Espresso · Milk
Cortado: equal parts, almost no foam
A cortado is a small drink with about as much warm milk as espresso and almost no foam.
- Coffee
- 18 g
- Cup
- 76 ml
- Temp
- 93 °C
- Time
- 1:10
The milk is there to soften the shot, not to bury it. The hard part is not the coffee. It is steaming a very small amount of milk without scorching it or ending up with stiff foam. This page is built around that problem and uses a Gibraltar glass, the small tumbler many cafes serve it in. If you want a bigger, creamier drink, the latte is the other end of the family.
The spec
| Part | Amount |
|---|---|
| Espresso dose | 18 g |
| Espresso yield | 36 g (1:2 beverage ratio) |
| Warm milk poured | 36 ml |
| Foam | 4 ml |
| Liquid in the cup | 76 ml |
| Cup | 135 ml Gibraltar glass, so the drink fills 56 % of it |
| Milk to steam | 100 ml cold |
| Milk temperature | 50 to 60 °C when you stop steaming |
| Total time | 70 seconds |
The builder lists a cortado as 36 g espresso, 36 ml milk and 4 ml foam in a 120 ml cup. Here the drink is unchanged and the glass is slightly larger, so you can pour without spilling.
You need
- An espresso machine with a steam wand, and a grinder.
- A scale that reads to 0.1 g.
- A very small milk pitcher, about 150 to 200 ml.
- A thermometer.
- A 135 ml Gibraltar glass or a similar small tumbler.
- Cold milk.
Ratio 1:2 · Grind: Espresso · grind chart
Starting ranges come from your grinder maker’s own guide. Burrs, beans and calibration vary, so treat them as where to begin.
Steps
- 0:00, Pull 18 g into 36 g.
Dose 18 g, take 36 g into the glass.
- 0:30, Steam 100 ml to about 55 °C, 2 s of air.
Pour 100 ml of cold milk into the pitcher. Purge the wand. Put the tip just under the surface for only about two seconds, so the milk grows by a few millilitres and no more. Then sink the tip to spin the milk until the pitcher is warm, about 55 °C. Wipe the wand.
- 0:50, Tap and swirl.
Tap the pitcher and swirl. There should be a smooth, thin liquid with a few fine bubbles.
- 0:58, Pour 36 ml milk and 4 ml foam.
Pour about 36 ml onto the shot, with a little of the surface foam on top. You will have milk left over. That is intentional.
My notes for this recipe
The small-volume problem
CupTune's authored rule is to steam about three times what the cup needs. A pitcher holding only 36 ml of milk has no room to spin, and the tip of a steam wand can sit above the liquid and blast it. A larger volume gives you a whirlpool and time to react. You pour 36 ml out of 100 and throw the rest away or drink it. If that wastes too much milk, a smaller batch is a trade-off: it gets hotter faster, so you will need to watch the thermometer rather than the clock.
Heating much faster than a latte means the whole drink can move from warm to scalded in a couple of seconds. This is why the time here is shorter than the latte's steaming step: there is less milk to heat.
Why these numbers
Equal parts. The builder describes a cortado as "roughly equal espresso and warm milk, with almost no foam." No standards body defines it, and the name is used for several different drinks in different places.
36 g from 18 g. The 1:2 ratio is the average that surveyed baristas reported in the SCA's espresso article. The 18 g dose is authored.
50 to 60 °C. Klimanova et al. (2022) steam-frothed milk across 30 to 80 °C and report 50 to 60 °C as the optimal final temperature for microfoam. For a cortado we stay in that range and aim for the cooler half, because a small drink is poured and cooled in less time and you want it drinkable at once. That last part is authored.
Two seconds of air. Authored. The aim is a pour that is nearly all liquid. A cortado with obvious foam is a different drink.
4 ml foam. Authored, from the builder. It is about a teaspoon.
If it looks or tastes wrong
- The milk is bubbly and the drink looks like a small cappuccino. The tip was too near the surface for too long. Aim for two seconds, not six.
- Milk screams and spits. The tip is partly out of the milk. Use a deeper pitcher or more milk.
- The coffee still tastes sharp. Cortados are strong by design. Lengthen the yield to 40 g before you add milk. The dial-in guide covers one change at a time.
- The glass is too hot to hold. Pour into a glass that has not been warmed, and let it stand ten seconds. Hot milk in thin glass can burn fingers.
These fixes are CupTune's reading of the usual faults, not measured results.
Evidence and limits
Two numbers have a published source here: the 1:2 ratio and the 50 to 60 °C foam range. Every volume comes from CupTune's authored builder. The steam times and the three-times rule are authored. The cortado name covers several regional drinks and this page uses one of them. The 70-second sequence is a paper plan, not a timed trial.
Questions
What is the difference between a cortado and a flat white?
In the builder the cortado holds 36 ml of milk with 36 g of espresso. The flat white holds 118 ml of milk and 45 g of espresso, so the milk is far greater and the foam is a thin microfoam.
Do I need a Gibraltar glass?
No. Any small cup of about 120 to 150 ml works. The glass is only the usual serving size.
Can I steam only 40 ml?
It is possible with a tiny pitcher and practice, but the temperature runs away quickly. Steam 100 ml.