Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Foraminous material infusion type – or foraminous container... – Having flow compeller means – e.g. – compressor – etc.
Patent
1993-06-10
1997-10-07
Weinstein, Steven
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Foraminous material infusion type, or foraminous container...
Having flow compeller means, e.g., compressor, etc.
426 77, 426 83, B65B 2904
Patent
active
056745443
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to infusion packages such as tea bags, and to methods for their manufacture.
DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART
Tea bags are sealed soft porous bags containing tea leaves which are placed in cups, mugs or teapots of boiling water to produce a drink of tea. The bags can theoretically be of any shape, but are generally either rectangular or round. When the bags are placed in cups or mugs of boiling water, they are usually removed prior to the tea being drunk--this can also, although not necessarily, be the case when the bags are placed in the teapot. In the process of removing the bags either from the cup, mug or teapot, it is quite normal to squeeze the bags into a relatively dry state, usually by employing a kitchen utensil such as a teaspoon. Removal of excess liquid from the tea bag, in order to prevent the tea bag from dripping or leaving puddles of liquid on the surface with which it is in contact, is most desirable in view of the strongly staining nature of tea. However, a problem with using such kitchen utensils is that it is not easy to achieve efficient removal of excess liquid from the tea bag, and frequently the tea bag will have a tendency to drip even after it has been squeezed.
Numerous attempts have been made to overcome this problem, but the majority of such attempts have involved providing a means for applying an external pressure to the tea bag to squeeze out residual liquid. For example, it is known to provide a tea bag with a single tagged string which passes through a hole in an associated folded strip of card. After use, the tea bag is removed from the cup, mug or teapot by holding the tagged string in one hand, and the tea bag is then drawn up between the folded edges of the card which are then squeezed with the other hand to compress the tea bag and cause residual tea to be expressed therefrom. Such an approach is illustrated in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,550,528, 3,057,729, 3,047,397 and 3,092,242. It has been found that a significant disadvantage of this approach is that residual tea is left on the folded card which consequently has a tendency to drip. Moreover the package is somewhat bulkier than is ideally desirable and, of course, the manufacture of the package is rendered somewhat more complex.
Another approach to this problem has been to provide a string harness around the tea bag, the string harness being tightened about the bag after use to squeeze liquid from the bag. Such an approach is illustrated by, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,237,550 and 2,881,910.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,881,910, the bag is provided with two tagged pairs of drawcords which pass through the material of the tea bag from one face of the bag to the opposed face of the bag, and form a sling arrangement around the lower edge of the bag. After the teabag has been steeped in hot water for the desired length of time, the drawcords are pulled to fold the teabag in half and tighten the sling about the lower part of the bag thereby to squeeze out excess liquid. A disadvantage of such an arrangement is that the string tends to exert a very localised squeezing effect, and consequently does not efficiently express fluid from the bag. Moreover, the complexity of the string harness, and in particular the need for it to be sewn into the fabric of the bag, means that as a practical matter, it would be extremely difficult to produce such tea bags efficiently and economically on a large scale.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the aforesaid problems by providing a tea bag which has means for efficient removal of excess liquid from the bag. In particular it is an object of the present invention to provide means for removing excess liquid from the tea bag such that the tea bag thereafter does not drip.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a tea bag having the aforesaid characteristics which can be manufactured efficiently on a large scale.
The present inventor has found that these objects can be met by providing a te
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Tidy Tea Limited
Weinstein Steven
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