s’mores iced coffee with toasted marshmallow cold foam

Apparently, making a S’mores iced coffee meant I needed to make half the coffee bar first.

I wanted chocolate, graham cracker, toasted marshmallow, and fresh iced coffee all in one glass — but I didn’t want it so sweet that the coffee disappeared underneath everything else.

So I made homemade graham cracker syrup.

Then toasted marshmallow syrup.

Then chocolate syrup.

And finally, they all got to do the job I made them for.

This S’mores iced coffee has a light drizzle of chocolate around the glass, graham and toasted marshmallow syrups in the coffee, and toasted marshmallow cold foam on top with crushed graham crackers.

It sounds like dessert.

It kind of is.

But it still tastes like coffee.

what makes this taste like s’mores?

There are three flavors doing the heavy lifting here.

Graham cracker syrup brings that warm honey, cinnamon, vanilla, and baked-cookie flavor.

Toasted marshmallow syrup gets its toasted flavor from caramelized sugar and its marshmallow flavor from vanilla.

And chocolate syrup gives the drink the chocolate layer it needs without turning the whole thing into a mocha.

I keep the chocolate pretty light on purpose.

The chocolate is there because S’mores need chocolate — but graham and toasted marshmallow are the flavors I actually want to taste.

Instead of loading the glass up with one really strong flavor, I’d rather layer smaller amounts of all three.

That keeps it tasting like S’mores instead of just sweet chocolate coffee.

the coffee matters too

I make this with my Japanese-style iced coffee, sometimes called flash-brew iced coffee.

The coffee brews hot directly over ice, so it chills almost immediately.

That means I can make fresh iced coffee without waiting for a whole pot to cool or having cold brew already sitting in the refrigerator.

And because the coffee still has so much fresh-brewed flavor, it actually stands up to the graham, marshmallow, and chocolate instead of disappearing underneath them.

toasted marshmallow cold foam

The cold foam is one of my favorite parts of this drink because it gives you toasted marshmallow flavor before you even get to the coffee.

I make it with heavy cream and a little toasted marshmallow syrup, then froth it until it thickens.

Mine stays pourable instead of getting thick enough to spoon, and that works perfectly here.

It pours right over the top of the coffee and slowly starts mixing into the drink as you sip.

The syrup is already sweet, so there’s no need to add another sweetener.

can i make this without homemade syrups?

You definitely do not have to make every single component from scratch just to make one glass of coffee.

You can use whatever chocolate syrup you already have.

The graham cracker and toasted marshmallow syrups are what give this version its specific flavor, though, so those are the two I would keep if you want it to taste like this one.

Thankfully, both recipes make enough that you are not doing all that work for a single drink.

make the syrups first

If you want to build the whole drink from scratch, start here:

• Homemade Graham Cracker Coffee Syrup
• Homemade Toasted Marshmallow Coffee Syrup
• Homemade Chocolate Syrup

The chocolate syrup is part of The Rooted Pantry Project, while the graham and toasted marshmallow syrups are more of a homemade coffee-bar bonus.

make it your own

This is one of those drinks I treat more like a framework than something that needs to be measured down to the drop.

Want more marshmallow? Add another little squeeze.

Want the graham flavor stronger? Add more graham syrup.

Want it sweeter? Add more chocolate.

I’d rather start lighter and add more than end up with a glass that tastes like syrup with a little coffee hiding somewhere underneath it.

That is especially true with this one because I still want the coffee to taste like coffee.