How to Make Cheese Foam for Milk Tea

Milk tea lovers, try adding this popular milk cap to your homemade milk tea. It is a trendy topping among Asian milk tea stores. Let’s learn how to make the perfect cheese foam with a perfectly smooth texture and taste balance.

You may be familiar with cold foam in coffee drinks. Cheese foam is denser and more prosperous in flavor and texture than regular cold foam in coffee drinks. It is typically made from cream cheese, heavy cream, condensed milk, sugar, and sea salt. With a slightly sweet yet savory taste, it is one of the most magical and charming toppings for all kinds of milk tea, smoothies, and iced fruit teas.

Since it has a well-balanced taste and is not completely sweet like sweet cold foam, it can pair with most tea drinks and almost all types of milk tea. By the way, tea lovers, you can check out our basic guidelines for making bubble tea at home and the different milk tea options: tiger milk tea, taro milk tea, lychee bubble tea, and jasmine bubble tea.

Ingredients for Cheese Foam

Cream cheese is the critical ingredient for cheese foam. It adds a super creamy and more decadent texture.

Heavey cream and milk: Milk makes the cheese more pourable. We must mix cheese with milk before combining it with whipping cream.

Sweetener: There are many sweeteners to choose from. You can use white sugar or syrup. A more Asian way is to use sweetened condensed milk for an even creamy texture.

Salt: Salt is a crucial flavor balancer for cheese foam. I love to use pink rose salt, but you can choose your favorite type or brand.

Tools

Larger milk tea stores may use a cheese form maker, but it can be made at home with essential tools. We will introduce two methods: a frother for a smaller batch and a hand mixer for larger batches.

The key to making cheese foam is to ensure that the cheese is well mixed with milk to ensure the smooth texture of the completed foam. So, you may also need to use a filter and a large mixing bowl for a slightly larger batch.

Step by Step Instructions

Rest the cheese at room temperature for about 1 hour so it can return to room temperature and become soft.

Cream your cheese: place room-temperature cheese in a small mixing bowl, add milk, and use a whisk to whip it until it becomes light and fluffy. If you have a cup blender, blend cheese with milk until well combined.

Whipping: add whipping cream, sweetened condensed milk and salt. Continue beating until light, fluffy, foamy, and pourable. This process only takes 15 to 20 seconds, a little bit longer than regular cream.

The final cheese foam should have a light, airy, almost running texture.

Assemble

You can use cheese foam on only your bubble tea or fruit tea. My favorite way is to add it to tiger milk tea. Stir before enjoying.

I am using a tiger bubble tea with brown sugar boba pearls and a Thai tea base. Stir the brown sugar to coat the serving cup, then follow with ice cubes if you use it. Next, pour in a black tea base and milk. That’s the basic tiger milk tea base.

Now top your cheese foam on top of the milk tea.

How to use it

Though it is mainly paired with bubble tea, there are still some other ways you can try to combine.

1. Coffee: Compared with the cold form, cheese foam is much denser and may apply a more aromatic flavor to your coffee.
2. Iced tea: light and chilled iced tea is another excellent base for cheese foam.
3. Puddings: If you love to make puddings, I suggest topping them with a thin layer of cheese foam.
4. On cheesecake: cheese foam and cheesecake will have a union flavor but different flavors.

Making ahead

You can make the cheese foam ahead of time and keep it in the fridge for around 3-4 hours. However, freshly whipped cheese foam has the best texture.

What’s Next

We hope this cheese foam can be one of your top choices as we do. Go ahead and try to explore more options and combinations. We love to hear your feedback. Happy cooking!