Have you ever walked into a specialty coffee shop, looked at all those menu options, and have no idea what you were gonna get? Well, we’re gonna clear up the confusion.

A cortado is not a real popular drink on most coffee shop menus, but let me tell you what. If you walk into a shop and see it on the menu, you know they know what they’re talking about. It sits halfway between a macchiato and a cappuccino. So, you’re just adding a little bit more milk in there.

A cortado is really popular in Spain and Portugal. What you get is one-and-a-half to two ounces of espresso cut with about another one-and-a-half, two ounces of very lightly steamed (really just warmed) sweet milk. You get a lot of the coffee flavor to it, and just tones down some of the acidity of the espresso with that steamed milk.