Coffee 101 · 3 min read
What Is a Cortado?
It's the drink coffee people order when they actually want to taste the coffee. Small, balanced, and criminally easy to love.
The definition
A cortado is equal parts espresso and warm, lightly steamed milk, usually 4 to 5 ounces, served in a small glass. "Cortado" comes from the Spanish cortar, to cut: the milk cuts the espresso's sharpness without burying it. No foam cap, no big volume, just balance.
Cortado vs. everything else
Smaller and stronger than a latte, less foamy than a cappuccino, milkier than a macchiato. If a latte is a hug and an espresso is a handshake, a cortado is the confident nod, the sweet spot for people who find lattes too milky and espresso too intense.
How to order it
Ask for a cortado, keep it hot, and skip the sugar the first time, a good one is naturally round. Want it a touch bigger? A Gibraltar is its slightly larger cousin. Ours is $4, and one of the best ways to judge a café.
Judge us by the cortado, $4, on Main Street.