Cortado vs Latte: Equal Parts or Mostly Milk

If you already weigh your shots, this comparison is mostly about milk: how much goes in, and how much air it carries. The espresso can be exactly the same in both.

The two drinks side by side

We found no standards document for either drink. The figures above are what these recipes share, and your local café may do it differently.

What makes a cortado

The word does most of the explaining. Cortado comes from the Spanish cortar, to cut, and the milk cuts the intensity of the coffee. Sage traces the drink to Spain and describes a double shot of about 2 oz with 2 oz of steamed milk, in a 4.5 oz Gibraltar glass that lets you watch the two mix. Breville calls it “a miniature latte”, which is a handy shorthand as long as you remember the foam is missing too.

Recipes don't all land on exactly 1:1. Starbucks defines the drink as equal parts, then builds its caramel version from two shots, about ⅓ cup of whole milk and a flavored creamer. Flavored and sized versions are a house style, not a different definition.

What makes a latte

Breville's recipe describes a latte as steamed milk poured over a shot of espresso, with a thin layer of microfoam on top. It starts from a dose of about 19 g, fills the jug with cold milk up to the bottom of the spout, and heats it to around 140 to 150°F, or 60 to 65°C. The goal is about ½ inch of foam in the cup.

That extra milk changes what your shot has to do. A shot that tastes sharp on its own can sit nicely under a lot of milk, while a cortado shows you almost everything. So a new coffee is easier to judge in a cortado, or in the cup with no milk at all. If you want to compare shots properly, the espresso ratio page sets out what to weigh.

Same steam wand, less air

Both drinks start the same way: purge the wand, set the tip just under the surface, and heat to temperature. The difference is the air. For a latte you let in enough for about ½ inch of foam. For a cortado you let in only a little, so the milk stays glossy and thin. Our steaming guide walks through the wand work.

Read about microfoam

Making each at home

• Cortado. Pull your usual double shot into a small glass. The steam tip has to stay under the surface, so steam more milk than you need, keep the air phase short, and pour the same amount as your espresso. A scale on the counter makes equal parts easy to hit. A small milk pitcher helps with the small volume.
• Latte. Pull the same shot into a larger cup. Steam more milk with a longer air phase, then pour high at first and lower the jug as the cup fills, as Breville describes.

Steam and hot water can burn, so keep your hands clear of the wand and follow your machine's manual.

Which one should you make?

Make a cortado if you like the taste of your espresso and just want the edge taken off. Make a latte if you want a larger, gentler drink, or if you like pouring latte art. The foam on a cortado is too thin to give you much room for that.

Close relatives are worth a look as well. A flat white has less milk than a latte and a thin layer of microfoam, with shot type and size differing by café. Sage's own comparison puts it at 6 oz, which is one maker's example and not a norm. A macchiato goes further toward the coffee, and a cappuccino goes further toward foam.

If milk drinks are your main reason for buying a machine, our page on machines for lattes and cappuccino picks one for that job. The start page sorts every machine by what you drink.