Espresso
Cortado
A double espresso cut with the same volume of warm milk, served in 120 ml of glass. Balance rather than foam, and the shortest milk drink worth ordering.
At a glance
- Total
- 4 min
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Yield
- 1 cup
- Ratio
- 1:2
- Dose
- 18 g
- In cup
- 36 g
In the cup
- Milk50%
- Crema5%
- Espresso45%
Equipment
- Espresso machine with steam wand
- Milk jug, 350 ml
- Glass, 110–130 ml
- Scales
Ingredients
- Coffee, medium roast
- 18 g
- Whole milk, cold
- 70 ml
Method
Warm the glass and weigh 18 g into the basket. A cortado is half espresso, so the shot has nowhere to hide.
30sPull 36 g of espresso straight into the glass, 25 to 30 seconds.
28sPurge the wand, then steam 70 ml of milk with barely one second of air. You want warm milk with a skin of texture, not foam.
2sTake it to 55 to 60 °C only. A cortado is drunk immediately and hot milk buries the coffee.
20sSwirl the jug until glossy, then pour steadily into the centre from a low height. No pattern is needed and none will hold.
10sServe at once, without a spoon. The drink is designed to be finished in four or five mouthfuls.
Why it works
A cortado is the smallest drink where milk actually changes the coffee rather than replacing it. Seventy millilitres of milk against a 36 g shot is enough to round the acidity and carry the sweetness, and not enough to bury either.
Getting the milk right
The mistake is treating it like a small latte. Latte milk is stretched: air goes in for three or four seconds and the volume grows. Cortado milk is barely stretched at all, one second of air at most, then straight into rolling the jug so the texture stays tight.
If you see a foam head more than a few millimetres deep in the glass, you stretched too long.
If it tastes thin
Check the shot first. A cortado exposes an under extracted espresso immediately, because the milk adds no sugar of its own to hide behind. Sour and watery in the glass usually means sour and watery in the cup before the milk arrived.
Questions about this recipe
- Cortado or flat white?
- Volume. A cortado is about 120 ml with almost no foam, a flat white 150 to 180 ml with a thin layer of microfoam. The cortado tastes more of coffee simply because there is less milk in it.
- Why is it served in glass?
- Tradition, from Spain, and practicality: the glass shows the ratio, and its thin wall means the drink stays at drinking temperature rather than being held at steaming temperature.