoons
Cup or small bowl for mixing

Ingredients

3 tbsp heavy cream
1 tbsp milk
1 tbsp condensed milk
½ tsp ube powder
1 tsp water
Pinch of salt

Step-by-Step Instructions

Stir ube powder and water

Making a liquid will help break up the powder, helping it incorporate with the other ingredients later

Combine ube liquid with all other ingredients

Use a vessel that won’t splash around too much. Even a cup can work just fine.

Mix the ingredients together with the hand frother

We strongly recommend using a hand frother instead of whipping the ingredients manually with a whisk or a fork. The texture should be thick and creamy, and the color should be that beautiful, vibrant violet color throughout.

Enjoy!

Use it atop an iced latte, dip some fruit in it, put it on pancakes, or anything else you can think of. The sweetened condensed milk and heavy cream help infuse some sweetness into the cold foam, while the ube powder adds a burst of flavor reminiscent of hazelnut.

Try this: Top your iced latte

Feel free to use your cold foam however you like! We chose the iced latte route. We used our vibrant Whole Latte Love Buzzopolis blend which balanced out the nutty flavors in the ube cold foam.

Our Buzzopolis recipe uses 18g of ground coffee, pulling 36g of espresso in 27 seconds. Then, add the espresso to a glass of ice and milk, making sure to leave space at the top for the cold foam.