Cheese Tea: How to Make Cheese Foam for Boba

Cheese foam, the topping on cheese tea, adds a creamy, savoury, sweet twist to boba drinks. It's a delicious topping that makes our drinks even moreish than fun tapioca pearls. 

Cheese foam, sometimes called cheese mousse, is made of cream cheese, whipping cream, milk, salt, and sugar.

Like any recipe, though, there are variations. Some use evaporated and condensed milk, while others use powdered cheese or sour cream. For our recipe, we'll be sticking to using cream cheese. 

We'll give you our cooking tips to ensure the right consistency and sweetness and show you some of our favourite ways to enjoy it.

Jump to:

• Cheese Foam Ingredients
• Cheese Tea Recipe | How to Make Cheese Foam
• Cooking Tips
• Vegan Cheese Foam
• Using evaporated milk and condensed milk
• Using powdered cheese
• How To Store
• Cheese Tea Taste
• How To Enjoy

Cheese Foam Ingredients

You can make this trendy drink with just a few ingredients, most of which you can purchase at your local grocery store.

• Cream cheese
• Whipping cream
• Milk
• Salt
• Sugar

Cream cheese

It has a soft texture and a very mild flavour. It is essential to the foam's texture and gives it its savoury notes. 

Whipping cream

We use fresh whipping cream, which has roughly 36% fat content (in the UK). Once whipped, it holds its shape and is light and fluffy. It's vital to the texture of cheese tea foam.

You can also use double cream, which has about 48% fat content. As a result, the whipped cream will be thicker and is more dense. We find double cream to be more suitable for desserts, but it is a viable alternative for salted cream cheese foam. 

Milk

Milk is used here to help mix the cream cheese with the rest of the ingredients without diluting the creaminess of the resulting cream foam top. You can use plant-based milk, but as it contains more water content, the foam will turn out less creamy. 

Coconut milk is a good plant milk substitute due to its thickness. However, it is only a good alternative if you like the coconut taste.

Salt

For our recipe, we're using a pinch of salt to enhance the flavour.

Sugar

Make sure you use standard granulated sugar, not powdered. Powdered sugar will change the consistency of the foam. Use granulated white sugar. The sugar grains help maintain the foam's structure to keep it fluffy and airy. Avoid using brown sugar as it colours your salted cream cheese foam yellowish.

Cooking Tips

Here are some cooking tips to help you approach our Chinese cheese tea recipe as easily as possible.

Foam Tips

Making foam can be daunting, but with the right tips, it's effortless. 

Don't overwhip: When whipping the cream, don't overwhip. Once your cream has formed soft peaks, stop. Overwhipping can lead to stiff peaks, which will greatly impact the texture of the foam. 

Don't overmix: Overmixing can have the same effect as overwhipping. Watch our YouTube video tutorial recipe carefully to see what the foam should look like. This will help you avoid overmixing.

Use the correct tools: Making foam can be an intense process, especially if you need to get used to whipping and whisking.

We recommend using a hand whisk for better control. You can use a stand mixer but risk overwhipping the cream if you don't control it well. Besides, the amount of whipping cream needed for the recipe is small, so it will not take long (and not too tiring) to hand whisk.

Thick or Thin Foam

The ideal consistency is when the cheese foam is fluffy (slightly thick) but still flows smoothly when poured using a spoon or ladle. To achieve this, we recommend whisking the whipping cream until soft peaks form so that when you mix it with the cream cheese mixture, you avoid overwhipping and can easily reach the perfect consistency.

If you prefer a thin foam, then you can mix the whipping cream directly with the rest of the ingredients from the start. Then, slowly whisk the mixture until it becomes slightly foamy but still thin.

If you prefer a thick foam, then follow the recipe as usual, but whisk the whipping cream until medium peaks form. Then, mix it with the rest of the ingredients and whisk until stiff peaks form. When poured, your savoury foam top will be quite thick and not flow so easily. You will need a ladle and another spoon to place the salted cream cheese foam on top of your drink.

Sweeter or Saltier

We recommend adding more sugar in ½ tablespoon increments if you want a sweeter salted cream cheese foam. 

If you want more saltiness, add more salt in ¼ teaspoon increments or in pinches. It can easily get quite salty, so adjust in very small amounts.

Brewing the Tea

The base drink must be just as good as the foam for this drink to be at its peak deliciousness. 

Use the correct temperature depending on the type of loose leaf you're brewing. When you're making tea for boba, you will need to leave the leaves to brew for a longer time. We recommend at least 10-15 minutes for a stronger brew.

Vegan Cheese Foam

This rich mousse contains many dairy ingredients, but there is a simple way to make it vegan. With minor substitutions, you'll have a delicious mousse that fits your dietary preferences.

However, while there are substitute ingredients, the taste and texture will be different.

• Cream cheese: To make it vegan, substitute this with silken tofu. To get a smoother texture, ensure that there are no clumps.
• Whipping cream: We recommend using coconut cream as a substitute for a similar consistency. However, you will get a coconut flavour. 

Similarly, if you're using an alternative recipe, you can still swap the dairy ingredients when making vegan cheese tea. 

• Evaporated milk: Plant-based evaporated milk options are available at some grocery stores.
• Condensed milk: We recommend using sweetened coconut condensed milk.
• Powdered cheese: There are several options for vegan powdered available online.

Using evaporated milk and condensed milk

If you can't find cream cheese and whipping cream, you can use evaporated milk and condensed milk instead. 

Evaporated milk is a great alternative if you don't like the flavour of whipped cream. Condensed milk is similar to evaporated milk, but it has added sugar. 

Mix together evaporated milk and condensed milk. Freeze until just crystalised and whisk until it becomes foamy. Gradually add salt to taste. You can use this method as an alternative, but the resulting cream foam top will not be as fluffy, and the consistency will be thicker than the original recipe.

Using powdered cheese

The original recipes, made at night market stands in Taiwan, use powdered cheese. White powder made from a mild type, like cheddar, is best. It's sometimes called cream cheese foam, cheese foam powder, or cheese tea powder.

However, it is difficult to find and also not as nice as freshly made cheese foam, as we’ve shown you in our recipe.

How To Store

Cheese foam can be prepared beforehand and used later. Make a large batch and store it in an airtight container in your refrigerator. It can last up to five days, though it tastes best when it's fresh.

However, if you do make a large batch (like for 10 servings or more), we recommend doing it in increments. Doubling or tripling the recipe would require more precise control when whipping the cream, which could result in a different texture. Therefore, it's best to follow the recipe and repeat the process to have a larger batch.

Cheese Tea Taste

Cheese tea has a lovely, refreshing taste. The foam is usually atop bubble tea, often made with black, green or oolong tea. The taste of the tea will vary depending on which leaves you use, but the foam will be sweet and savoury.

Just by hearing the name, it's easy to assume this drink will have a cheesy flavour. However, it tastes closer to cheesecake, where it's mostly sweet and has savoury notes.

How To Enjoy

Cheese tea is as easy to enjoy as it is to make. The delicious, versatile foam can make a cheese tea boba and many other drinks. For example, stir it into your tea to make a creamy, rich drink. Otherwise, you can leave it sitting on top of your base drink, sipping it and enjoying its frothy texture. 

Here are some of our favourite combinations to elevate this delicious foam.

Add flavouring

Adding your syrup of choice to your tea can make mousse even better. Pairing it with a fruity syrup-like mango or berry or something sweet like caramel can add a new depth of flavour. Adding vanilla syrup is also a great option.

Other than adding syrups, we've also added matcha powder on top of it with Jasmine tea. The combination is sweet, savoury, earthy and refreshing.

Switch up the salt

We used plain salt for our recipe, but you can also try using rose salt, which will give you a chilli kick or pink salt for a saltier flavour.

Add it to coffee

The thick mousse can be used on any beverage, not just tea. Try cheese foam coffee for a new experience of frothy delight. We like to put it on top of some iced black americano.

Different tea flavours

The mousse is delicious on many other teas. Rotate your leaf type to try new flavours. We suggest trying homemade bubble tea, honeydew milk tea, or jasmine green milk tea, all of which you can make at home. 

Our recent favourite is making Earl Grey Cheese Tea, which tastes like liquid cheesecake. We add boba and ice, then Earl Grey milk tea with a thick layer of salted foam top. Finally, we top it with some crushed digestive biscuits. You can watch our YouTube video tutorial to see how we make this.

The rich drink can also be enjoyed independently or paired with various sweets to make it a meal. A serving of our rich cheese foam topping adds about 160 calories, while a serving of boba and tea has about 300. It's tasty with a sweet bun, a croissant, or shortbread.

To be frank, we think any pastry you enjoy eating with tea is perfect to pair with mousse-topped tea. Subscribe to us on YouTube and tell us how your rich mousse-topped drink turned out.