Coffee Soda
Coffee syrup and soda water over ice with a slow pour of cold cream on top, so it fizzes, swirls and turns into a coffee cream soda. It is sweet, light and very cold, and the cream goes on last for a reason.
At a glance
- Syrup : soda
- 1:5
- Active time
- 3 min
- Total time
- 11 min
- Makes
- 1 tall glass
- Serve
- Over ice
- Kit
- Tall glass
Ingredients
Note: For the syrup: 200 ml cold brew concentrate and 150 g sugar, simmered gently for five minutes and cooled. It keeps three weeks in the fridge.
Method
-
Make the coffee syrup
Simmer the cold brew concentrate and sugar gently for five minutes, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Cool and bottle.
A gentle simmer. A hard boil cooks off the coffee aroma and turns the syrup bitter.
Simmer 5 minutes -
Syrup and ice
Pour the syrup into a tall glass and fill it with ice.
-
Soda water, gently
Pour the soda water slowly down the side of the glass to keep the fizz, and give it one gentle stir.
-
Float the cream
Pour the cold cream slowly over the top. It swirls down through the soda. Serve with a straw and stir as you drink.
Why this works
The build is the Italian-American cream soda: flavoured syrup, soda water and cream. Coffee syrup made from cold brew gives a strong coffee flavour in a small volume, so the soda stays light. Cold brew is used because it is smooth and low in sharp acidity, and a syrup made from it tastes rounder than one made from hot coffee.
Carbonated water is slightly acidic, because dissolved carbon dioxide forms carbonic acid. Cream is mostly fat with milk proteins, and those proteins curdle when acid and warmth meet them for long enough. That is why the cream goes in last, cold, onto a very cold drink. Kept cold and served straight away, it swirls through without splitting. Warm cream or a warm glass and it can turn grainy.
The pour order matters for the fizz too. Syrup at the bottom, ice, then soda poured gently down the side keeps as much carbonation as possible. Pouring hard or stirring vigorously drives the gas out.
Coffee and sparkling water have been combined in several places independently, from Italian coffee sodas to Scandinavian coffee tonics. With cream, it sits between a soda fountain drink and a dessert, which is where this site files it. For the version with tonic and no cream, see espresso tonic.
Variations
- Without cream: coffee syrup and soda with a twist of orange peel, lighter and brighter.
- With tonic: tonic in place of soda water. See espresso tonic.
- Float: a scoop of vanilla ice cream instead of cream.
- With vanilla: a drop of vanilla extract in the syrup.
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Questions
How do you make coffee soda?
Pour coffee syrup over ice, top with cold soda water, and float cold cream on top if you like it creamy.
Why did the cream curdle in my coffee soda?
Soda water is slightly acidic. Use very cold cream on a very cold drink and serve it straight away.
How long does coffee syrup keep?
About three weeks in a sealed bottle in the fridge.
Can I use espresso for the syrup?
Yes. Simmer 150 ml of espresso with 150 g of sugar. It will taste a little sharper than a cold brew syrup.