Amount of milk in a macchiato beverage What is the correct amount of milk to put into a macchiato? Does it depend on the amount of espresso?
The Italian word macchiato literally means "marked" or "stained" (related to the word "immaculate" [1]), so really it is an indication to add a small quantity of the "staining" liquid, be it espresso or milk.

A caffe macchiato (also called espresso macchiato) is a shot of espresso (or two) with a "stain" of steamed milk and sometimes a little foam to indicate there is milk hiding under the espresso's crema.

A latte macchiato is the opposite concept, where steamed milk is "stained" by a shot of espresso.

As with any of these drinks, the variations are endless, so recipes and even ratios would be specific to a particular cafe.