The invention disclosed herein relates to a drink container with a holder, compartment or the like (hereafter referred to simply as either a holder or a compartment) and to a holder for a drink container which isolates a packet containing or having contained a concentrate, either a non-dissolvable concentrate such as a tea or a dissolvable concentrate such as instant coffee, from which a liquid product can be made by adding hot, cold or warm liquid to the drink container. The invention relates to such holders which are manufactured together with the drink container and are supplied as a unit, sometimes containing the packet, as well as to holders which are manufactured separately from drink containers and are inserted into a disposable or non-disposable drink container when used. The invention also relates to methods for making drinkable liquid products from packets containing concentrates. The invention has particular application to making single or pre-measured servings or dosages of drinkable liquid products, particularly in disposable drink containers, while providing for isolation of the packet from the liquid product after the liquid product has been made. The liquid product may be a beverage such as tea, coffee, lemonade, hot chocolate, etc., medicines, etc., either hot or "iced" and either instant or non-instant, i.e., made from dissolvable, partially dissolvable or non-dissolvable concentrates. The packet, when it is isolated from the liquid product, may contain non-dissolvable concentrate, or the undissolved part of a dissolvable concentrate, or nothing at all if all of a dissolvable concentrate in the packet dissolved in the liquid.
While the invention has application to drinkable products other that beverages, e.g., medicines, and to beverages other than tea, the invention will be described using tea as an example and as the preferred embodiment to facilitate a description of the invention. The terms "dissolvable" and "non-dissolvable" are meant in a broad sense, and "non-dissolvable concentrate" as used herein and encompasses concentrates which produce drinkable products by physical and/or chemical interaction with a liquid and leave a non-dissolvable portion after the liquid product has been made.
There have been many advances in disposable drink containers. For example, covers to disposable cups are now provided with pre-weakened portions so that a hole in the cover may be opened and the beverage sipped through the hole without having to remove the cover. Such an advance allows one to drink the beverage while standing, walking, working, riding in a car, bus or train, etc. without spilling the beverage. However, even with such advances, inconveniences remain with respect to beverages made in disposable cups from indissolvable concentrates such as non-instant tea and non-instant coffee (ground, non-instant coffee is now supplied, like tea, in single serving bags).
For example, when brewing tea in a disposable cup there are the problems of conveniently stopping brewing at the desired strength of the tea and conveniently without wetting, burning or staining disposing of the tea bag when one decides to stop the brewing. Typically, when one purchases tea in a disposable cup, hot water is added to the cup with the tea bag already in the cup so that brewing starts immediately. Yet, the purchaser typically is not ready to drink the tea until later when the purchaser reaches his or her destination (or the tea ordered by telephone reaches its destination), so brewing continues until the purchaser drinks the tea; or if the purchaser is ready to immediately drink the tea and wants to stop the brewing, he or she has no convenient way of disposing of the tea bag.
Not placing the tea bag into the cup at the point of purchase when the hot water is added to the cup cures only a part of the problem. This particular action unfortunately produces other problems. For example, if one decides to drink the tea other than at a table, desk, etc., it typically becomes inconvenient to remove the top of the cup, insert the tea bag and brew the tea to the desired color or concentration before removing the bag. Not only does the problem of disposing of the tea bag remain, but there frequently is the inconvenience of having to remove (and possibly re-engage) the cover as well as inserting and removing the tea bag. This must of course be done without spilling any tea since the purchaser may be standing, driving, riding in a commuter train, etc, and/or may be carrying additional items such as a pocket book, brief case, newspaper, package, etc. Note that regardless of where the purchaser drinks the tea, the bag must be removed from the cup with the risk that the soaked tea bag will drip. If one avoids the drippage and disposal problems by not removing the tea bag from the cup, then the tea will continue to brew and may become too strong. This strong tea may not only be distasteful, but also may be unhealthy due to the acid and/or caffeine concentration.
The above problems exist for tea bags with and without strings attached thereto. For tea bags without strings, there is the additional problem of somehow grasping the tea bag to remove it from the cup.
Many of the inconveniences and drawbacks described above with respect to tea are also present in the use of other non-dissolvable concentrates for beverages, medicines (e.g., in gel-caps), etc.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,687,037 (Setecka) and 3,861,284 (Costello) disclose devices which allow one to withdraw a tea bag from the water in a disposable cup into or onto the cover for the cup. U.S. Pat. No. 4,864,921 (Ross) discloses a mug having a tea bag holder formed in the top of a handle of the cup into which a tea bag may be slid from the water in the cup. In the device disclosed in the Setecka '037, the cover has to be removed from the cup in order to store the tea bag in the cover after the tea bag has been used in the hot water. This presents inconveniences as described above. The device disclosed in the Costello '284 Patent has a relatively large funnel-like device into which the tea bag is withdraw and which is attached to and protrudes from the top of the cover. Because of the protruding funnel-like device, the cover as a practical matter must be separated from the cup in order to drink the tea from the cup. This also presents the inconveniences discussed above. The mug disclosed in the Ross '921 Patent has a compartment projecting transversely from the top of the mug such as in the top of a handle of the mug, which precludes the mug from nesting with other mugs and which may make the mugs too expensive to be considered disposable. Therefore, there is a need for a holder incorporated into or otherwise associated with a drink container which permits a packet which is pre-loaded (and preferably fresh-wrapped) with an undissolved concentrate to be isolated from a liquid poured into the drink container without separating the packet from the drink container, and in the case of a disposable, coverable drink container, having the packet system work in harmony with the standard removable cover system of the drink container.
As mentioned above, the invention also has application to preparation of liquid products from dissolvable concentrates, for example, beverages made from "instant" mixes such as instant coffee and tea, and to pre-measured dosages of medicines made from dissolvable medicinal concentrates. Here "medicine" has a broad meaning and encompasses prescription and non-prescription drugs, pain relievers, flu and cold preparations, ant-acids, indigestion and upset stomach preparations, dietary supplements, etc. Where the medicines are non-dissolvable concentrates, many of the problems discussed above exist.
For concentrates which are dissolvable so that little or no concentrate remains after the liquid product is made, the concentrates are typically provided in bulk or in single serving or pre-measured packets which must be opened and emptied into a drink container. Single serving and pre-measured packets have the drawback of typically being stored separately from the drink containers and require one to grasp the packet, open it and empty the contents into the drink container without spilling any of the concentrate. Transferring measured amounts of concentrate from a bulk container of course is time consuming, and is subject to mis-measurement, spillage, spoilage and contamination. Also, bulk materials are not subject to precise accountability, which is important for drugs. While such drawbacks may not be serious for most non-volume users such as non-indisposed individuals and families in their homes, they can present significant inconvenience for volume users such as fast food and take-out restaurants, institutions, the elderly and the handicapped, etc. Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have single and pre-measured servings and dosages of dissolvable (and non-dissolvable) concentrates associated with disposable drink containers which avoid the foregoing inconveniences.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,967,776 (Utley), 2,972,406 (Mayer) and 3,870,220 (Koury et al.) disclose containers which include structure that holds a single serving of a dissolvable beverage concentrate. However, the invention presents another way for associating dissolvable concentrates with disposable drink containers in pre-measured amounts.