A cortadito is a type of coffee drink that is native to the national island of Cuba. This coffee is incredibly rich, creamy, and irresistible. In this article, we’re gonna be learning all about the cortadito and how to make one yourself at home.
Before we can try our hand at making this coffee, we have to get to know it more intimately. First, let’s start by learning about how they drink coffee in Cuba so we have a better understanding of Cuban coffee in general.
Cuba and Coffee
Like the rest of Central and South America, Cuba saw coffee for the first time around the 1th century, when it was brought by colonizers. The warm and welcoming climate, unlike that of Europe, provided the ideal conditions for growing coffee.
Farms were put together by recruiting the best hands available, and pretty soon, Cuba saw itself as one of the most efficient coffee growers of the New World and was an important source of coffee for the Europeans. But the habit of drinking coffee wouldn’t become important for Cubans for at least two centuries after.
It was at the start of the 20th century that coffee really became dear and important for Cubans. By now, most farms of old were owned by Cubans, and a lot of the product was actually consumed by Cubans.
The Moka Pot
And it was in this century when Cuban coffee was completely revolutionized. The Moka pot, an Italian invention, made it possible for anyone to create an espresso-like coffee in the condor of their home with just a heat source.
The Moka pot sparked a whole movement in all of Latin America, sure, but Cuba was particularly captivated by it. If you were to talk about Cuban coffee today, most people would assume you’re talking about coffee brewed using a Moka pot. And the reality is that virtually every single home in Cuba owns a Moka pot.
This can be seen in many instances. Cuban ground coffee, for example, is usually in the specific grind size needed for the Moka pot. This may be called “Cuban espresso”, but the grind is instead just a tad coarser than regular espresso grind- the ideal size for brewing coffee in a Moka pot.
The Cortadito
But what is a cortadito?
The expression comes from another drink, the cortado. The word comes from the verb cortar, meaning to cut. In short, a type of cream or dairy is used to “cut” the bitterness of the coffee. In other words, a little bit of cream is used to compensate for the natural bitterness of coffee. This can be anything from a little bit of actual cream to skim milk and, in some more extreme cases, only a little bit of foam is used.
So, in essence, a cortadito is a small coffee drink that uses cream to offset the bitterness in coffee. The ratio of coffee to milk is 1:1, meaning that the amount of coffee is equal to that of milk. This might seem like a lot, but the usual is more around 1:3 or up.
To be able to make a cortadito, first, we need to be able to make a cafecito, the base ingredient for this recipe. It is the most traditional Cuban way to prepare coffee, and it makes a sweet, rich coffee. You need a Moka pot for both of these recipes, by the way!
How to Make a Cafecito?
Ingredients
- Heat up some water.
- Pour water into the lower chamber of the moka pot.
- Place the ground coffee into the funnel basket. Tamp very, very lightly. Place it on top of the lower chamber.
- Screw the upper chamber on the lower chamber and place the moka pot on the stove.
- Turn on the heat to the highest setting.
- While the coffee brews, pour two tablespoons of sugar (preferably cane sugar) into your coffee cup.
- When the coffee is done brewing, pour a small amount into your cup.
- Whip to create a thick, sugary foam.
- Pour the rest of the coffee.
And with that, you’ve got a cafecito—Cuba’s most traditional and arguably most delicious coffee. With this, we can now make a cortadito.
As mentioned before, a cortadito is a coffee that has a sort of dairy added in a small amount to counter the bitterness of coffee. There isn’t a lot of science to this drink—it is basically a traditional cafecito with dairy added. Still, here is a step-by-step recipe:
Instructions
- Set aside the cafecito you just prepared.
- In a small pot, heat up 100ml of milk of choice.
- Once hot, froth by pouring it into a container, sealing it, and shaking the milk vigorously for one minute.
- Once done, pour the milk into your cup.
- Enjoy!
Since this is a low-tech, homemade recipe, we’re giving instructions for homemade frothed milk. But if you have the means to make real steamed milk using an espresso machine, that would be the ideal ingredient for this coffee. It makes a much more textured, fluffy milk, which is the best type of milk for a cortado.
Some other versions of the cortadito use other types of milk to create the same sensation as frothed milk. Sweetened condensed milk is one of the most popular ones because it has the greatest texture-out of any other milk, and it comes already sweetened—and Cubans really like their coffee sweet. The sweeter, the better!
Plant-based milk isn’t really big in Cuba, so there isn’t any known instance of Cubans coffees using plant-based milk. This doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t use any of these alternative milk.
In fact, it’s probable that much plant-based milk goes great with your cortadito. Simply find a type of vegetable milk that has great texture and a decent amount of fat—something like coconut milk or oat milk would go perfectly!