Taste Test: Vegan Foamers

Egg white has long been a cocktail staple, giving drinks a fuller body, frothy texture, and an aesthetically appealing head of foam. But reaching for a vegan egg alternative has become increasingly easier for both pros and home bartenders, offering consistency, ease of use, and the ability to make traditional egg white drinks. Today, quality vegan foamers abound. We tested six options, shook up a slew of classic Whiskey Sours, and put them head to (foamy) head.

Ms. Better’s Bitters Miraculous Foamer

Best known for their uniquely flavored cocktail bitters, Ms. Better’s Miraculous Foamer comes in a similar, dropper-style bottle for easy and precise measuring. Using the recommended amount of about 1/3 of the dropper vial, we first did a dry shake, then added ice for a second hard shake. The liquid produced a generous foam head, with slightly larger bubbles than some of the other products, and a subtly silky texture in the drink. While the brown liquid has a slightly bitter botanical scent, once incorporated into the cocktail, there was no detectable flavor or aroma. $32/4 oz.

Fee Brothers Fee Foam

Operating in the drinks world for well over a Century, Fee Brothers is already well-known for their bitters. (And in an interesting bit of prescient history, the company also created a product in the 1940s called Frothy Mixer, which added a foamy texture and slight citrus flavor to cocktails.) Today, their new Fee Foam has already been adopted by many bars. Packaged in a dasher bottle, the Fee Foam calls for 2-3 dashes per drink, but we had to use about double that, with a dry and wet shake, to create the expected effect. Odorless and tasteless, the Fee Foam takes about 30-45 seconds to fully develop after pouring the drink, and it created very fine, silky bubbles. However, the head was thinner than the other foamers, and it did not noticeably alter the overall texture of the drink. $6.74/5 oz.

Happy Dance FABA

The protein-rich water in cans of garbanzo beans, or aquafaba, as it was dubbed, was an early vegan option for replacing egg whites, but lacked ease of use when it comes to quickly assembling cocktails. But Canadian hummus brand Happy Dance wisely upcycles its chickpea broth into a dried, shelf-stable powder called FABA. It still requires some prep for cocktail use, by mixing 1 teaspoon of the powder into 2 tablespoons of water for the equivalent of one egg white. The liquid can then be used as you would an egg, dry shaking first. While less convenient than a dropper or dasher, the FABA created the most realistic egg white substitute, with a thick, creamy head of dense foam and some added body to the drink. However, the FABA does carry a slight aroma and flavor of garbanzo, with its level of detectability depending on the overall cocktail ingredients. $19/100 grams

Modernist Pantry Foam Magic

Also in the form of a powder, the Foam Magic is a blend of maltodextrin, methylcellulose, and xanthan gum. Although the product may be aimed more toward use in the kitchen, the shelf-stable powder is quickly soluble in cold water without any pre-mixing required, making it easy to deploy behind the bar. The usage ratio calls for 1–2 percent by weight, but we simply added about a teaspoon of the powder directly to our cocktail shaker and the results were indeed magical, with a thick head of fine foam and a silky texture with no discernible taste or aroma. $12.99/25 grams

Pfaff’s Foamer

A product of the Charleston Cocktail Co., which offers cocktail-mixing classes, the Pfaff’s Foamer is a dasher-dispensed liquid, leaning on ingredients like tapioca syrup, gum Arabic and polysorbate 80 as some of the active ingredients. The recommended amount of 2 to 3 dashes produced a good layer of foam with medium-fine bubbles (somewhere in between the Fee Foam and the Miraculous Foamer), with a subtly silky texture and no noticeable odor or flavor in the final drink. $19.50/ 2, 100 ml bottles

Doc Paun’s Vegan Cocktail Foamer

From the Tampa-based cocktail company Hull & Bay, which produces a line of bitters, their dasher-style Doc Paun’s liquid foamer uses similar ingredients to the Pfaff’s. The ratio for use takes a bit of dialing in, but expect to use about 6 to 8 heavy dashes per cocktail to replace an egg white. The results offered a solid foamy head with a medium bubble structure that lasted well. And while the Doc Paun’s has no perceptible aroma, there was the hint of a bitter aftertaste. $9.99/5 oz.

The Verdict

For those who simply want a vegan replacement for egg white, the FABA powder provided the most egg-like results for us, with dense, creamy foam and added body—with the caveat that you’re replacing an eggy smell with a garbanzo smell. If your main goal is ease of use and preserving the aroma and flavor of the drink’s ingredients, opt for one of the liquid foamers. The Ms. Better’s created the most reliable foam with a smaller amount of liquid (though it is also the most expensive). If you want to experiment with a variety of beverage applications, try the Modernist Pantry Foam Magic, which truly does seem like wizardry.