What is a Cortado?

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If you’ve been to a coffee shop in Chile might have noticed that most people ask for a cortado. Well wonder no more because I’m going to tell you what it is.

The meaning of this word is to cut, so this is an expresso that is ¨cut¨ with warm milk. Usually the portion is about half and half. So it ends up a dark layer of expresso and a lighter layer of milk that is seen through a transparent glass cup. Some places serve it along with a small cookie.

This is very popular in the Chilean culture and they drink it usually in the mid morning, after lunch or in the mid afternoon. People go to the coffee shops to get together with other people to talk, have meeting and so on.



A lot of Chileans feel that a cortado has to me accompanied by a cigarette, this is why most coffee shops are full of smoke, so for the non-smokers find a coffee shop that is for non smokers if you don’t want your clothes to end up smelling smokey.

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