Cortado
A double espresso shot 'cut' with a roughly equal volume of warm, barely-foamed milk, smaller and stronger than a flat white.
- Coffee dose
- 18g
- Yield
- 100ml
- Milk
- 60ml
- Intensity
- strong
- Preparation time
- 3 min
- Skill level
- advanced
Caffeine estimate
Approximately 120-160mg (double shot).
Well established
Brewing method
Made using Espresso machine.
Taste, variation and common mistakes
Noticeably stronger and less diluted than a flat white or latte of similar size — the near-equal espresso-to-milk ratio keeps coffee flavour dominant, with just enough milk to soften rather than mask it. Milk is barely foamed, not textured into microfoam the way a flat white's is.
Common mistakes
- Over-foaming the milk into a cappuccino-style foam cap — cortado milk should be warm and barely aerated, not a distinct foam layer.
- Using a full latte-sized milk pour, which dilutes it into a small latte rather than keeping the roughly 1:1 espresso-to-milk ratio that defines a cortado.
- Confusing it with a Cuban cortadito, which typically adds sugar whipped into the espresso itself — a real, distinct regional variant, not the same drink under another name.
Named from the Spanish 'cortar' (to cut) and associated with Spanish café culture; close relatives exist under other names in other traditions (e.g. the Cuban cortadito, which adds sugar, and the Portuguese pingado) — CoffeeHQ profiles those as distinct entries rather than treating every 'espresso cut with a little milk' drink as identical.
Steps
- Pull a double espresso shot into a small glass.
- Add a roughly equal volume of warm, minimally-foamed milk.
Equipment
Related drinks
- milk based version of Espresso
Preparation traditions
Regional preparation traditions this drink belongs to or comes from, in CoffeeHQ's international preparation atlas.
Build this drink
Tools for working out the quantities this drink needs.
How to make it well
Step-by-step techniques this drink depends on, each with what to change when it does not work.
- Steaming milkProduce hot milk with a fine, integrated foam that pours as one liquid rather than as foam sitting on milk.
- Making microfoamReduce the air in steamed milk to bubbles too small to see, so the foam and the liquid behave as one substance.
- Judging milk temperatureStop steaming at a temperature that keeps the milk sweet and the texture fine, without needing to read a thermometer mid-drink.
Milk that suits it
How each behaves when steamed — foaming, stability and splitting risk. No health comparisons.