Cortado

Close to equal parts

Typical range

Making one

CoffeeHQ explanation

The difficulty is the quantity. Sixty millilitres of milk is too little to steam well on its own, so steam a normal small amount and use only part of it.

1. Pull a double shot into a small glass. A glass of about 120–150 ml leaves the right amount of room. A larger vessel invites more milk than the drink should have.
2. Steam with almost no air. Let the wand hiss for a second at most, then heat the milk with the tip submerged. You are warming and lightly thickening it, not building foam.
3. Pour to about double the height. Add milk until the glass holds roughly twice what the espresso alone filled. Stop there even if there is milk left in the jug.

Getting the balance right

Tendency, not a guarantee

It tastes sharp or sour

Usually because: The espresso is under-extracted. With this little milk there is not enough to round off a shot that ran too fast.

Change first: Grind finer and correct the shot. Adding more milk turns it into a different drink without fixing the cause.

Work through sour coffee

It has a foamy head like a small cappuccino

Usually because: Too much air went into the milk for the size of the drink.

Change first: Cut the aeration to a second or less, and hold back the last of the jug where the foam collects.

Fix stiff foam

It goes cold almost at once

Usually because: A small drink in a cold glass loses heat very quickly.

Change first: Warm the glass with hot water first, and drink it promptly: a cortado is not a drink that waits.

Why preheating matters

Telling the small milk drinks apart

Tendency, not a guarantee

• Flat white — Roughly twice the milk, textured into microfoam and usually poured with a pattern. Softer and creamier.
• Macchiato — Far less milk: a spoonful of foam on an espresso rather than an equal measure of steamed milk.
• Piccolo — Built on a single short shot with textured milk, so it is milkier in proportion and has a little foam.

The same drink under other names

Accounts differ

The cortado is Spanish in origin and common across Spain and Portugal, where the proportion of milk varies from bar to bar. In parts of the United States a very similar drink is sold as a Gibraltar, a name reported to come from the style of glass a San Francisco café served it in.

Names for small espresso-and-milk drinks overlap heavily between countries, and a cortado in one city can be a piccolo or a small flat white in another. If the proportions matter to you, describe what you want rather than relying on the word.

What to do next

• Dial in espresso — nothing hides the shot in this drink, so the espresso has to be right.
• Steaming milk — covers how to control the amount of air, which is the only steaming skill a cortado needs.
• Flat white — the next step up in milk, and the drink a cortado is most often confused with.
• Become a barista — A structured programme from dose and grind through milk, drinks and maintenance.