Talk:Cortado

Café cortado or just cortado?
The article about the cortado, but in the article itself there is discussion of the café cortado without explanation of whether this is the same or different. Is it the same thing? I'll assume it is and repair the article on my next visit unless someone objects. --Bacon Man (talk) 08:55, 28 February 2023 (UTC)

Comparison to Australian Flat White
In Australia we have a coffee beverage called a "flat white" which is made with espresso and steamed milk is added. This sounds similar to the description of a cortado except the ratio of coffee to milk varies according to how strong a coffee is desired. The result is a milky coffee without foam. A cortado would be a "flat white" with the proportions coffee to milk of 1:1 to 1:2. A cafe con leche probably would result by increasing milk proportion. 00:27, 15 June 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ptmxxx (talk • contribs)

In australia the picollo latte is a single espresso/double ristretto w/ steamed milk as stated, but doesn't necessarily stick to 90ml. Essentially it's half a 'strong cafe latte', and somewhere between a 'barista latte/cap' (see world barista championship standards) and a standard 'cafe latte' in strength. Comparison to a flat white is only valid when considering the amount of stretch in the milk.

Comparison to italian cappuccino and macchiato
Not an expert, just spanish guy, but... cortado is really more similar to capuccino than to a macchiato? I would say that a macchiato is just like a cortado with foam, just as a capuccino is like a "Café con leche" with foam... well, at least in the total amount of liquid! Maybe in proportion is different... normally, a cortado is a spresso with a short drop of milk (more coffee than milk)

About the glass cup with metal wire... that is mainly fashion, or depending on the bar. They have bigger ones for cafe con leche or tea, too. Small glass glasses or ceramic cups are quite general for cortado.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.224.48.92 (talk) 10:17, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

I am not spanish speaking, but spanish linguists correct the above explanation of the word 'cortado' to not being coffee 'cut' with milk but that the beverage is  'curdled' as in changed or damaged with a little warm milk. Yes, the word 'cortado'  comes from the word  'to cut', but in this case it does not have to do with cutting. Check out milk and making cheese and the english word 'curdle'.

Any others to confirm this?

''Mmm, it seems that 'curdle' has to do with coagulation of milk. From a Spanish point of view, something like 'cut the acidity' is perfectly valid. And that is exactly what that dash of milk does.''

Jordi B.

Nope, spanish does not use the word 'cortar' in the way of saying 'cut the acidity' -it means in more than one context to 'curdle' as in 'break'.

 Can you provide a reference for this assertion?

It's true that the Spanish word cortar, in addition to meaning 'cut', also means to curdle - but can you provide a reference for the assertion that this second meaning is the derivation of café cortado? Half my family is Spanish, and I have drunk cortados - in Spain - for more than 50 years. Every Spaniard I have questioned on the derivation of the word - including my brother-in-law, a writer - has given the explanation that it is café solo (i.e what Italians call espresso) 'cut' with a dash of milk - so I would welcome any evidence that this is not the case.

By the way, the English word 'curdle' does not mean 'break' or 'damage' - in fact, quite the opposite: as noted by another commentator above, it means coagulate or thicken. Originally, the term applied to the coagulation of milk, usually in the process of making cheese; the 'curd' is the solid from which cheese is made. Subsequently it has acquired the more general meaning of clotting or coagulation of any substance (as in "a blood-curdling scream", for instance). Professional cooks sometimes describe the process by which mayonnaise or cream curdles as 'splitting', which may explain the association of curdling with the idea of breaking. Ammilne (talk) 15:47, 8 August 2019 (UTC)

Garoto
In Portugal, a café cortado is known as a garoto.

glass size
it is said here that the glass size is 150-200 m"l, but in the picture it's obviously 90 m"l... Ofir michael (talk) 22:18, 3 November 2010 (UTC)

Country of Origin
Anyone know where the drinks from. I've heard that it is Cuban.Googolplexbyte (talk) 13:08, 29 June 2014 (UTC)

Coffee or Espresso?
I have two issues with the phrasing of 'coffee or espresso'. First and most obviously espresso is coffee and so this is a (somewhat bizarre) false dichotomy. Secondly, the vast majority of coffee drunk in Spain is espresso coffee (there are numerous sources for this) and ordering a cortado implies espresso coffee.

The two existing references for this section are American publications reporting on Americanisations of coffee drinks. Therefore these and inapropriate as sole or definitive evidence on the nature of this Spanish drink.

Xto 999 (talk) 18:22, 2 February 2018 (UTC)

I don't have an issue with the two words, as they are used. I don't see it as much a false dichotomy as much as just general artfulness in differentiating espresso from other types of coffee (e.g. drip, Turkish), when espresso is the more prevalent form. I would also note that even you seem to say as much when you assert that the mere "majority" of coffee drunk in Spain is espresso, rather than noting that Spaniards drink espresso exclusively. When I lived in Zaragosa, I could find both, and though I never added milk of any kind to my Turkish coffee, I would occasionally add steamed milk to my drip coffee, in which case I would ask for my coffee to be "cut" with milk. Since the cup was right in front of me, there was generally never any question as to what I meant when I said "cafe."

In any case, since the section in question is not actually discussing the technical aspects of a Cortado, but merely musing about "Similar drinks," the ambiguity and generalness are probably fine. Just my dos pesetas worth (yeah, I know I'm dating myself). Heavydpj (talk) 18:14, 3 February 2018 (UTC)

Real origen of cortado
The Cortado is expresso coffee mixed with evaporated milk which is being brought to almost boiling, -oh- one more thing, you don’t add sugar to the cortado, the sugar is added when the mix is being made (the coffee and the evaporated milk) that is the real cortado. The cortado is not from Spain at all, it is from Miami, and it was created by Cubans 2601:586:5181:3420:6DC9:422C:E344:19DA (talk) 05:28, 28 February 2022 (UTC)

Amount of milk
cortado is a small coffee with a smaller one amount of milk, not "roughly equal". 81.41.130.229 (talk) 22:42, 13 April 2024 (UTC)


 * Per the cited sources: "...this small, four ounce coffee drink with roughly equal parts espresso and warm milk." and "It’s about four ounces total — a little less than two ounces of espresso topped with a little more than two ounces of steamed milk..."
 * If you have a reliable source which disputes this, please propose it here for discussion. Grayfell (talk) 23:38, 13 April 2024 (UTC)