Macchiato ratio: how much milk marks an espresso

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A traditional espresso macchiato is about two parts espresso to one part milk foam: a 25 ml single shot marked with a spoonful of foam, which Breville's guide states as 2 parts espresso, 1 part foam. American specialty shops often serve it closer to 1:1, and La Marzocco's home guide describes a shot topped with milk "generally equal to the amount of espresso used or slightly less." Either way the drink lives in a 2 to 3 oz demitasse. Anything in a 12 oz cup with caramel drizzle is a latte wearing the name.

The three drinks called macchiato

The first two are the same idea at different scales. Breville's macchiato vs latte page calls it "the strongest of all milk beverages," a shot topped with a thick layer of foamed milk and served in a very small cup. La Marzocco's beginner's guide is candid that the macchiato is "a relatively inconsistent drink depending on the cafe," then gives its recipe: a shot into a demitasse, filled with steamed milk roughly equal to the espresso or slightly less, with just a small dollop of microfoam if you want the traditional version. The third row is a different drink. Breville's page says so directly: the chain "caramel macchiato" is closer to a latte and does not belong in the same category as the espresso macchiato.

Hitting 2:1 at home

Start from a real single. illy's coffee bar manual sets the single at 7 g of coffee to 25 ml in the cup, 25 to 30 seconds at 9 bar, and the double at 50 ml. Steam about 1 oz of milk, stretching it more than you would for a latte so you get spoonable foam, then spoon 10 to 15 ml of that foam onto the shot. That is 25 ml of espresso to roughly 12 ml of foam, a hair over 2:1. The volumes for the foam are arithmetic from the ratio, not a published spec; the point is a mark on the crema, not a layer that hides it.

La Marzocco's drink-building guide shows a foamier home version: one shot split across two demitasse cups with 30 ml of microfoam added to each. By volume that is closer to 1:2 espresso to foam, but because foam is mostly air the coffee still leads. If your machine's portafilter splits the shot, it is the easiest way to make two at once.

The 1:1 version and where it stops being a macchiato

Pull a double (about 50 ml, or 28 to 36 g out from 18 g in on La Marzocco's modern recipe) and add an equal amount of steamed milk with a thin cap. That is the US specialty macchiato, and it is a short step from a cortado, which La Marzocco defines as a double shot with 2 oz of milk in a 4.5 oz glass. The working distinction: a macchiato is espresso with milk on it, a cortado is espresso and milk combined. Once the milk passes the espresso by volume you have left both drinks and are into flat white territory. Our cortado vs latte page maps the whole ladder by ratio.

Ordering it

Ask for an "espresso macchiato" if you want the small drink; where the menu board says caramel macchiato, that is the milk-first version. If the caramel one is what you actually like, that is fine, but its caffeine comes from one or two shots in a tall cup of milk, which our Starbucks caramel macchiato caffeine page breaks down by size. Serve the small version in a proper cup so the ratio is visible: demitasse cups on Amazon.

Sources

Breville: Macchiato vs latte
La Marzocco Home: The beginner's guide to espresso drinks
La Marzocco Home: Building espresso drinks
illy: Coffee Bar Manual, espresso preparation (PDF)