Coffee Drinks
Put two drinks side by side in their own cups, at the same scale, from published recipes. A cortado in Madrid and a cortado at Starbucks are not the same drink, so each recipe says where it comes from.
The cortado uses a single shot and the flat white a double; the flat white has about 13× the milk (128 ml against 10 ml, measured differently by the two recipes).
In your cup
Left
Espresso "cut" with a small amount of warm milk. How much milk depends a lot on where you order it.
Recipe: Café Sabora, Café cortado: qué es y cómo se prepara · Spain
Right
Espresso with finely textured milk and a thin, glossy layer of microfoam, in a smaller cup than a latte.
Recipe: La Cimbali, Flat White · Australia / NZ style
Each entry gives one published reference recipe. Cafés vary, sometimes a lot; where a source gives a range, so do we.
A small, concentrated coffee made by forcing hot water under pressure through finely ground coffee, served under its crema.
Italy · INEI: single shot; 22.5–27.5 ml espresso; demitasse (50–100 ml).
A double serving of espresso, not a single stretched longer.
illy: double shot; 50 ml espresso; espresso cup.
A restricted shot: less liquid from a similar dose, so it is shorter and more concentrated.
Breville: single shot; 15–20 ml espresso; demitasse.
A long shot: more water run through the coffee during extraction, not added afterwards.
Italian tradition: single shot; 45–50 ml espresso; small coffee cup.
Espresso with hot water added, usually poured in after the shot.
Lavazza: single shot; espresso (amount not published), 120–180 ml hot water; cup or mug.
An Australian and New Zealand black coffee: a shot poured over hot water, which keeps more crema on top.
Australia / NZ style: usually a double shot; 100–120 ml hot water, espresso (amount not published); cup or glass.
A cup of brewed coffee with a shot of espresso added.
Lavazza: single shot; 250 ml brewed coffee, espresso (amount not published); mug.
An espresso "marked" with a little milk foam: a small drink, not the tall sweet chain drink with the same name.
illy: single shot; 20–25 ml espresso, foam (amount not published); small glass or demitasse (59–89 ml).
Espresso "cut" with a small amount of warm milk. How much milk depends a lot on where you order it.
Spain · common style: single shot; 30 ml espresso, 10 ml milk; small glass or espresso cup. Also: Spain · specialty, Hoffmann · equal parts, Starbucks.
A small espresso-and-steamed-milk drink named after the 4½ oz Libbey Gibraltar glass Blue Bottle served it in; its founder calls it really a cortado.
Blue Bottle: shots not stated; espresso (amount not published), milk (amount not published); gibraltar glass (133 ml).
A small single-shot milk drink with latte-textured milk and a little microfoam on top.
Australia · café style: single shot; 20–30 ml espresso, 40–60 ml frothed milk; small glass (85–114 ml).
Espresso with finely textured milk and a thin, glossy layer of microfoam, in a smaller cup than a latte.
Cimbali: double shot; espresso (amount not published), 125–130 ml frothed milk; cup (150–160 ml). Also: Starbucks.
Espresso with steamed milk under a deep cap of fine foam. The "equal thirds" rule has no historical basis.
Italy · INEI: single shot; 25 ml espresso, 125 ml frothed milk; cappuccino cup (150–160 ml). Also: Cimbali.
Espresso with a larger amount of heated milk; Italian recipes may have no foam, cafés usually add a thin layer.
illy: single shot; 20–25 ml espresso, 120 ml milk; tall glass. Also: Spain · specialty, Starbucks.
Frothed milk poured first, then "marked" with espresso, often in a tall glass so the layers show.
Cimbali: single shot; 130 ml frothed milk, espresso (amount not published); tall glass.
Espresso and steamed milk with chocolate, sometimes topped with whipped cream.
Breville: single shot; chocolate (amount not published), espresso (amount not published), milk (amount not published); glass or mug. Also: Starbucks.
A scoop of gelato or ice cream "drowned" in a hot shot of espresso.
illy: single shot; 40 g gelato, 20–25 ml espresso; glass or small bowl.
Brewed coffee with hot milk in roughly equal parts; not espresso-based.
New Orleans · Café du Monde: no espresso (drip coffee); brewed coffee (amount not published), milk (amount not published); cup or mug.
All three are espresso with steamed milk; the difference is how much milk and how much foam. In the Italian certification recipe a cappuccino is 25 ml of espresso and about 125 ml of frothed milk in a 150–160 ml cup, with a deep cap of foam. Cimbali's flat white uses a double shot with 125–130 ml of finely textured milk and only about half a centimeter of foam. Cafés usually serve a latte as the largest and milkiest of the three, with only a thin layer of foam. The reference recipes here don't all follow that: illy's latte is a single shot with 120 ml of milk heated without foam, no more milk than the flat white or cappuccino above. The old "thirds" rule for cappuccino (equal espresso, milk and foam) has no historical basis.
In Spain a cortado is an espresso "cut" with a little milk: anything from a few drops to equal parts, with about three parts coffee to one part milk common. Specialty cafés often use a double shot. Starbucks' cortado is three ristretto shots with steamed milk in an 8 oz cup. The Gibraltar is a cortado named after the 4½ oz glass it was served in.