Foods and beverages: apparatus – Beverage – Infusors
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-17
2001-06-26
Alexander, Reginald L. (Department: 1761)
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Beverage
Infusors
C099S303000, C099S305000, C099S317000, C099S279000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06250208
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for brewing infusible plant substances, especially tea.
With the exception of water, tea is the most widely consumed of all beverages. Its world-wide per capita consumption has been estimated at 0.1 litre per day. In western countries tea tends to be brewed at home, however, there is a growing trend for consumers to consume tea out of home in cafes and bars. It is thought that consumers prefer to enjoy a tea experience that involves more than being supplied with a tea bag and hot water. There is therefore a need for an alternative brewing method.
Coffee brewing equipment is a familiar feature of cafes and bars. Tea is however much more sensitive to brewing than coffee. Extended steeping in water often ruins the beverage. Too short a steeping time results in too diluted a drink.
2. Description of Related Art including Information Disclosed under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
Commercial tea brewing machines are known too. For examole European patent specification EP 898917 (Unilever) discloses an apparatus for brewing tea that has a housing with a water inlet channel, a heater to heat the water delivered through the channel and a water dispenser within the housing for providing a spray of hot water to a brewing pot. The housing includes a filter receotacle that can contain a filter basket of wire mesh or fluted filter paper. The apparatus has a siphoning mechanism that has been constructed so that the function of the apparatus is unimpaired by tea particle interference in the brewing mechanism. The apparatus is designed to allow for tea to steep in its optimal range of from 3 to 5 minutes. The showering action is central to achieving that.
Such an apparatus has proved successful in preparing batches of freshly brewed hot tea however it is not suited to providing individual servings in quick succession as is required in a busy tea shop. When the filter basket is made of wire mesh it can be difficult to quickly clean it thoroughly enough between brews. When the filter basket is made of fluted filter paper it can become costly to replace it each time, time consuming tho fit and fill it, and inconvenient to dispose a large number of them.
United Kingdom patent specification GB 2184644 (W. M. Still & Sons) similarly discloses a tea making apparatus that involves showering hot water over a bed of leaves. Means are provided for delaying the passage of the heated water through the tea leaves to allow for a good extraction. Once that is achieved the tea is dispensed by a siphoning action. U.S. Pat. No. 4,527,467 (Phillios) discloses another filter device. Tea leaves placed in a bowl having an outlet aperture formed in its bottom for discharge of brewed tea. An outlet tube communicates with the outlet aperture and extends upwardly from the bottom of the bowl. A sleeve surrounds the outlet tube with a space between them providing an annular siphon passageway. The upper end of the sleeve is closed while the lower end rests on the bowl bottom. Capillary inlet apertures are formed in the lower portion of the sleeve. As the liquid therefore falls in the bowl, the static pressure of the liquid retained in the annular siphon passageway is balanced by the capillary pressure of the retained liquid and the capillary inlet apertures. Passage of airway bubbles through the capillary inlet apertures is thereby prevented. Upon addition of further liquid to the bowl, the siphoning operation immediately resumes.
While the siphon arrangement in U.S. Pat. No. 4,527,467 advanced the art, it is still subject to certain problems. Tea placed within the bowl for brewing can migrate to the capillary. Particles of tea can then preclude the capillary inlet apertures and interfere with siphoning. Sometimes relatively small particles can be slipped through the capillary inlets with eventual siphoning into the consumer's brew. These particles in the brewing product are aesthetically and tastewise very undesirable.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a tea brewing apparatus that is suitable for providing individual servings of high quality freshly brewed tea in a busy shop situation.
It is an alternative and more general object of the present invention to provide a brewing machine suitable for brewing tea that is at least a useful alternative to those currently available.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In broad terms the present invention relates to a tea brewing machine comprising a housing and at least one brewing assembly; said brewing assembly is adapted to receive a brewing cup that includes a filter that defines and separates a first cavity within said brewing cup for containing tea leaves and a second cavity within said brewing cup from which tea leaves are excluded; said housing has water supply means for supplying a predetermined volume of water at a temperature that is suitable for infusing tea leaves, a water supply channel for delivering said water into said first cavity of said brewing cup, and a siphon tube that has a siphoning end that extends orthogonally upward into said second cavity of said brewing cup and a downward projecting dispensing end; the arrangement being such that said tea leaves infuse as said water is supplied into said first cavity of said brewing cup, but once the level of infused tea liquor in the second cavity of said brewing cup rises above the siphoning end of the siphon tube said tea liquor siphons down the siphon tube and is dispensed from the dispensing end of the siphon tube.
Preferably the brewing assembly includes means for heating the contents of the brewing cup to increase the rate of infusion and the water supply means supplies a selection of predetermined volumes of water to accommodate different serving sizes.
Preferably the tea brewing apparatus has a plurality of mutually independent brewing assemblies.
“Tea” for the purposes invention means leaf material from
Camellia sinensis var. sinensis
or
Camellia sinensis var. assanica
. It also includes rooibos obtained from
Aspalathus linearis
. “Tea” is also intended to include the product of blending two or more of any of these teas.
For the avoidance of doubt, the word “comprising” is intended to mean including but not necessarily “consisting of” or “composed of”. In other words, the listed options or steps need not be exhaustive.
All numbers in this description indicating amounts or temperatures of material ought to be understood as modified by the word “about”.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention concerns an apparatus for brewing tea. The apparatus is particularly suited for commercial use in an out-of-home situation but it need not be used exclusively for that purpose.
Three preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4527467 (1985-07-01), Siemensma
patent: 4819553 (1989-04-01), Heyn et al.
patent: 6003435 (1999-12-01), Patel
patent: 3019347 (1981-12-01), None
patent: 0 297 704 (1989-01-01), None
patent: 0 898 917 (1999-03-01), None
patent: 2282838 (1976-03-01), None
patent: 2 134 376 (1984-08-01), None
patent: 2 184 644 (1987-07-01), None
patent: 2 207 341 (1989-02-01), None
patent: 2 235 868 (1991-03-01), None
patent: 04-253820 (1992-09-01), None
Helps David
Jebb Timothy Hope
Nandra Charanjit Singh
Oates Benjamin Phalan
Pennington Miles
Alexander Reginald L.
Farrell James J.
Lipton division of Conopco, Inc.
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