what is a cloud drink?

when we started developing the clouds at moki35, I thought the hard part would be coming up with flavours

it turns out the flavour is only one small part of it

what looks like a simple layer of foam sitting on top of a drink has actually become one of the more technical things I've worked on since opening moki35

you might know it as cold foam, sweet cream foam or simply a foam topping

we call ours cloud

so what actually is a cloud?

a cloud is our take on cold foam, designed to sit on top of our drinks and slowly become part of the experience as you drink through it

the idea was simple enough

make something light, creamy and cold that could completely change the drink underneath it

getting there has been a very different story

finding the right cream

one of the first challenges was finding the right cream

not every cream behaves the same way when you start foaming it

some don't hold the structure we want, some change the texture too quickly and some simply don't give us the mouthfeel we're looking for

then there is the question of how long to foam it

too little and you don't get the structure

too much and you can start moving away from the smooth texture we're looking for

I've spent a lot of time testing this and learning that the difference between something that looks right and something that actually feels right when you drink it can be surprisingly small

flavour is another challenge

this is where I learnt something I didn't expect

powders and liquids don't behave the same way when you're adding flavour to cream

a liquid flavouring changes the consistency of the cream differently from a powder, while powders can also behave very differently depending on how much you're adding

I originally thought it would simply be a case of measuring the flavour and mixing it through

it isn't, every ingredient changes the balance, the flavour, the texture, the weight

and ultimately how the cloud behaves on the drink. it's become a process of testing small changes and paying attention to what happens

glass gets colder

one of the more practical things I've learnt has nothing to do with the recipe itself

it's the container. we've found that plastic simply doesn't perform as well as glass for holding our clouds. glass gets colder. that might sound like a small detail, but temperature matters when you're trying to maintain the structure and consistency of a cold foam so even something as simple as what we store it in can affect the final product

these are the little things you don't really think about until you start making the product yourself

we treat our clouds very carefully

because we're still in the early stages of moki35, our opening volume is relatively low, that gives us an opportunity that larger operations don't always have. we can make our clouds fresh and keep a very close eye on them. we check the fridge, we monitor the product

we don't want to hold them longer than necessary. at the moment, our maximum is the following day otherwise, we make them fresh

I'd rather spend more time making something properly than compromise on the product simply to make our process easier

that's particularly important with something as delicate as a cloud

this is only the beginning

one of the things I love about developing drinks at moki35 is that we don't have everything figured out yet

we're still testing, still learning, still finding better ways to make things and that's part of the fun

our current clouds are only the beginning

we're already working on new flavours and new combinations, including a salted caramel cloud and a dairy free Cloud drink

the goal isn't to create endless flavours just for the sake of having a big menu

it's to develop drinks that we genuinely think are worth putting in your hands

why we call it cloud

cold foam is probably the easiest way to describe what we're making but cloud feels more like us, it's light, it's soft, it sits above the drink and when you take that first sip, it becomes part of everything underneath it

what started as an idea for a drink topping has become something we're constantly experimenting with and I'm pretty sure we're only getting started

moki35

specialty coffee, matcha and cloud drinks made in whangārei