Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. All bubbles burst, eventually. With the 2011 closing of Catalonia’s high-concept, Michelin-spangled restaurant El Bulli, the golden age of molecular gastronomy ended. One of Spain’s leading newspapers, El País, eulogized the eatery beneath the headline “A fond farewell to the home of foam.” After all, it was chef Ferran Adrià of El Bulli who popularized the use of espumas, or foams, on the table of fine dining. The most sought-after reservations entitled a diner to an array of mushroom spumes and broths turned froth. But the rarefied foams of the aughts that once lured well-to-do gastronomes out to destination dining rooms have long dissipated. With each famed restaurant closure, a bubble in the foam matrix burst, at times creating a chain reaction, and the fad fizzled away. … Or did it? My friends, out here in the foodie trenches, something exciting is bubbling up. According to my observations, a new generation of consumers is rediscovering foam—but this time they’re trading the plate for the glass and putting the seductive suds where they truly belong. As summer returns once again to trigger your thirst, the next big thing for your drink isn’t a new recipe, a novel ingredient, or a little umbrella garnish to shade those ice cubes from the sun’s persistent thaw. Instead, foams—excellent insulators in their own right—are the most interesting drinks of the summer. Gen Z’s demand for foamy drinks has already reached commercial maturity, attracting attention from some of the biggest names in the beverage business. Starbucks, equipped with all kinds of traditional coffee foams, has beefed up its menu this season with an array of flavored cold foams, even promoting “free cold foam days” this spring. Meanwhile, other major coffee players like Dunkin’, Danone, and Nestlé sell whipped cream–like cans of cold foams. Gen Z’s foam fetish has also fueled the ascendant popularity of boba tea (itself a sort of bubbly beverage), but the topping of cheese foam is particularly beloved by young, in-the-know consumers. Oh, and matcha? That’s a whisked green tea foam. Even in the alcoholic realm, Gen Z, which is not known for boozing, has helped lead a resurgence in interest in Guinness. It is the fine, white nitrogenated foam on each pint of Guinness Draught that acts as the benchmark for the TikTok trend of “splitting the G.” Sip the beer until the foam-beer barrier lines up perfectly with the top of the middle line of the G on each Guinness-branded glass. Virality ensues. Meanwhile, sparkling wines, the backbone of last year’s summertime spritz blitz, are also outpacing their flat alternatives. The drinks of the world are fast bubbling over with foam. And that’s a good thing for all of us. While foamy foods were most definitely a quirk of fashion, suds are a more fundamental part of quality beverages and always have been. Older generations might recognize foams as common accompaniments for comforting hot beverages or well-poured drafts; we are just now coming around to the idea that they are equally suitable coifs for cold and quenching drinks. Connoisseurs of all kinds of drinks have fallen upon the consensus that a foam is a sign of deft preparation and high-quality ingredients. It’s more than just a luxe textural add-on: When bubbles in the foam layer burst, microscopic flavor molecules explode outward, rocketing into our olfactory sensors and increasing our ability to smell the complexity of aromas in a beverage. The most extreme example is that of tea. Over 1,200 years ago, the Chinese Zen monk Lu Yu wrote The Classic of Tea, a foundational text for connoisseurs that still stands unchallenged as the most important tea text ever written. In it, he declared the foam that appeared on the surface of a bowl of properly boiled tea to be its “essence.” Here we are, more than a millennium later, and matcha is proving him right. In essence, matcha is steamed green tea that is bamboo whisked into a decadent and deeply green beverage capped with an aerated foam. The iced matcha latte is undeniably modern, but its root foaminess jibes well with even the most ancient appreciation of tea. Good coffee, too, traditionally comes with foam. The legendary and scientifically minded coffee magnate Andrea Illy once wrote in the New York Times, “People can be self-conscious when they’re making coffee for me. Some people in the company are very careful because they know I can tell the quality from the color of the foam.” The color of the foam alone, for Illy, was proof enough of the quality of the espresso before him. And a quality espresso, according to Illy’s Espresso Coffee: The Science of Quality, should be at least 10 percent crema, the Italian name for the drink’s signature reddish-brown foam surface. Foams like crema improve the flavor and experience of our favorite drinks. “The crema traps many volatile aromatic compounds from the coffee,” explains Gabriele Cortopassi, general manager at Espresso Academy. “So when it breaks, those intense aromas are released, hitting your nose before the first sip.” But espresso is not the only coffee drink with a foam that matters. “Steaming milk creates stable foam because of its proteins, especially lactoglobulins,” Cortopassi continues. “When the milk is heated and air is introduced—thanks to the steam—these proteins have a hydrophobic part that hugs the air bubbles. This process creates the microtexture we see in stable milk foam.” Your lattes, cappuccinos, macchiatos, flat whites, and cortados all rely on milk foam to coat the palate and add a luxuriant and velvety mouthfeel to a shot of espresso. But that’s old hat—what if we went wild and made that foam part of an iced drink? Enter the hype around cold foam. Unlike the steamed foams of traditional coffee, cold foam is frothed from normal milk, as if one were whipping cold cream. Cortopassi explains: “This foam is usually made with specialized blenders or aerators and can be sweet or savory.” Facilitated by modern technology and a contagious love for iced coffee, coffee foam has moved from Italy’s caffès down to its Mediterranean beaches. Cold foam is bikini ready. Although the dark, wood-paneled Irish pub is a cozy winter haunt, Gen Z shenanigans have transformed Guinness into a potential darling of the poolside Beer Olympics. Ryan Wagner, national ambassador and head of marketing for Guinness in the U.S., notes that Americans are exceptional in terms of global beer drinkers. According to Wagner, “Here, we have stadium pours. Foam is the enemy—taking away space from more beer in my glass. Most of the rest of the beer-drinking world values foam.” But alternative pours in the world of draft (and craft) beer are quickly gaining traction in the U.S. Czech-style pours, which require glasses to be chilled to keg temperature, like the all-foam mlíko and the two-thirds-foam šnyt, make foam the star of the drink rather than just a sideshow. Wagner has other thoughts on the virality of Guinness. “People are finding Guinness because it’s delicious. Yes, it’s incredibly photogenic, but people are less concerned with what’s in the glass and more concerned about what’s around it.” For all truly great beverages, foam is part of an experience. People crave the effervescence of social spaces, the perfected performance of hospitality in freshly made drinks, and the demonstration of expertise in a perfectly poured Guinness. “This beer is only relevant if the draft lines are clean, the temperature is right, and it’s poured correctly,” he continues. “All of it is brewed in Dublin, but a journey that long can get really messed up in the final 50 feet between the keg and the glass.” We know that a beer or coffee is prepared by an expert when we have visual proof. Foam is a sign that our money has been well spent. It’s also a sign of vibrance and flirtation, of ebullience and life. These are the kinds of words I want in my summertime. And we find such foams bubbling up in the growing popularity of sparkling wines in the U.S. According to International Wine and Spirits Research, wine consumption decreased by 1 percent from 2017 to 2022, while sparkling wine consumption increased by 6 percent. Nowadays, the sparkling wine market is maturing, and younger consumers are willing to shell out more for nicer bottles of crémant, cava, prosecco, or Champagne. “People want to drink wines that have a sense of celebration, and the bubbles in sparkling wine give us a sense of joy,” argues Monika Bielka-Vescovi, a certified Champagne educator. “We are looking for joy, refinement, and quality. In high-quality wines of the Charmat method, there can be that creamy, delicate foam of the bubbles. This is why sparkling wine is appealing. It has a visual appeal. It has an aromatic appeal. There is a textural element. You can even hear the bubbles bursting!” Young consumers have struck upon a fine realization that breaks down barriers between beverage categories: If we are going to spend all this money on a drink, we had better make the most of it. It is with foams that we can judge the quality of a pour of beer or a pull of espresso. It is with foams that we can add visual, textural, and aromatic dimensions to a drink that is otherwise just a liquid. It is with foams that we can impress our guests with our hospitality, going above and beyond the average beverage with a visually appealing service. As more beverage producers offer up foaming add-ons to embellish our favorite drinks—especially in chilled or iced formats—I, for one, will be letting them go to my head. Foam rises to the top for a reason.