What is Cotadot Cortado? How to make unpopular espresso Cortado?

In the unpopular espresso series, there is a drink that sounds like a mouthful. Although it is rare in domestic cafes, it is very popular in Spain, Portugal, Latin America and other places. It is Cortado, which is translated as "Cotadot" or "Cole ~ Tado" in China.

Cortado, a Spanish derivation of "cortar", has the meaning of "cut" and "cut". In the coffee industry, Cortado is a characteristic milk coffee that originated in the Basque region of Spain. It can be understood simply as a kind of milk heated by steam, which is "cut" into Italian concentrate in the same or double proportion.

In the production steps, Cortado and we are familiar with Australia White, latte, cappuccino is not much different, are Italian concentration as the base, adding different proportions and different thickness of foam milk. However, since it is a separate drink, it will naturally have its own iconic characteristics.

In Spain, baristas have three distinct features when making traditional Cortado. They are a very small cup size, a ratio of Italian concentrate to hot milk at 1:1 or 1Rod 0.5, and no foam or only an ultra-thin layer of foam. So purely from the cup size point of view, a cup of Cortado can be finished with only two mouthfuls, belonging to the mini-cup espresso drink.

As Cortado spread from Spain to the rest of the world, the recipe changed to cater to local coffee drinking habits.

In Saudi Arabia, for example, Cortado is more likely to be understood as espresso with a drop of milk, either hot or cold. In Costa Rica, Cortado is a small cup of coffee made by adding a single concentrated cup of hot milk to one ounce. Heavy-mouthed Italians are used to making single portions of espresso and milk in a coffee cup with only 50ml capacity.

In Malaysia, there seems to be no uniform standard for Cortado. Some cafes are made in macchiato, some have a milk quantity close to Australian white, some mix half cream and half milk into double Espresso, and some use double Ristretto. So the Cortado here can be as small as 3 ounces or as big as more than ten ounces.

When it comes to the "improvements" of Cortado, Qianjie has to mention Gibraltar, also known as Gibraltar Coffee, from blue bottle coffee. It consists of a double espresso (40ml) and double whipped milk (80ml) and ends up in a Gibraltar cup with a capacity of about 130ml (a glass made by Libbey in the United States). Because of this, in the third wave of coffee, Cortado is often synonymous with this kind of glass.

In addition, there are actually many "improved versions" of Cortado in the world, such as Cuban coffee Cortadito. This hot drink, also known as "little cut", is based on a deep-baked Italian concentrate, stirred with a spoonful of sugar, and the coffee is topped with a thick layer of caramel foam and finally beaten milk foam to enrich the mellow taste of the drink.

To get to the point, Cortado is often confused with other heavy coffee-flavored coffee coffees, such as piccolo coffee, because the overall size of the cup is too small, and it is only made up of concentrated and hot milk, and some baristas are produced with a simple flower pattern. However, if we compare the recipe, we can find the difference.

When the glass with the same capacity as 100ml is copied in the current street, Cortado is a double Espresso (35ml) plus heated milk (50ml) with ultra-thin foam. As the concentration has occupied 1max 3 of the cup, the display space for pull flowers is very limited, so Qianjie takes the form of direct injection for fusion.

Piccolo is made of a single portion of Espresso (15ml) and 75~80ml with thin bubbles (less than 0.5cm) steamed milk, and finally "reluctantly" push a small flower.

From the color point of view, the Cortado with double concentrate is obviously darker, and the upper Crema is more complete. When tasting separately, Cortado's coffee tastes thick and solid, a bit like an Italian concentrate slightly diluted by milk, while Piccolo is more like a hot latte with a stronger taste.

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Front Street Cafe

No. 10 Baoqian street, Yandun road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu district, Guangzhou, Guangdong province