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The Coffee 100 · make it at home

The Spanish cortado, cut with warm milk

4 min · 1 small glass

Spain's mid-morning coffee, and Buenos Aires' café order: a shot 'cut' with an equal splash of warm, barely foamed milk, served in a small glass so you can see the line.

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The real one

You need

• 18 g espresso beans for a double (or 9 g for a single, as in Madrid bars)
• 60 ml (1/4 cup) whole milk
• A small glass or cup, about 120 ml

How to make it

1. Shot (30 sec): Pull the espresso into the warm glass.
2. Milk (15 sec): Steam the milk with only a breath of air, a second or two of stretching, then spin it to about 55 to 60°C: warm and silky, not foamy.
3. Cut (5 sec): Pour the milk straight into the middle of the shot until the glass holds about equal coffee and milk. A thin layer of foam on top is right.
4. Serve: With a small biscuit, or in Buenos Aires with medialunas, two of them.

Tips

• In Madrid, ask for a 'cortado' and you'll get this; a 'café con leche' is the bigger, milkier breakfast cup.
• In Buenos Aires, a 'cortado en jarrito' comes in a small mug and a 'lágrima' is the opposite: milk with a 'tear' of coffee.
• Leche y leche (Canary Islands): pour a spoon of condensed milk into the glass first, then the shot, then the milk.

Chef Amazing's own home version, in our words; not any café's recipe.