Coffee review

What's the difference between Cortado and a little latte? what's the difference between Cortado around the world?

Published: 2025-08-21 Author: World Gafei
Last Updated: 2025/08/21, A customer walks into your coffee shop and orders a Cortado. According to your point of view or your position in the world, you can give them a lot of drinks. For some people, Cortado is the ratio of coffee to steamed milk. For others, it's a small piece of white or latte. Some even say it depends on the customer. There are so many questions about what Cortado is.

A customer walks into your coffee shop and orders a Cortado. According to your point of view or your position in the world, you can give them a lot of drinks. For some people, Cortado is the ratio of coffee to steamed milk. For others, it's a small piece of white or latte. Some even say it depends on the customer.

There is so much room for misunderstanding that there are so many opinions about what a Cortado is-whether you want to order one or provide it to the customer. Nonetheless, it is still a staple of the coffee menu-but it may not last long due to a variety of factors.

Apart from the facts from the Basque region of Spain, little is known about the origin of Cortado. The term "Cortado" or "cutt" refers to cutting milk into the consistency of espresso, thus reducing the acidity of the coffee while maintaining its flavor.

Traditionally, it rarely bubbles, with a milk-to-espresso ratio of 1:1. Boil the milk until it forms a very light foam, then add it to the espresso and place it in a small glass with a metal ring base and wire handle. According to its appearance, it is often confused with Australian / New Zealand pure white, macchiato or piccolo lattes.

Nino Tusell is the owner of Tusell Tostadores, a bakery in Barcelona, Spain. "in Spain, Cortado is an espresso with a little milk," he said. [its ratio may be 1:1 or 1buzz 0.5, and most of the time there is less milk than coffee. " When you go to Spain, you may appreciate your charm in this traditional form and proportion. However, if you venture abroad, you will encounter other types of drinks.

CORTADO around the world

A professional coffee association article on milk drinks admits: "although the idea of standardization is attractive-we all want to have a standardized standard, it is important to understand that [drinks] are the product of culture." This is especially true for cortado.

Usually, its composition depends on the customer's requirements. Camilo Cardenas is a barista at Brew92, a coffee shop and barbecue restaurant in Saudi Arabia. "traditionally [cortado] is just black coffee and a small amount of milk, hot or cold," he said. Then, when people ask for it in a coffee shop, it becomes an espresso with a small amount of steamed milk. In my workplace, we eat it with double milk and steamed milk. Smaller than the pure white one.

Adrian Valentine Yong, a baker in Mountain Coffee Roasters, Malaysia, said: "I met some people who ordered cortados and their explanations were different." This is how we make espresso macchiato (double espresso with a little milk). Another type... Similar to pure white (double espresso and warm milk). I also have experienced people who ask for half and half (equal weight of whipped cream and milk) with double espresso, [some] using ristretto.

For others, it's all about ratios. Paula Chaverri Echandi, owner of Cik é wa Cafe in Costa Rica, said: "as far as I know, cortado is an espresso with an ounce of hot milk." Bruno Bruno Danese, owner of Hoccino Coffees in Japan, said it was "1:1 espresso and steamed milk." As long as the ratio of coffee to milk remains constant, a cup of Cortado can be as small as 3 ounces or as large as 16 ounces. "

Other baristas and coffee experts have different ideas. Frederik WestborgSchi ø tz, an educator at True Intent Coffee in Denmark, said it was "(less bubble), preferably without the double shooting of latte art." Lanz Castillo, owner of Philippine Candid Coffee, said it was a 1-ounce double gravy with two and a half ounces of condensed milk, while Melaleuca's chief barista Johnsy La Jessica Sartiani said that in Italy, it is called macchiato, a single espresso with milk in a 50ml cup.

As cortado has spread from Spain to cafes around the world, its recipes have been developed to meet the needs of local consumers. Great changes have taken place since it arrived in the United States. Here, the consumption of coffee drinks has been increasing over the past half century, and it is not uncommon to find 20 ounces of drinks in American coffee shops.

A famous variant of Coltado beer is Gibraltar, which the US Times says was invented in 2005 at the Blue bottle Coffee Company in San Francisco. This variant is housed in a four-and-a-half-ounce Libbey Gibraltar glass mug with two espresso and two steamed milk. As a result, many third wave coffee shops refer to Cortado as synonymous with this kind of glass.

Rodolfo Ruffatti Batlle, managing director of a green coffee import business in Berlin, says there are many popular versions of Cortado, including Cuba's cortadito. This version is very popular in Cuba and the Cuban immigrant community. Knife, starting with Cuban espresso, Cuban espresso is a dark roasted espresso made with a spoonful of sugar, made in caramel color and with a thick foam. To this end, add bubbly milk, you can choose to use evaporated milk instead of milk as a snack or instead of dessert to thicken the drink.

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