What exactly is a cortado? A cortado is a double shot of espresso and about equal parts steamed/textured milk. It’s great for when you don’t want the coffee flavor to be too diluted by the milk. At the same time, it’s not quite as hard hitting as a straight double shot of espresso!
So if we are talking overall strength of coffee in the drink, then a cortado and espresso are basically the same since a cortado is made with espresso – assuming we are talking about the same number of shots in each drink. However, since a cortado has some milk, then if we are talking about strength by volume, then technically the espresso is stronger.