Incorporate Bourbon Into Your Cold Foam For A Boozy Iced Coffee

Do you ever wish your cup of iced coffee was just a bit boozier? The iced coffee you have during a weekend afternoon is the perfect time to add a spirit for flavor and a little buzz. An easy solution to this craving? Add bourbon to your cold foam.

Some of bourbon's most common flavor notes include vanilla and caramel — two flavors that show up in coffee drinks all of the time — making it the perfect alcohol to integrate into an iced coffee. To make this happen, prepare your iced coffee or cold brew as normal, then, when it comes time to make the cold foam, add a splash of your favorite bourbon. If you're unfamiliar with the process of making cold foam, you simply use a handheld milk frother to froth up about a half cup of milk (or half & half) — or use our fool-proof ratio for the perfect cold foam.

If you need a bourbon recommendation, you can look to our ranked list of the 27 best bourbon brands or, if you're keeping a budget in mind, our list of the best bourbons under 50 bucks. When reading labels of potential bourbons, look out for "vanilla" or "caramel" in the description. If you're worried about the coffee being too strong and not sweet enough, you can always add a splash of vanilla syrup along with the bourbon to sweeten up the taste and accentuate the vanilla note from the booze.

The bourbon-infused cold foam can be added to any iced coffee drink, not just a simple iced coffee or cold brew. When making an iced latte, for example, you would typically pour the milk directly over the espresso without frothing it, but if you want to make the drink a bit more exciting, you can pour in less milk and then top it off with a dollop of this boozy cold foam. This bourbon cold foam addition will taste delicious on a plain iced latte, but it will also pair well with a flavored latte, such as salted caramel. Or, you can make an iced mocha a bit more decadent with the addition of bourbon-infused cold foam.

If you'd rather have a hot drink but still want that bourbon addition, add the bourbon into the mug right after adding the espresso. The bourbon is a tasty addition to traditional drinks like hot lattes or cappuccinos, but feel free to add it to specialty hot drinks as well. For example, it will taste delicious in a campfire s'mores latte — the oaky, vanilla notes of the bourbon pair beautifully with the smoky element of this themed latte — or even in a deluxe pistachio latte. Either of these drinks can also be altered into iced drinks if you want to stick to the original method of adding bourbon to cold foam.