The key difference between a cortado and a macchiato is that there is a little more milk in a cortado and the milk isn’t textured, whereas it is always foamed in a true Italian macchiato, no matter how small the serving of milk might be. Macchiato means “marked” in Italian so it’s basically an espresso marked with a little hot foam whereas a cortado has coffee and milk on a 1:1 ratio. The milk tends not to be as hot in the cortado, just gently steamed to heat it up and it’s usually served in a small heavy glass instead of an espresso cup.

Australian coffee aficionados have embraced the idea of the cortado too, although they call it the piccolo there, or the latte piccolo (literally, small latte), or a low-tide latte. Again, these are served in a glass, like the cortado.