andromedalogic a demandé: I google searched 'is a latte ever a buffer' but got no relevant results. probably not, right? I was thinking that maybe since I drink so much coffee, I should consume more basic items to balance it out. I expect doughnuts are relatively basic though. but then I thought of how smart lattes are with the basic milk and the highly acidic espresso and WHAT IF THEY ARE SORT OF BUFFERS DAMN THIS IS SOME BAD SCIENCE OF ME

THE INTERNET DELIVERS…kinda.

relevant discussion occurs at the very end of the post:

[blah blah describing acids and bases] So what does this have to do with milk and coffee? The analysis you used works only if all the acids and bases in the milk and coffee are “strong.” However, both milk and coffee have buffers. Milk has more. My guess is that this will cause the pH of the mixture to tend toward the pH of the milk. How much depends on what buffers are in each and what the dynamic ranges of those buffers are. That I can’t tell you off hand. The way I would answer the question is to measure the pH of the mixture. Your other option is to analyze the milk and coffee to find the concentrations of all the buffers and then look up their dynamic ranges and relative buffering capabilities, which is a very difficult task. […]