HK1118264A - Infusion unit - Google Patents

Description

Brewing unit

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a brewing unit comprising a bag portion containing brewing material, preferably tea leaves, and a handle connected to the bag portion.

Background

Brewing units of this type are known, for example, in the form of a conventional tea bag. In the conventional tea bag, finely pulverized tea leaf material is contained in a bag portion. The bag portion is completely closed and a cardboard sheet or sheet is mounted as a handle on the upper side of the bag portion by means of a pull wire. Tea bags of this type are mostly used for preparing tea in portions, for example, in pots. Typically such tea bags are filled in an amount of 3.5 to 5.0g, wherein the filling amount is designed to prepare a cup of tea from the tea bag. However, using this type of tea bag to prepare, for example, a flat-bottomed cup of tea (which holds about 200 to 300ml of tea relative to a cup holding about 150 ml) does not contain enough tea leaves in the tea bag.

Furthermore, the tea contained in the conventional tea bag is finely crushed and the tea leaves usually composed of high quality tea leaves in quality are clearly put below.

In particular, there is a need for rapid tea preparation in "street quick sales" so that tea preparation always uses tea bags or tea bags.

Due to the above described disadvantages, tea prepared with such tea bags no longer meets the quality requirements of the consumer, but only a small number of tea beverages can be sold in street quick sales.

Disclosure of Invention

The applicant has aimed at providing a possibility to provide a high quality tea beverage in street quick sales as well, which is close to or equivalent in quality to tea prepared at home or in a good tea house. The preparation of tea is to be carried out smoothly here, as is important for street quick sales.

In particular, an infusion unit according to the invention can be used with a disposable cup provided with a lid.

The object and the task stated are achieved according to the invention by a brewing unit according to claim 1. Advantageous further developments of the brewing unit are specified in the dependent claims 2 to 9.

The brewing unit according to the invention is characterized in that a sheet-like element, preferably made of paper, cardboard or plastic, is fixed directly as a handle on the bag portion. The bag portion is fastened to the handle in such a way that, viewed in the direction of the longest dimension of the handle, it is arranged between the mutually opposite ends of the handle in such a way that, when the handle and the bag portion are turned through 90 ° relative to each other, the handle extends on both sides beyond the connecting point of the handle and the bag portion. In the above-described position, the pocket part and the handle thus together form a "T" shape, where the two parts of the cross-piece of the "T" shape must be absolutely as long.

The infusion unit according to the invention is particularly suitable for containing loose, whole tea leaves and creates the precondition for the preparation of high-quality tea. The brewing unit according to the invention is not however restricted to tea as brewing material, but in principle other brewing materials can be used, such as fruit pieces or the like. The arrangement of the bag portion according to the invention on the handle allows the handle to be used reliably as a "stopper" when the bag portion is suspended in a container for preparing the brewed beverage, for example by two projecting portions of the handle resting on the opening edge of the container or in a manner described in more detail by way of example in a lid designed per se for co-action with the brewing unit according to the invention.

The bag portion may be made of a cellulose material or any other porous material suitable for preparing infused beverages, in particular nylon.

According to an advantageous further development (claim 2), the bag section is secured eccentrically between the mutually opposite ends, viewed in the direction of its longest dimension, on the handle. In this case, in a further variant (claim 3), a structure is preferred which divides the handle along its longest dimension in a ratio of approximately 1: 3. This type of bag portion provided on the handle is advantageous for disposable cups, in particular by preferably providing the connection of the infusion unit to the lid itself intended for this purpose.

A further configuration which is advantageous in this respect is specified in claim 4. The handle thus has a substantially rectangular basic shape, wherein the end of the handle further away from the connection location of the handle to the bag portion is rounded. The rounding of the end of the handle makes it easier to insert it into the receiving slot or to achieve storage of the end on a correspondingly designed storage surface for fixing the brewing unit in the "brewing position".

An infusion unit of the type specified in claim 5, in which the bag portion of the handle is fixed between the two surfaces of the handle that lie against one another by folding one end of the handle and gluing one end of the bag portion, results in a particularly simple and robust construction of the infusion unit according to the invention, in particular in the connection position between the handle and the bag portion. Instead of being glued, the end of the bag portion at the fold of the handle may also be fixed in other ways, for example by stitching.

In another development (claim 6), it is provided that the folded-over portion of the handle forms a handle portion for gripping the brewing unit. By folding the end portion, it is doubly placed and additionally stabilized, thus constituting a more stable handle portion than the other end of the handle.

Preferably the handle has a width, measured in a direction transverse to the longest dimension, which is larger than the bag portion secured thereto and which extends beyond the bag portion on both sides in this direction. This advantageous embodiment described in claim 7 makes it possible to support the handle on a support surface or guide surface in the region of the pocket section. Advantageously the bag portion is a flat bag (claim 8). This flat bag is preferably arranged transversely to the longest dimension of the handle in the direction of its longest dimension and is fixed to the handle in this direction.

The preferred brewing unit dimensions are specified in claim 9. The length of the pocket portion is thus about 100mm-130mm and the width is about 50 mm. The length of the handle is about 80mm and the width is about 54mm, the length of the end of the first protrusion where the pocket portion and the handle portion are connected is about 20mm and the length of the end of the second protrusion is about 60 mm.

Finally, in a further advantageous embodiment of the invention (claim 10), it is provided that a fold extends approximately midway along the entire length of the handle in the direction of the longest dimension of the handle. This fold has the advantage that the brewing unit according to the invention can be used, for example, for brewing a brewed beverage in a flat-bottomed cup without running the risk of sliding completely into the flat-bottomed cup when brewing the brewing unit provided in the flat-bottomed cup. For this purpose, the handle of the brewing unit is easily pressed along the fold, so that it deviates from a flat, planar shape to a shape with an approximately triangular cross section. The handle is then hung with its longer part on the edge of the cup. Due to the bent shape the handle fits better to the circular outer side of the tumbler and does not easily slip off.

Drawings

Further advantages and features of the invention emerge from the following description of an embodiment with the aid of the drawing. In the drawings:

FIG. 1: a view of a first side of an embodiment of a brewing unit according to the invention;

FIG. 2: fig. 1 is a side view of a brewing unit according to the invention, opposite a first side;

FIG. 3: a view of a bag portion of a brewing unit according to the invention;

FIG. 4: a view of the pattern of handles for a brewing unit according to the invention;

fig. 5a to 5 c: preferred applications of the brewing unit according to the invention together with a specially designed lid for a disposable cup;

FIG. 6: a second embodiment of a brewing unit according to the invention is comparable to the view of figure 1;

FIG. 7: the view of the brewing unit in fig. 6 comparable to fig. 2; and

FIG. 8: a view comparable to fig. 4 for a version of the handle according to the second embodiment.

Detailed Description

In these figures, which each schematically show a described embodiment, identical components are assigned the same reference numerals. The drawings in the figures are as little as possible limiting the invention as the following description of embodiments, the scope of which is to be determined solely by the claims. The following description of the present embodiments is provided for the purpose of illustration and better understanding.

In these figures, the infusion units according to the invention are generally designated 20 and 120. The brewing unit is generally composed of a handle 22 or 122 and a bag portion 21 in the form of a flat bag secured directly to the handle. The bag portion 21 is filled with infusion material, preferably loose tea leaves. The pocket portion 21 is made of a nylon material. The bag portion 21 is made by separating a portion of a continuous strip in the form of a hose and closing one side of the bag portion by a closing seam 28, filling with infusion material and closing the opposite end of the bag portion 21 by another closing seam. Expressed by the dots in the middle portion of the bag portion 21, the nylon material is porous to enable infusion liquid, such as hot water, to penetrate the bag portion. In this way it is ensured that the infusion material comes into contact with the infusion liquid and affects it for preparing the infused beverage.

The handle 22 or 122 is made of a flat material, in particular thin cardboard.

A version of the first embodiment for the handle 22 is shown in fig. 4. It can be seen there that a fold designated 25 runs transversely to the handle 22, the fold 25 on both sides forming tongue grooves 26 and 27. To connect the handle 22 with the pocket part 21, adhesive is applied on the upper side of the pattern for the handle 22 in the area between the fold 25 or the grooves 26 and 27. The bag section 2 with the transverse edges is then attached at one of its ends to the fold 25 and the pattern is folded along the fold 25 and encloses the bag section 21. In this way the bag portion 21 is glued to the handle 22.

Fig. 8 shows an alternative configuration of a handle 122. This configuration also has a fold 125 extending transversely to the handle 122. In this embodiment there are no grooves opposite to the grooves 26 and 27 of the embodiment shown in fig. 4. Instead, there is a fold 128 extending in the longitudinal direction of the handle 122 (i.e. in the direction of its longitudinal extension). Which extends perpendicular to first fold 125 and is approximately centered over the width of handle 122. This fold 128 is also visible in fig. 6 and 7, in which an embodiment (brewing unit 120) is shown provided with the handle 122 shown in fig. 8. The fold 128 serves to better secure a brewing unit according to the present invention if the brewing unit is used to brew a brewed beverage in a flat bottom cup or similar container. The handle 122 may then also be bent along the crease 128 and "bent" as such. In this position it better matches the outer diameter of the cup or similar container and is inclined if, in order to hold the bag portion 21, the handle is suspended above the rim of the cup without sliding into the cup or other brewing container, if the contents of the bag portion are filled with brewing liquid.

The connection of the bag portion 21 to the handle 22 is functionally similar to the embodiment shown in figures 1, 2 and 4 previously described in this regard. Here too, an overlap region is realized by bending the end of the handle 122 along the fold 125, to which the bag part 21 is bonded.

As can be seen in particular in fig. 1 and 2 and fig. 6 and 7, the handles 22 and 122 are wider than the bag portion 21, wherein the bag portion 21 is arranged centrally within the handles 22 and 122 so as to project beyond the approximately equally wide edges of the handles 22 and 122 on both sides of the bag portion 21. Due to this construction, a direct adhesion of the two mutually overlapping faces of the handles 22 and 122 is achieved at least over the run-out regions of the handles 22 and 122 when the bag sections are connected to the handles 22 and 122, which means additional fixing strength.

According to the connection between the pocket portion 21 and the handles 22 and 122 as described above, the handles 22 and 122 form a shorter handle portion 23 and 123 on which the cardboard material of the handles 22 and 122 is doubly located by folding along the creases 25 and 125 and a support portion 24 and 124 for the two excess portions on either side of the connection location between the handles 22 and 122 and the pocket portion 21. The bearing portions 24 and 124 have a rounded end, wherein the rounded background is discussed next.

The pocket portion 21 is not centrally located within the handles 22 and 122, i.e. the portions 23 and 123 and the support portions 24 and 124 are of unequal length. In this embodiment the handle portions 23 and 123 up to the connection with the pocket portion 21 measure a length of about 20mm, while the support portions 24 and 124 have a corresponding measured length of about 60 mm. Whereby the handles 22 and 122 are divided in a ratio of about 1: 3 at the connection location between the handles and the bag portion 21. The pocket portion 21 in the illustrated embodiment has a width of about 50mm and the handle 22 has a width of about 54 mm. The excess of the handle 22 here is about 2mm each on the right and left side of the pocket part, seen in the transverse direction. The bag portion has a length of about 110 mm.

In fig. 5a to 5c, a preferred use of the brewing unit according to the invention is shown together with a lid 1 for a disposable drinking cup.

The lid 1 has a base plate 2 which, in the application example, faces the drinking cup and a closing plate 3 which is arranged above the base plate 2. A receiving space 5 is formed between the base plate 2 and the cover plate 3 and a surrounding side wall 4. A substantially right-angled opening 6 is provided in the base plate 2 approximately centrally, and a slot-shaped opening 7 is provided near the edge region between the closure plate 3 and the edges of the closure 3 and the lid 1. The slit-shaped opening 7 is covered by a tongue 13 of the closure plate 3. In the region of the gap-shaped opening 7 facing each other, the base plate 2 forms a bearing surface 10.

The brewing units 20 and 120 according to the invention are particularly suitable for use with a lid 1 in order to achieve the preparation of relatively high quality brewed beverages, in particular street-ready tea. For this purpose, the brewing units 20 and 120 according to the invention are first inserted into the lid 1. This is shown in fig. 5a and 5 b. The brewing units 20 and 120 according to the invention are guided by the handle parts 23 and 123 through the openings 6 in the base plate 2 of the lid 1, so that the handle parts 3 enter through the slot-shaped openings 7. The handle portions 23 and 123 and the handles 22 and 122 are now pulled through the slit-shaped opening 7 so far that the bearing portions 24 and 124 can reach the receiving space 5 of the cover 1 through the opening 6. The handles 22 and 122 are then turned over and thus enter the receiving space until the support portions 24 and 124 of the handles 22 and 122 rest on the support surface 10. Since the cover 1 is designed as a whole in a circular manner and thus the bearing surface 10 has a partially circular outer contour, the bearing parts 24 and 124 are provided with a rounded outer edge as described above.

In the position shown in fig. 5b, the brewing units 20 and 120 according to the invention protrude into the brewing liquid and serve for preparing the brewed beverage when the lid 1 or the unit consisting of the lid 1 and the brewing units 20 and 120 is placed on a beverage cup filled with the brewing liquid.

After a determined activation time, the pocket portion 21 of the brewing unit 20 and 120 is removed from the brewing liquid. This can be done in the combination of brewing units 20 and 120 according to the invention with a lid 1 as shown in fig. 5 c. After the end of the action time, the handle part 23 or 123 of the handle 22 or 122 is grasped and pulled in the direction of the arrow shown in fig. 5 c. The bag portion 21 is thus withdrawn on the infusion liquid and pulled into the containment space 5 through the opening 6. The bag part 21 is pressed and "wrung" by pressure between the base plate 2 and the bearing part 24 or 124 of the handle 22 or 122. If the handle portions 23 and 123 and the handles 22 and 122 are maximally pulled out of the slit-shaped opening 7, the bag portion 21 of the brewing units 20 and 120 according to the invention is almost entirely accommodated in the receiving space 5, in each case no longer in contact with the brewing liquid in the beverage cup. Thus avoiding further influence of the bag portion or the brewing material located therein on the brewing liquid. In case tea leaves are located in the bag portion 21 it is avoided that the tea beverage prepared in the beverage cup is too bitter due to a too long brewing time.

The brewing units 20 and 120 according to the invention are not limited in their application to the combined action with the lid 1 described in fig. 5a to 5c, but can also be used in beverage containers without such a special lid for preparing the brewed beverage. The variants shown in fig. 6 to 8 are suitable for this purpose.

List of reference numerals

1 cover

2 base plate

3 sealing plate

4 side wall

5 accommodating space

6 opening

7 opening

10 bearing surface

13 tongue

20; 120 brewing unit

21 bag part

22; 122 handle

23; 123 handle part

24; 124 support part

25; 125 crease mark

26 groove

27 groove

28 closed seam

29 closing the seam

128 fold mark

Claims (10)

1. An infusion unit comprising a bag portion (21) containing infusion material, preferably tea leaves, and a handle (22; 122) connected to the bag portion (21), characterized in that the handle (22; 122) is a sheet-like element, preferably made of paper, cardboard or plastic, to which the bag portion (21) is directly fixed in such a way that the bag portion, viewed in the direction of the longest dimension of the handle (22; 122), is arranged between mutually opposite ends (23, 24; 123, 124) of the handle (22; 122) in such a way that the handle (22; 122) extends on both sides beyond the connection position of the handle (22; 122) to the bag portion (21) when the handle (22; 122) and the bag portion (21) are turned through 90 ° relative to each other.

2. The infusion unit as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the pocket portion (21) is secured eccentrically in its longest dimension between the mutually opposite ends (23, 24; 123, 124) on the handle (22; 122).

3. The infusion unit according to claim 2, wherein the connection location of the handle (22; 122) to the pocket portion (21) divides the handle (22; 122) into a ratio of approximately 1: 3 in the direction of the longest dimension of the handle.

4. The infusion unit according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that said handle (22; 122) has a substantially rectangular basic shape, wherein the end (24; 124) of the handle (22; 122) further away from the point of connection of the handle (22; 122) with the bag portion (21) is rounded.

5. Brewing unit according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the bag section (21) is fixed on the handle (22; 122) between two mutually overlapping faces of the handle (22; 122) by folding of the end (23; 123) of the handle (22; 122) and gluing of the end of the bag section (21).

6. The infusion unit according to claim 5, characterized in that the folded portion of the handle (22; 122) forms a handle portion (23; 123) for gripping the infusion unit (20; 120).

7. Brewing unit according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the handle (22; 122) has a width measured transversely to the longest dimension which is wider than the bag portion (21) fixed to the handle and which projects beyond the bag portion (21) on both sides in said direction.

8. Infusion unit according to one of the preceding claims, wherein said bag portion (21) is a flat bag.

9. The infusion unit according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said bag portion (21) has a length of about 100mm to 130mm and a width of about 50mm, and said handle (22; 122) has a length of about 80mm and a width of about 54mm, wherein the length of the first end portion beyond the connection point of the bag portion (21) and the handle (22; 122) is about 20mm and the length of the second end portion beyond it is about 60 mm.

10. Brewing unit according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a fold (128) extends approximately halfway over the entire length of the handle in the direction of the longest dimension of the handle (122).