Cortadito
Cortaditokor-ta-DEE-toh
A small cup, half dark sweet Cuban coffee with its caramel foam, half hot milk. It is richer and much sweeter than a Spanish cortado, because the sugar is whipped into the coffee before any milk goes near it.
At a glance
- Coffee : milk
- 1:1
- Active time
- 3 min
- Total time
- 8 min
- Makes
- 2 small cups
- Serve
- Hot
- Kit
- Moka pot
Ingredients
Note: An espresso machine works too: pull a double into the sugar and beat the first drops in, exactly as with the moka pot.
Method
-
Start the moka pot, sugar in a jug
Fill and assemble the moka pot and set it on a medium flame. Put the sugar in a small jug or a cup with a spout.
-
Catch the first drops
When the first dark coffee appears, pour about a tablespoon of it onto the sugar and put the pot back on the heat.
The first drops are the most concentrated. That is what lets them whip the sugar.
-
Beat the espuma
Beat the sugar and coffee hard with a teaspoon for about a minute, until it turns pale tan and thick like wet sand turning to paste. This is the espuma, and the full method is on the café cubano page.
Beat 1 minute -
Combine with the rest of the coffee
When the pot finishes, pour the rest of the coffee onto the espuma slowly and stir. A caramel foam rises to the top.
-
Cut it with hot milk
Heat the milk until steaming, froth it lightly if you like, and divide the coffee between two small cups. Fill each with an equal amount of milk.
Cortar means to cut. The milk cuts the coffee, it does not drown it.
Why this works
A cortadito is built on the espuma, and the espuma is a sugar foam. Beating a small amount of very concentrated coffee into a lot of sugar dissolves the sugar into a thick syrup that traps air, the same mechanism behind dalgona coffee, and Cuban bars were doing it decades before anyone filmed it. The first drops from the moka pot are used because they carry the highest concentration of dissolved coffee solids. A tablespoon of that can carry two tablespoons of sugar into a stable paste.
The sugar changes what the milk does. In an unsweetened Spanish cortado, milk softens bitterness by binding polyphenols with its casein. In a cortadito the coffee is already sweet, so the milk's job becomes richness and body. Evaporated milk, which has had about 60 percent of its water removed and been heat-treated until slightly caramelised, does that better than fresh milk. It is the older Cuban-American choice, from before every ventanita had a steam wand, and many people still prefer it.
The roast matters. Cuban coffee is dark and roasted for bitterness and body, because that is what survives the sugar. A light, fruity specialty espresso turns oddly sour once sweetened this much.
The cortadito is a Miami institution, ordered at the walk-up windows of Cuban cafés across the city at any hour. It sits in the middle of a family: a café cubano is the black shot, a colada is a large one for sharing, and a café con leche is a cup of hot milk with a shot poured in.
Variations
- With evaporated milk: the classic. Heat it gently and do not froth it.
- Café con leche: a shot of sweet Cuban coffee in a mug of hot milk, breakfast with buttered Cuban toast.
- Iced cortadito: pour the sweet coffee and cold milk over ice.
- Less sweet: one tablespoon of sugar. It will foam less.
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Questions
What is the difference between a cortado and a cortadito?
Sugar. A cortado is unsweetened espresso cut with steamed milk. A cortadito is Cuban coffee whipped with sugar into an espuma first, then cut with hot or evaporated milk. It is much sweeter and richer.
Can I use evaporated milk in a cortadito?
Yes, and many Miami Cubans prefer it. It is richer and slightly caramelised. Heat it gently without boiling.
What coffee do you use for a cortadito?
A dark espresso roast. Cuban brands sold in Miami are roasted dark and ground fine for the moka pot.
How do I order a cortadito in Miami?
Just ask for a cortadito at any Cuban café window. Say if you want it with evaporated milk, and say poca azúcar if you want less sugar.