5 Sweet Cream Recipes to Make at Home (Easy & Delicious)

Want to make your coffee creamier, smoother, and slightly sweet without overpowering its flavor?

Sweet cream is a lightly sweetened, silky-smooth coffee enhancer that blends seamlessly into hot and iced drinks. It’s a perfect alternative to plain milk or heavy cream, adding richness without being too thick.

In this guide, you will learn:

• How sweet cream enhances different coffee drinks
• How to make sweet cream for coffee at home
• Customizable variations for your perfect coffee experience

While Starbucks made Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew famous, homemade sweet cream is incredibly easy to make and can be customized to your taste—whether you like it with vanilla, caramel, cinnamon, or other flavors.

I’ve tested and perfected this sweet cream recipe to ensure a rich, smooth, and perfectly balanced flavor—I hope you enjoy it.

Feel free to save this recipe for later so you can enjoy homemade sweet cream anytime.

Let’s get started!

What is sweet cream?

Sweet cream is a blend of heavy cream, milk, and a sweetener like vanilla syrup, honey, or maple syrup. It creates a smooth and lightly sweet addition to coffee.

Unlike whipped cream, it remains liquid, allowing it to blend seamlessly into both hot and cold beverages. Its versatility makes it perfect for iced coffee, cold brew, lattes, and even hot coffee, with the sweetness easily adjustable to suit personal taste.

You can also whip sweet cream into a light and fluffy cold foam and use it for your favorite iced coffee, but more on this later.

Here’s how it compares to other popular coffee add-ins:

Type	Main Ingredients	Texture	Best For	Learn More
🥛 Sweet Cream	Heavy cream, milk, sweetener (vanilla, honey, or maple syrup)	Rich, velvety texture and subtle sweetness	Both hot and iced coffees, including cold brews and lattes	Scroll down to see the recipe
🥄 Cold Foam	Skim milk, sweetener (optional)	Light, creamy, and airy texture	Cold brew, iced coffee	Read More
🍶 Heavy Cream	100% heavy whipping cream	Thick, creamy flavor	Hot coffees such as espressos, Americanos, and brewed coffee	Read More
🍦 Vanilla Syrup	White granulated sugar, water, vanilla bean, split and deseeded	Smooth, sweet vanilla flavor	It’s most often used to sweeten iced coffees	Read More
🌿 Cinnamon	Ground cinnamon	Warm, spicy flavor with a subtle sweetness	Hot and iced coffees, including lattes and cappuccinos	Read More

What is sweet cream made of?

You can make sweet cream at home with just three main ingredients. The most common sweet cream is vanilla-flavored, for which you’ll need the following components:

Ingredient	Measurement
🥛 Heavy Cream	1/2 cup (0.12 l)
🥛 2% Milk	1/2 cup (0.12 l)
🌿 Vanilla Syrup	1 tbsp (15 grams)

Here’s a bit more information about each:

• Heavy cream – This is key to creating a thick, creamy sweet cream. You can find heavy cream at most grocery stores near the dairy section.
• 2% fat milk – You can use any type of milk here, but I usually have 2% fat milk at home. Whole milk will produce the richest result.
• Vanilla syrup – This will sweeten the cream and give it a lovely flavor. You can change the flavor according to your preferences. More sweetening options are listed a bit further down.

You can make the vanilla syrup at home by combining white granulated sugar, vanilla, and water.

You can then place this on the stove until the sugar has dissolved and let it cool afterward. If you want to try the recipe, you can check out this complete recipe.

I’ll go over the different flavors to try a bit further down, but first, what does sweet cream taste like?

What does sweet cream taste like?

Sweet cream is a type of cream that is sweetened with sugar syrup. It has a creamy, smooth texture and a slightly sweet taste.

The flavor of sweet cream can change depending on the add-in you’re using. However, it’ll always have that smooth and velvety texture.

Once you incorporate it with your favorite coffee, it’ll taste like a sweet and creamy mixture. You can compare the taste with coffee creamer, which also has that smooth mouthfeel.

What kind of sweet cream flavors are there?

There are a variety of sweet cream flavors that you can choose from. Some of the most popular flavors and my favorites include:

Sweet cream flavor	Ingredients needed
Vanilla	Heavy cream, 2% fat milk, vanilla syrup, or vanilla extract
Cinnamon	Heavy cream, 2% fat milk, ground cinnamon
Mocha	Heavy cream, 2% fat milk, chocolate sauce, or chocolate syrup
Pumpkin spice	Heavy cream, 2% fat milk, pumpkin spice mix
Caramel	Heavy cream, 2% fat milk, caramel sauce (homemade or store-bought)

As you can see from the table above, you can add just about anything to the heavy cream and milk mixture to turn the sweet cream into a different flavor.

You can experiment with different add-ins to see which you like. For example, you can add some Nutella to make Nutella sweet cream.

Which coffees taste good with sweet cream?

Sweet cream is the perfect addition for those who enjoy a creamy cup of coffee.

There are a variety of coffees that taste great with sweet cream, so it really depends on your personal preference.

I personally love adding sweet cream to a rich, dark roast coffee. The creaminess helps to balance out the bold flavor of the coffee and creates a delicious and harmonious cup.

Other coffees that work well with sweet cream include coffee brewed with medium roasted coffee beans.

Basically, you can add it to your morning coffee, use it as a sweetener in your latte (to make it extra decadent), or try adding a tiny amount to an espresso shot.

Make sweet cream cold foam for cold coffees

If you’re looking for a unique and tasty combination, you can also cold foam the mixture and use it as a topping for your favorite iced coffee.

The Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew is a popular combination made with vanilla-flavored sweet cream, cold brew, and a splash of vanilla syrup:

If you’re a fan of sweetening your iced coffee, you can pour the sweet cream straight into it and give it a quick stir, just like hot brewed coffee.

Or try the cold foaming technique to create extra texture. You can do so by adding it to a milk frother with a cold foam function or use a French press instead:

1. Add the sweet cream into your French press beaker.
2. Place the plunger on top and press up and down until thick froth forms. This usually takes about 30 to 60 seconds.
3. Pour the sweet cream cold foam straight onto your favorite iced coffee and serve as soon as possible!

You can learn more about cold foaming in this article, where I cover five different ways you can make it at home!

How to make sweet cream

Making sweet cream is easy! You can check out the overview and the process photos below. You can scroll down a bit further for the complete recipe.

1. Pour the heavy cream and milk into a bowl.
2. Add the vanilla syrup (or another flavor you like).
3. Stir to combine.
4. Pour the sweet cream into a container.
5. Store the sweet cream in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use it.

As you can see from the photos above, you need just a few ingredients and even less equipment to make sweet cream at home.

Now that you have all the information about the sweet cream, it’s time to make it yourself by following the recipe card below:

FAQs about sweet cream

Before I close off this article, let’s quickly go over a few key questions people have when researching sweet cream.

Who knows, maybe this will answer one of the questions you had as well!

Conclusion

Sweet cream is an easy way to elevate your coffee with a smooth, lightly sweetened richness.

By blending simple ingredients like heavy cream, milk, and flavorings, you can create custom variations to suit your taste.

Whether stirred into hot coffee or frothed into cold foam for iced drinks, homemade sweet cream adds a luxurious touch with minimal effort.

Try making your own today and experiment with different flavors! Have a favorite combination? Let me know in the comments!

More coffee add-ins

If you’d like to try even more coffee add-ins for your coffee, have a look below for some inspiration:

• Homemade Caramel Coffee Creamer: An Easy Step-By-Step Guide
• Chocolate Sauce for Coffee: A Great Homemade Add-in to Try
• Dark Chocolate in Coffee: A Combination You Need to Try