Espresso Drinks Explained: Histories, Recipes and More… 

In America we say latte when we mean cafe latte. Every coffee shop here knows to make a cafe latte when a latte is ordered. I went to Italy a few years ago and first place we walked into with a coffee bar in it I immediately ordered a latte. The guy looked at me funny, shrugged his shoulders and then produced a cup of steamed milk and handed it to me. And so my Italian education began.

Recipes: 0:41 Espresso 2:24 Ristretto 3:02 Lungo 3:29 Espresso Con Panna 3:52 Macchiato 5:12 Espresso Romano 5:42 Cortado 6:18 Piccolo Latte 6:51 Americano 7:41 Long Black 8:15 Cappuccino 9:14 Caffe Latte 10:01 Flat White 11:03 Caffe Corretto 11:38 Mocha 13:38 The Red Eye 14:09 The Breve Latte 14:42 Gibraltar

When James wishes that everyone has a great day, I truly believes that’s what he wants for me

James is like the David Attenborough of coffee; I could (and sometimes do) listen to him talk about espresso all day long. ☕️🥰

0:41 Espresso - 1-2 to 1-3 water 2:24 Ristretto - 1 to 1-1.5 water 3:02 Lungo - 1-3 to 1-6 water 3:29 Espresso Con Panna - Espresso with cream on the top 3:52 Macchiato - 1-1 milk 5:12 Espresso Romano - Espresso with lemon 5:42 Cortado - 1-1 to 1-3 of expresso to steam milk 6:18 Piccolo Latte - smaller latte. espresso 1-2 to 1-3 6:51 Americano - espresso watered down 1-3 to 1-5 7:41 Long Black - watered down but a bit stronger than Americano 8:15 Cappuccino - 1-3 to 1-5 espresso to milk 9:14 Caffe Latte - 1-4 to 1-6 espresso to milk 10:01 Flat White - some strong latte with flat milk 11:03 Caffe Corretto - espresso with booze 11:38 Mocha - espresso with chocolate 13:38 The Red Eye - filtered coffee with a shot of expresso 14:09 The Breve Latte - latte with half and half 14:42 Gibraltar - 1-2 with foal in a glass. Like piccolo latte

You missed the chance to say: “affogato talk about one drink with ice cream and espresso” 🤣 One of my favorite dad-jokes!

As an italian its very nice to see how many italian words are used to describe these drinks. In Italy we mostly drink: Caffè (the one you call Espresso in fact we also call It Caffè Espresso) Caffè macchiato Caffè corretto Cappuccino Latte macchiato (foamy millk with a splash of espresso) And if you ask for a Latte in Italy you'll get just a Cup of millk 😀

In Spain, there is also the Cafe Bombon, essentially espresso over a layer of sweetened condensed milk (1:1 ratio). It was possibly inspired by Southeast Asian condensed milk + strong robusta blend drip coffee drinks like cà phê sữa nóng (Vietnam) or kopi susu (Malaysia/Singapore/Indonesia). Perhaps these would be classified with Affogato as a dessert...

Even as someone who isn’t particularly new to coffee, there’s still some very handy take-aways in here. Especially, as a fan of an old school Italian macchiato, it helps explain why I keep getting drinks in Britain that aren’t at all what I’d expect.

Cafe Cubano! An espresso sweetened with sugar, in a unique way. There are a bunch of ways to make it. The way I was taught was to add the sugar to the espresso in the portafilter. I had a Cuban regular who would only order them when I was working. It was the highest compliment :D

There is a story about a French guy named Rafael going to the same coffee shop in Moscow in the 1990s. Allegedly, he was bored with the options and he would ask the baristas to prepare something special for him. So, they would take a shot of espresso, some milk, single cream and vanilla sugar and presented it to him. Other guests were so intrigues, so they started ordering it. The word spread and now every coffee shop can offer you this drink - Raf (short for Rafael lol). It is obviously very sweet and is often offered in a variety pf flavours (they substitute vanilla sugar with a plethora of syrups of your choice)

In the Canary Islands we have a coffee drink called "Barraquito". It's normally served in a small tall glass and it has 4 different layers (from the bottom): condensed milk, licor 43, a shot or double shot of espresso and frothed milk. It all topped with cinnamon and lemon peel. You could call it the sweet Spanish son of the corretto! Worth trying it even with a different liqueur or no liqueur at all!

Hearing James say the word "flex" is an experience

Here in Thailand we've also got a "dirty coffee" Dirty coffee is cold milk or cold milk and cream with a hot shot of dark espresso or ristretto poured over it. Served in a clear glass, the end result appears as an exquisitely messy coffee-milk art that has earned its "dirty" name.

When living in Spain we used to drink "café con hielo" quite a lot. Basically an espresso type short black coffee, served with a rocks glass filled with ice cubes on the side. The idea being that you'd add sugar to the hot drink if you'd like, then pour the hot drink over the ice cubes. A wonderful drink on a hot day. The way Spanish coffee is often roasted incredibly dark it could really use the watering down too. The Spanish tradition of roasting coffee incredibly dark after spraying it with sugary water ("torrefacto") is something I'd love to see a video on btw. From what I gather it started when there was a shortage of coffee, but stuck around until now.

Hi James. Italian fan here. Just a little correction: caffe latte is actually super popular in Italy. It's the bog standard breakfast drink for many people, the simplest, opposite of fancy you can get. But you described it perfectly ;-)

The casual explanation of baristas “flexing” with latte art made me laugh out loud.

Would love to see you do a piece (maybe you have an I haven't found it yet) on small sweet "national" coffees like the Turkish, Greek, and Cuban coffees.

The funny thing about the Cappuccino is that, having worked in multiple restaurants and cafes, I hear the 1:1:1 ratio recipe constantly quoted as the ideal, but nobody ever actually makes the drink to that ratio.

Maybe you've talked about this before, but in Vienna there are a whole bunch of Vienna-specific coffee variations that might be interesting to look into

In Switzerland there are two more common coffee: Café mélange: A lungo with whipped cream on top Café crème: A lungo with a shot of cold cream, instead of milk

Early on at Blue Bottle (and a few other places in the Bay Area) the Gibraltar was a barista-to-barista drink in which the barista leaving shift would make one for the barista coming on to knock back before getting on bar.

In Greece, there are two very common espresso drinks: "freddo espresso" and "freddo cappuccino", great for hot summer days. Freddo espresso is a double dose espresso, in which you add ice (if sugar is desired, you put it when the coffee is hot) and you foam it with an electric shaker. Freddo cappuccino is made similarly, plus the milk.

As an Aussie, I can tell you there are many things we argue with the Kiwis about over whether we made them or they did. Including lots of food things. I didn't know that the Flat White was one of them though! (nor did I know the Long Black was Australian too)

"You do you" is the nicest way of saying "don't do that ever"

One of my favorites is the "Cappuccino Freddo" from Greece. It's espresso over ice covered in milk that's been cold foamed with ice using a milk shake maker (basically an electric powered swizzle stick). It's really an all around better version of an iced latte because you get the cold of an iced latte with the texture of a hot latte along with some really enjoyable layering.

l can’t say where the “caffellatte” has been invented, but l know that it was (and l believe still is) a very common “thing”, especially for children, in the italian homes. l’m 61, but my grandmother’s generation considered caffellatte an usual, common warm beverage in which you would dip cookies and/or bread with butter as a form for breakfast and “merenda”. The fact that it is so common at home makes me believe that this is the reason why a very few italians would order it at a bar/coffee shop, you just don’t feel the desire of a caffellatte but you probably want something more fancy, like a cappuccino that is difficult to make back home.

For me there is one drink missing, that is particularly popular here in Germany, while also frowned upon in specialty coffee shops: **The Latte Macchiato**. It is generally a cappuccino in a glass with more milk and no latte art. In order to make it you steam the milk and try to produce a good amount of foam, then you would pour the milk in a glass of 300 to 400ml size and pour one espresso through the foam in a dot as small as possible. This technique creates three separate layers (milk, coffee, foam) that look great through the glass. Coffee connoisseurs despise it since there is so much milk that the taste of coffee kinda vanishes and the milk is too foamy. Did you leave it out for that reason? Or is it just not common in Britain? I work in a nice coffee shop, where my boss is keen on producing great quality, so she is not a fan of the drink. But about half of the drinks, we sell are Latte Macchiato, so we offer it anyway. Do people in the rest of the world drink that? Otherwise great rundown of all the important espresso drinks. And a great video as always.

I hope you can do an episode on South east Asian style coffees, brewed in a coffee sock with sugar, condensed milk and evaporated milk! Will be so interesting to see your take on something I grew up with!

I’ve always thought that one of the tricky parts of espresso coffee are the drink names. They generally make sense, but I feel that a lot of people are intimidated by how you sort of have to know the entire etymology to get a sense for what will be in the cup. This is especially true given how each country does things differently. Add to that corporate renaming and unique drinks from independent shops and it all gets a bit confusing. This video’s a real help, I can now show it to family members so that they stop getting mad because they order the wrong thing haha.

Our Cuban version is sweet, we call it Cafecito(Shot)/Colada(Multiple Shots in a Serving Cup) shots are served in 1oz Paper Thimble Portion Cups-2oz use the Stove Top Pot, We Typically use Bustelo, Pilon, or La Llave but any Espresso will work, and depending on the size of the Pot, you add the suggested amount of Sugar to the Prep Pouring Glass, Which could be 5-6 teaspoons to 10-12 for larger pots, when the 1st press percolates up (The Thicker Stronger Portion) you pour about 1 or 2 teaspoons into the Glass that has the Sugar and mix with a metal spoon till you have a thick grainy/ or completely smooth caramel consistency, You then add the rest of the Pot when it finishes to the Sugar Cream you mixed and stir for that sugary foam on top or set aside that sugar cream serve 1 teaspoon of that mix per Espresso shot and stir which gets you the same sugary foam on top

There was a trend in Melbourne (Australia) of offering a drink called a "magic". Not all cafes in the city were doing this. It's basically 2 ristretto shots and 3/4 of a glass (small latte glass?) of milk. Beyond that, I don't know much more about it....and its been a long time since I've worked in the city (thanks covid). My local knew whenever my coworkers and I walked in that we wanted 4 magics. Strangely, I've never really seen it on the menu at any suburban Melbourne cafes.

My favorite coffee drink name in Brazil is the Pingado, or “dropped”, which is basically coffee with a drop of milk, or milk with a drop of coffee, no one really agrees

One of my favourite orders in California is the One-and-One. It’s typically served by a barista to another barista in order for the barista not behind the bar to taste the espresso with and without milk. So it acts as a quality control tool as well as a chance to taste two different beverages with one shot. It’s a single shot of espresso alongside a single macchiato. Usually the servicing barista will use a splitter on the portafilter to extract a double espresso directly into each demitasse, divided evenly. Then one of the shots is finished as a single macchiato.

James! I just want to thank you for continuing to learn and make better and better coffee videos. I went back to some older videos you had made and was shocked at how much you've advanced in your video productions and presentations! Good stuff! Cheers

In Melbourne we have the "Magic" it's a double ristretto with a bit of milk. Similar to the amount of milk in a 3/4 latte

James - in University in Italy we used to make the “caffè dello studente” (student’s coffe). This coffe was a classic moka (the one with the Bialetti machine, not the one with chocolate in your video) but instead of water we were using a previously brewed moka! I don’t recall the taste and I am not willing to try it now but I remember pulling all-nighter on the books easily with that drink!

I just recently got an espresso machine and so I am a little late to finding these awesome videos. I love the way that you explain all of the drinks here and in the few videos I have seen, I also noticed how accepting you are of all the definitions that are out there. It's lovely to see that you are simply here to teach and not to bash people's opinions or even influence what a specific drink or style of a drink is. Thank you and I look forward to enjoying your content.

I just tried Vietnamese coffee for the first time and I absolutely loved it! The rich, bold flavor and the smooth, creamy texture were absolutely delicious. I particularly enjoyed the way the sweetened condensed milk balanced out the bitterness of the coffee. I will definitely be making this a regular part of my coffee routine from now on!

Valencia - Café BonBon. Shot of espresso - Dash of condensed milk. Oh my god.

When you talked about ordering a “cafe” in Italy it took me back to when I visited a coffee shop in Lucca in Tuscany. It was called “Caffe Di Simmo” and had been opened in 1880, sadly it closed around 2014/2015 but the espresso I had there still to this day is the best i’ve ever had(and I drink a lot of coffee)! It had an “espresso bar” where it was only 1 euro for an espresso if you stood at the bar and you could watch the barista make the drinks etc. Amazing place!

A common drink amongst Latin Americans and Caribbean islanders is a café con leche. It’s very close to a cortado or a flat white, but can sometimes be a bit of espresso and a lot of milk. In South Florida homes it is commonly made by brewing with a Moka pot and then heating some milk.

Never clicked a video so fast, I’m ready to impress nobody with these new skills

Today I finally made a good espresso on my lelit, since I leaned from James’s videos, James if you see this, thank you!

A bit late to the party but there's this one Viennese coffee called Einspänner where the closest thing might be the Espresso con panna but maybe a slight bit more fancy and voluptuous on the whipped cream front, but I think it definitely warrants its own discussion especially considering the fact that its history and explanation is pretty funny, essentially the name has to do with a horse carriage and comes from the drivers of said horse carriages preferring this drink because of the thick cream layer on top keeping the coffee warmer for long making them able to drink it on their breaks while it was still hot

Thanks to your videos I've been able to vastly improve the drinks where I work, we weren't given any training, and any instructions we were told to follow resulted in pretty awful concoctions. Thanks to you I've been able to serve vastly improved drinks and even dabble in my first attempts at art. I appreciate you having made these videos, you've really helped a little cafe out!

Cuban Colada - several very strong espresso shots, typically with an obscene amount of sugar. It usually comes in a styrofoam cup and a bunch of tiny disposable pill cups so that you can pour "shots" for your friends/coworkers to share it.

In Barcelona, and Catalunya in general, we have the “trifàsic” (literally three phases) which consists of a layer of condensed milk, an espresso and some Irish cream (a.k.a. Bailey’s).

Dear James: I am a new subscriber who lives in the semi rural US. We used to have a Starbucks but it closed in 2008 and has not returned. With the restaurant closings caused by the pandemic if I want good coffee I need to make it myself at home. Finding your channel says whatever the RU-vid algorithm is doing, it's getting some things right in my case because I am working my way through your channel and plan on a bout of serious shopping when done. This is my first reason to say "thank you". The second has to do with, well, you, actually, as a presenter and especially your emphasis on being a "good human". The US has changed since I first came here from Ireland in the late 1980s. Certainly since 2016, over here, we are in serious need of what we might call "Good Human Advocacy" - especially dusted with a light coating of humour as it is in your channel. Again, my thanks. Speaking of Good Human Advocacy, some advice with respect to online shopping for coffee that's good and sourced via aforementioned Good Humans would be greatly appreciated. Gaby

This is very comprehensive. I've always been confused with the names and as a result hesitant to try out espresso drinks. This detailed breakdown is easy to understand, and I was able to narrow down the drinks that would fit my taste to try out. Thank you very much!

Hi. In Chile there's a weird type of cortado where you have 3 parts, one third is an espresso, another third is steamed milk and a third of foam from the milk. It's beautiful because it is served on a transparent glass and you can see the 3 parts of the coffee, but I don't really think is very ood because of the foam.

Cortado and cappuccino are the most frustrating drinks to order in the US (and my drinks of choice) ... Can't tell you how many times I've been handed basically a latte 🤦🏼‍♀️

Missing the italian Marocchino, an espresso poured in a cup that has some nutella spread on the sides

Thank you so much James for instructing and for constantly educating us. I always enjoy your videos.

James with the non-stop teasing of future videos. Looking forward to the HG-2 grinder and the Morning machine. Can still remember when James was lamenting that the HG-1 was $1000, and now he will feature the HG-2.

Just found the channel, this guy knows way too much about coffee, and I love it.

Very late to this but in Mexico and Spain there's a drink called a Carajillo, which is a shot of espresso mixed with a shot of alcohol (typically Licor 43, but sometimes rum or even mezcal) in a 1 to 1 ratio, iced and with a little sugar. It's typically drank in the afternoon after a large meal to help digestion and it's delicious.

I’m a barista, and where I work the macchiato is more like a mini cappuccino, with more foam than milk. Our cappuccino is also made different I guess in that we use a spoon to scoop up foam and place that on top then pour a bit of milk through, so there’s supposed to be more foam than milk ☕️ As far as flat white goes it’s really just a cortado with milk “all the way up” rather than 3/4 of the way up the glass 🤷🏼‍♀️ We do serve the “red eye”, but as it’s not a common drink here and I’m in Norway we’ve named it “Thors Hammer” 😆

Hi James, as a barista is Australia you have to add the “magic”! Classically a double ristretto in a 160ml cup giving the “magic” ratio. A must try!

Concerning Starbucks macchiato, the official recipe also dictates that the shots go in after the steamed milk so it's marked in an inverted way compared to the original.

As a espresso-base drinks enthusiast, I found this video quite helpful and informative. Thank you James ☕

Thank you for this quick history/review of various styles. I've never heard of most of these, and it was quite entertaining and educational.

Mocha: the dark chocolate of espresso beverages. The perfect marriage of sweetness and bitterness. Looked down by espresso enthusiasts, too complicated for average Joe. My daily drug. Seriously though, there is a variation called Mexican Mocha that uses spicy Mexican chocolate that gives that hot finish. None of the other drinks offered pepper or similar spicy bite, so I found that interesting and unique in the realm of espresso drinks.

Wanted to know James whether you’d heard of the “Magic” which is a coffee from Melbourne. It’s a double ristretto shot with a ¾ flat white.

i really appreciate you and your presentation style. Thank-you so much for making coffee accessible to busy professionals.

I was expecting the Latte Macchiato. It's popular here in The Netherlands, and I like making it at home for guests who like milky drinks because it's fun to pour espresso with a tiny little tin and the layering effect is nice to look at.

I'm from Melbourne, and down here two coffee drinks that I often order / have friends who regularly order which wasn't in the video are: a dirty chai (a chai latte with a shot of coffee, very similar to the mocha, just with chai instead) and the magic (I've seen some others mention it) which is a double ristretto with a small splash of steamed milk. Loved the roundup of coffees though!

One of the most popular cafe drinks in germany/switzerland is the "cafe crema" or "Schümli", a filter strength coffee pulled on an espresso machine

Thank you again James for an awesome video. I lived close to 3 specialty coffee roasters (in Canada) and the only thing they seem to agree on (in terms of ratios) is an iced americano. They all make great coffee, so I can't complain, but my wife and I choose the coffee shop based on what drink we want at that time.

In Australia we don’t really do ristretto shots anymore, even in flat whites! Speciality coffee has changed us since the days of dark roasts.

My take-away from this video: These days, the name of the drink will give you a rough estimate of what you will get, however, many of the drinks overlap heavily...

As a New Zealander from Wellington (the home of NZ coffee!) going to cafes in my youth, I remember Flat Whites became a big thing in the early 90's. At the time NZ was transitioning from a 70's "Coffee Lounge" culture where the only options were black of white filtered coffee, to italian names like espresso, cappuccino, macchiato etc. It was overwhelming for some people, so the flat white was invented as a no nonsense option of "just milk and coffee like you are used to and none of that funny Italian stuff". I remember they came in a smaller glass cup, rather than a larger ceramic coffee cup. It used to be a single shot of espresso, with steamed but not foamed milk. Baristas would even use a spoon when pouring the milk to make sure no foam got to the cup. Because of the small glass, the ratio of espresso to milk was a lot greater than a normal latte or cappuccino. Also capuccinos back then were nuts. At least 1/4 of the cup was foam.

I love coffee and I can tell a good from a bad one. But until I started watching this channel I had no idea of what I’ve been missing. Well done!

James - am always excited to hear your take on all things coffee related. At some point I’d like to hear your observations on Australia’s influence on espresso culture…they seem to be everywhere on YT and present some very interesting educational content. A sincere thanks for your posts and the work that goes into them.

The modern cappuccino has become just a latte with chocolate / cocoa on top, sometimes blended in at half pour, at least here in Australia. Also, the Magic is a double ristretto with a lower ratio of coffee to milk, and was popularised in Melbourne.

Customer expectations versus differing menu offerings really does make for a bit of a powder keg. Some cafes I've been in have schematics of their drinks on the walls to try and eliminate some of the confusion. In my experience, it only adds to it.

Excellent description of the different coffees and also how each one may vary. Thanks!

One thing I don't often hear mentioned is the fact that specialty shops always use micro-foam for all their drinks, so the difference between a cortado, cappuccino, and a latté is only the ratio of milk to espresso. I never see people spooning foam onto a cappuccino because the micro foam is all blended together and it's the same style of foam they would use for a latte.

Caffè leccese (Puglia, south Italy): and espresso to pour in a glass containing ice and sweet almond milk. It's tipically poured in front of you from the coffe cup into the trasparent glass by the barman if you are at the bar counter, or server in two separate cups if you are ordering it from your table (you then need to do the mix).

Hello! In Russia they serve Рaф(cyrillic, from Rafael, if you say "rough", this will be exactly the pronunciation of the word). It's similar to latte but the ingredients' re bit different: espresso+cream+sugar+vanilla sugar, whipped all together. There was a guy named Rafael who was not satisfied with kinds of coffee served in a restaurant. The barista started experimenting to find smth original for Raf and got coffee tasted like melted ice cream (but served hot). Choosy Rafael accepted this variant and other guests began ordering the "coffee as for Raf".

Over here we call the "red eye" a Canadiano, in that its like an Americano but stronger & more polite

In Melbourne Australia we have a “magic” coffee which is a double ristretto with 3/4 silky milk

Greetings from the home of Libbey Glass, Toledo Ohio! Enjoying my coffee out of a Libbey gibraltar glass right now :)

Thanks for the video. Cleared up a lot of my confusion about how these various terms are used.

When I was in Russia, it was very popular with two families I stayed with to use sweetened condensed milk as the creamer in the coffee, instead of regular milk. I liked that a lot and do it often now!

Don’t ask for cortados in Portugal though. Pingado is an expresso with “drops” of milk, garoto is the opposite, more milk than coffee, ;if you want a larger cup, galão is a long expresso with milk served in a glass, meia de leite or meia de máquina is similar but served in a cappuccino cup- theres no latte art unless you’re in one of those fashion places.

In Russia we have "Raf" coffee. It kinda has even fluffier milk texture and even bigger milk ratio than in a latte and on top of that the milk is steamed with vanilla/lavender/orange/etc syrop. So it has really mild texture with a hint of those extra flavours.

This is a great video - I learned so much! Coffee culture is so fascinating.

I’m glad you dispelled the rule of three for cappuccino’s James. I was scratching my head over that one as I was looking at the official Italian cappucino definition. Very informatieve altogether.

Thank you for the easy to understand, professional, and fun explanation of all the different espresso drinks. It was great to see variants I had never heard of and will definitely be a great resource for those new to and interested in coffee. Thanks for the great content as always James, and congratulations on reaching 900k!

Easily one of the best RU-vid channels. Content aside, the production value and James' delivery alone do it for me

Hello James! Nice video and really informative! There's a type of drink in Chinese specialty cafés trending from around 5 years ago called "dirty". It is basically cold milk with espresso on top(or most of the case we adopt the modern way making double ristretto around 36ml). Because the distance of the spout and milk surface, and the flow ratio is relatively low, the coffee will sit on the milk, revealing nice crema and will slowing diving in along the cup edge, and hence it will look "dirty" on the side. The drink is quite pleasant to drink, with each taste different in coffee intensity, sweetness of the milk, and temperature of the drink. If you ever come to China (i.e Shanghai), you must try it :)

I got my wife an espresso machine for Christmas and I've been obsessing over learning about mastering the machine. Thank you for your expertise and advice!

The magic has been another Melbourne staple for so long.

Really appreciated this video. I'm based in Sydney and I definitely see different interpretations around the country. Sydney machiatos tend to be the more traditional Italian style, but if I'm ever in Perth for work I see more of the modern style machiatos in use, almost in lieu of a picallo latte. Also had a few buddies that used to serve a "cut double" which was a double shot with a 1:1 of got water over the top. Worked great with single origins, brought out some subtle flavours.

Great exposition. I like the variations you get when ordering out, especially at proper coffee shops, and I also like to make my own version at home - which then doesn't really adhere to any of the accepted methodologies.

i enjoyed this. thank you for educating me on a subject I love. In 2004, I was deployed to Baghdad, Iraq with my National Guard Unit as a Medic. I didn't have an xbox, or lap top to take with me, so the "comfort" item I took with me, was a French Press and coffee. I had no problem finding hot water...i didn't know about cold brew then. I made gallons of coffee in that lexan press.

Big surprise Starbucks has made things confusing or over complicated to make them seem fancy.

My grandma (from Italy) used to drink and serve the cafe ramano. I never heard it called that, she just called it espresso. We used to go to this old school Italian restaurant here on the east coast of the US and you got that by default after a meal. My grandma taught me to put the twist in the espresso, drink it slowly and then eat the twist. -Chris

I appreciate that you differentiate between the classic or old world ways that coffee drinks are defined and how they’ve been redefined with modern coffee shops, particularly those in North America and Australia. In Europe, the categories used to be quite rigid. In Spain, for example, a traditional cortado was very close to a macchiato in size and ratio, but the milk was steamed rather than foamed. In America it’s a bigger drink and it is impossible to get an old world cortado or macchiato in New York except in a few places run by Italians. Even in Spain and Latin America, people order a “Cortadito” (small cortado) to ensure that the classic drink ratio is preserved (often that means it is means is served in an espresso cup). A carajito is the Spanish language equivalent of a correcto but with a more colorful name!