What Is a Cortado?

All about this caffeinated beverage and how it differs from other espresso drinks

by Patrick Janelle

Most mornings, you can either find me at my neighborhood coffee shop in New York City, drinking a cortado, or sipping one from my favorite mug at home. I take it straight—without sugar—which, in my opinion, is the best way to enjoy the perfectly balanced flavor of the espresso and milk. I’ve maintained this daily ritual since 2012, when my friend Katie Tague, who was then a barista at Gasoline Alley Coffee in downtown New York City, offered to make me her favorite beverage. At the time, I was mostly drinking french press coffee, and the cortado was an insider drink made—and consumed—only by baristas in the know. It wasn’t until a few years later that the beverage would start appearing on coffee shop menus. When my first cortado arrived in front of me, served in Katie’s own personal blue and white ceramic vessel with delicate milk art on top, I was delighted. More importantly, it was the best espresso-based drink I’d ever tasted.

The perfection of the cortado, and the fact that I started drinking them every day (even while in isolation, where I now make one for myself on my Breville espresso machine at home), inspired the creation of the #dailycortado, one of my early influential contributions to Instagram. In the decade since, both the hashtag and the drink itself have caught on. The once little-known beverage and insider drink is now a popular order at coffee shops across the world. But whether you’ve found a love for the drink yourself or have yet to try one, you might still be asking: what exactly is a cortado? Here is everything you need to know.

What is a cortado?

Simply put, a cortado is a coffee drink featuring a one-to-one ratio of espresso to steamed milk, which—when steamed properly—becomes textured with tiny, velvety bubbles called microfoam. The name “cortado” originated in Spain, where the word cortado is the past participle of the verb cortar, which means “to cut” The name is a reference to warm milk cutting through the intensity and acidity of espresso.

According to Noah Goodman, a coffee expert and US ambassador for Italian espresso machine brand Faema, “a cortado is generally described as being half espresso and half milk, with the microfoam textured similarly to a latte. This creates sort of a small latte, with the espresso just being cut by the milk rather than espresso being the base to a larger milk beverage.” He also notes that you’ll often see cortados served in a four to five-ounce short glass.

Since its origin, the drink has evolved, and the cortado served in third wave coffee shops has a more precise formula than the unstandardized version you might find throughout Spain. The new-school, New York City coffee shop-style cortado that I prefer offers a perfect balance in which properly steamed and textured milk mellows the espresso while still allowing the flavor and nuance of the coffee to shine through.

Other names for a cortado: gibraltar, magic, and piccolo

Depending on where you’re ordering your coffee, your cortado might have a different name. The term gibraltar is often used in San Francisco and other cities on the West Coast because coffee shops like Intelligentsia and Sightglass—pioneers in the West Coast third-wave coffee scene—serve cortados in a glass vessel named “gibraltar” by its manufacturer, the Libbey Glass Company.

In Melbourne, shops serve a drink called a “magic”, which closely resembles a cortado because the proportions of milk to espresso are very close. Technically, it’s double ristretto—a short, concentrated version of espresso—in a small glass that’s filled three-quarters of the way with “silky milk,” the term your Aussie barista might use to describe microfoam.

To throw a wrench in the mix, there’s another drink called a piccolo, which Goodman says is “3.5 to 4 oz. beverage very similar to a small latte or cortado & usually replaces a cortado on an Australian coffee menu.” In what might be splitting hairs, some baristas would distinguish a piccolo by the espresso pull: the steamed milk is poured over a shot of ristretto, just like a magic.

The cortado vs. the latte

A latte was distinguished simply by the fact that it contained espresso and steamed milk, but neither the quality of the steamed milk nor the size mattered much.

If a cortado is essentially a small latte, then what is a latte? The drink rose to popularity during the 1990s and 2000s, with chains like Starbucks and bohemian neighborhood coffee houses alike slinging up the large, milky drinks—anywhere from twelve to twenty ounces—with an ounce or two of espresso. A latte was defined simply by the fact that it contained espresso and steamed milk, but neither the quality of the steamed milk nor the size mattered much. In recent years, the term latte is used by modern craft coffee establishments to be any espresso-based beverage over 12 ounces. In each case, it will use well-steamed milk, finely textured with silky microfoam—the same milk that’s used in a cortado, just much more of it.

The cortado vs. the flat white

While there doesn’t seem to be a universal definition for the Aussie espresso favorite known as a flat white, it’s safe to say that the drink is typically a larger, milkier, espresso-based drink than a cortado, closer to what Americans might call a small latte. But depending on which Aussie barista you speak with, they might also contend that the difference also lies in milk texture, the foam amount, or the serveware.

Most people can agree that a flat white consists of espresso and microfoam. But while a cortado has a fairly strict one-to-one ratio, the ratio used in a flat white varies from place to place. Goodman says, “[The flat white] is usually served as a double shot of espresso combined with lightly aerated milk. It generally has less foam than a latte, but each shop can be different. And it’s served in a five to six-ounce cappuccino-style café cup.”

The confused identity of the drink extends to American cafes too: when you order a flat white in the U.S., you will get something in size close to either a cappuccino or a latte, depending on the shop.

The cortado vs. the cappuccino

The cappuccino has a one-to-two ratio of espresso to milk, making it essentially a cortado with more milk (but less milk than a latte). But Goodman explains that while a modern cappuccino uses steamed milk textured with microfoam, a traditional Italian cappuccino—and the kind that Starbucks made popular at the turn of the century—was essentially espresso topped with what baristas call frothed milk, a term that indicates the milk is less finely textured than microfoam. Because a cappuccino contains more milk than a cortado, it is usually served in a ceramic mug that’s bigger than a cortado glass.

The cortado vs. the macchiato

In Italian, the word macchiato means "stained" or "spotted," which refers to the tiny bit of milk in the otherwise entirely espresso drink. The macchiato has the highest ratio of espresso to milk of any related beverage, with a two-to-one balance. Traditionally, the milk is frothed and dropped in a small dollop on top of the espresso, but in third-wave coffee shops, the baristas use microfoam, just as they do in the other coffee beverages on the menu. Ultimately, the biggest difference between a macchiato and a cortado is that a macchiato will be much more coffee-heavy and less milky than a cortado—it’s an espresso with just a spot of milk.

How do you make a cortado?

Since going out for coffee is an infrequent activity these days, I've had to learn to brew my own cortado at home. In order to achieve a cafe-level drink, I consulted an expert. Chi Sum Ngai is one of the cofounders of Coffee Project NY, which has coffee shop locations (which are part of my list of top NYC coffee spots) in the East Village, Downtown Brooklyn, and Long Island City, as well as a robust education program for baristas. Just like me, Sum's favorite milk-based drink is the cortado because the coffee is just strong enough to be enjoyed with milk, without the milk overpowering the profile of the coffee. She also finds the size, at 4 ounces, the perfect amount to finish before it turns cold. Here are her basic steps for making a textbook cortado.

a step-by-step introduction to

How to make a cortado

HOW TO cortado

1. PULL A SHOT OF ESPRESSO
   Pull a double-shot espresso. With the Coffee Project NY house blend espresso, I like to use a ratio of 1:1.8. For example, 18.5 grams of coffee will yield 33 grams of espresso.

2. FROTH THE MILK
   Froth milk until the pitcher becomes too hot to touch — approximately 135 degrees. I like to froth my milk a little cooler than 135 degrees because it’s such a small beverage and there won’t be much heat loss during the pour. The milk is also sweeter that way because of how the sugar component in the milk reacts to heat. The milk should look silky, like wet paint.

3. POUR THE MILK
   Pour part of the milk into the double espresso and swirl to mix them together.

4. FINISH POURING
   Pour the rest of the milk to fill up to 4 ounces in total.