I normally take my coffee black, but when I’m feeling decadent I opt for a cortado. I have a hot coffee take, and don’t bring out the pitchforks: a latte has just too much milk. The ratio is so milk-heavy that you lose the nuance of the espresso itself.
Cortados, on the other hand, offer the perfect balance of richness and bitterness. The ideal cortado is made with equal parts espresso and milk. (For context, an average latte has three to four times as much milk.) The resulting drink is small—about six ounces—and strong. Think of it as an espresso shot with the edge taken off.
I’ve ordered cortados at coffee shops large and small across the world. And they don’t get the ratio right in the vast majority of cases. Almost every barista adds so much milk that the drink turns into a miniature latte. So when Starbucks announced in late 2024 that they’d be adding cortados to their menu, I was skeptical.
The chain describes the drink as three ristretto shots of their Blonde Espresso with steamed whole milk, served in an eight-ounce cup. They also have a sweeter alternative that includes brown sugar syrup, cinnamon, and oat milk.
I stopped by my local Starbucks to taste both cortados for myself. Here’s my brutally honest review.
It's worth noting that when a massive international chain rolls out an entirely new menu item, there are going to be some growing pains. And that was certainly true at my local Starbucks. The chain hasn't added the cortados as a dedicated menu item on their POS systems yet, so the baristas had to manually input each component.
One of my drinks ended up as not quite a cortado; instead of the standard recipe, I received the three ristretto shots sans milk. Not what I ordered, sure, but a helpful baseline regardless. The coffee component, when measured at home, totaled one and a half ounces. If we're going by Starbucks' eight-ounce total in the menu description, that means the remaining six and a half ounces would be milk. I'm not a mathematician, but that means their cortado should clock in at around 20% coffee. That's even more milky than a standard latte.
The Brown Sugar Oat Cortado I ordered, on the other hand, correctly reflected the brand's recipe (meaning they didn't forget the oat milk). Alas, sorry to Starbucks, but it's definitely not a cortado. The drink itself is enjoyable, don't get me wrong. I like their Blonde Roast Espresso. The brown sugar and cinnamon are a nice touch. But the espresso is barely noticeable behind all of the milk. A more apt description would be a half-sized grande latte.
If you're a cortado connoisseur like I am and want to order one at Starbucks, you'll probably be disappointed. However, if you enjoy milk-forward espresso drinks but want something in a smaller package, I'd recommend it.
