KR102205516B1 - Ice Capsule - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an ice capsule for uniformly and rapidly extracting ice coffee by raising water from the bottom to the top in a plurality of chambers filled with ground coffee. According to the present invention, the ice capsule is filled with ground coffee inside, has a plurality of chambers dividing the capsule into a plurality (the cross section of the chamber is 4 to 20 times smaller than the entire cross section of the capsule), and since the capsule can uniformly invade the coffee in the chamber as the water in the chamber rises from the bottom to the top (when supplied from the top down, the path of the water going down is determined by the influence of gravity (a water path is created) and the coffee powder in the capsule cannot be evenly invaded), high concentration and uniformity of taste can be ensured even for a short time.

Description

Ice Capsule

The present invention relates to an ice capsule, and more particularly, to an ice capsule for extracting cold (ice) coffee uniformly and quickly by raising water in a plurality of chamber chambers filled with ground coffee from the bottom up.

Iced coffee generally refers to coffee made cold with ice. Ice Americano is a coffee made by squeezing coffee beans at high temperature and pressure using an espresso machine to extract hot espresso, and then adding ice and cold water to it.

In addition, the capsule coffee can be extracted using a machine such as Nespresso or Dolce Gusto and then mixed with ice to make ice americano.

In particular, capsule coffee commercialized under the trademark of Nespresso is disposable, containing a small amount of coffee of 5 g to 10 g, or about 25 g in a container, and extracting coffee at high temperature and high pressure by putting it in an extraction machine. High pressure of about 10 to 20 bar, held in the capsule. It provides high coffee extraction yield and crema in a short time by extracting coffee within minutes under high temperature conditions of 70℃ or higher.

Currently, commercially available capsule coffee extracts espresso at high temperature and high pressure, and ice coffee is made by putting ice in coffee (espresso) extracted at high temperature and high pressure.

Korean Patent Registration No. 10-1400596, Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2018-0108596, etc. disclose capsule coffee extracting coffee with pressurization and hot water. However, there was no capsule coffee that extracts iced coffee (including cold brew) at room temperature or cold water in a short time.

In addition, since capsule coffee must withstand high temperature and high pressure extraction conditions, highly durable materials such as aluminum are used, and therefore, the materials used for capsule coffee are biodegradable or difficult to recycle. Are being collected).

In addition, since the capsule coffee is extracted at high temperature and pressure, there is a problem in that a large amount of components such as caffeine contained in the coffee beans are extracted.

In addition, the capsule coffee extracts coffee in a short time through high temperature and high pressure, so that the extraction efficiency is high, so that a strong bitter taste and a strong taste can be provided, but there is a limitation in providing coffee taste and aroma according to the type or blending of beans.

Cold brew is also one of the iced coffees.Unlike ice americano, cold brew is a coffee extracted from coffee powder by dropping water on ground beans. It is also called Dutch coffee (dropping type). It refers to coffee that has been brewed over a long period of 4 to 24 hours. In addition, cold brew is extracted by immersion method in which coffee beans are immersed in cold water for 10 hours or more to brew coffee.

However, the existing cold brew is a natural fall method or a method of brewing for a long time, so not only the scale of the device is increased, but also it takes too much time. For this reason, despite an increase in the demand for cold brew, it is difficult to supply enough cold brew coffee.

In addition, since the existing cold brew extracts coffee over a long period of time, caffeine is very high, there is a problem that the coffee is contaminated (inflow of foreign substances, propagation of E. coli, etc.) during the extraction process, and the coffee scent is blown away.

The present invention provides a capsule for extracting coffee at room temperature or cold water in a short time without applying a separate pressure to the capsule.

The present invention is to provide a capsule in which a biodegradable material can be used.

The present invention is to provide a capsule capable of extracting coffee having a lower caffeine content compared to conventional cold brew or capsule coffee.

The present invention is to provide a capsule capable of providing a coffee taste and aroma possessed by each coffee bean (or blended coffee powder).

In one aspect, the present invention

As a sealed capsule 100 after filling a small amount of ground coffee, the capsule 100

A housing 10 forming a side wall of the capsule;

A cover 20 covering the upper portion of the housing;

A bottom portion 30 forming a lower portion of the housing;

A water supply pipe 40 located at the center of the housing as a pipe extending from the cover to the bottom;

It is located inside the housing and above the bottom part 30, divides the interior of the housing into a plurality, and includes a part of the inside of the housing and a part of the outer surface of the water supply pipe, and the upper part is opened to fill ground coffee therein. A plurality of chambers 50;

A communication hole 41 communicating with the chamber under the water supply pipe to provide water to the bottom of the chamber;

It includes a discharge unit 60 in communication with the upper side of the chamber to discharge the extracted coffee to the outside of the capsule,

Water is supplied to the bottom of the chamber through the water supply pipe, the water rises from the bottom of the chamber to extract coffee liquid from the coffee powder, and the extracted coffee liquid is discharged through the discharge unit. will be.

The ice capsule of the present invention is filled with ground coffee inside and has a plurality of chambers that divide the capsule into a plurality (the cross section of the chamber is 4 to 20 times smaller than the entire cross section of the capsule), and water is placed in the chamber below. As it rises from the top to the top (when it is supplied from the top to the bottom, the path through which the water goes down is determined under the influence of gravity (the water length is created), and the coffee powder in the capsule cannot be evenly invaded). Because it can be obtained, even for a short time, high concentration and taste uniformity can be secured.

In addition, in the ice capsule of the present invention, in the process of moving water from the bottom of the chamber to the top (at a very slow speed), the ascending force (elevating pressure) acting on the water particles, the dropping force by gravity, and the water infiltrate between the neighboring coffee particles. Due to the capillary force, the contact area with the coffee powder and the invasion time can be increased.

In addition, in the ice capsule of the present invention, the use of a water supply pipe (inlet pipe) or a filter located outside may be eliminated by placing a pipe that directly supplies water flowing from the outside to the bottom of the chamber at the center inside the capsule.

In addition, since the ice capsule of the present invention has a structure in which coffee is independently extracted for each chamber, the coffee extraction rate can be controlled by adjusting the size or height of the chamber and the flow rate (water pressure) of supplied water. For example, the ice capsule of the present invention having an inner diameter of 3.5 cm, a height of 4.5 cm, and six chambers can extract ice coffee in about 5 to 20 minutes.

The ice capsule of the present invention can extract coffee at room temperature or cold water in a short time without additional pressing force by raising water in a plurality of chambers and chambers.

The ice capsule of the present invention can use currently commercially available biodegradable materials (PLA, etc.) as the extraction conditions are unpressurized room temperature or low temperature.

The ice capsule (extracted for 10 minutes) of the present invention has reduced the extraction time by 100 times or more compared to the existing cold brew (extracted for 10 hours to 24 hours), reducing the caffeine content by more than 5 times, and extracted with a capsule coffee or espresso machine. Compared to Ice Americano, caffeine content can be reduced by 2-3 times.

The present invention extracts 10 to 20 g of coffee with ice capsules at low temperature for 5 to 20 minutes (not extracting most of the ingredients of the coffee beans at once, such as capsule coffee), the corresponding beans (or Blended coffee powder), or ingredients that are well soluble at low temperatures are mainly extracted, so different flavors and aromas can be provided for each bean.

1 is a perspective view of an ice capsule, an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a bottom perspective view of FIG. 1.
3 is a perspective view with the cover removed from FIG. 1.
4 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 1.
5 is a housing, and FIG. 6 is a view with the housing removed from FIG. 3.
7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a chamber having a different cross-sectional shape.
8 shows an example of an ice capsule coupled to a coffee extraction device (water supply unit) using a water head difference.
9 shows an example of an ice capsule coupled to a coffee brewing mechanism using a pump or motor.
10 is another embodiment of the discharge unit.
11 is a photograph taken of currently commercially available capsule coffee (Dolce Gusto) and ice capsules of the present invention (two on the left).
12 is a caffeine content of cold brew sold in coffee shops disclosed in the Korea Consumer Agency press release (February 6, 2018).
13 is a test report for caffeine content, E. coli, etc. of the iced coffee of the present invention prepared in Example 1.

In the following, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. However, the scope of the present invention is not limited to the description or drawings of the following embodiments. That is, the terms used in the present specification are only used to describe specific embodiments, and are not intended to limit the present invention. Singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. In addition, terms such as "comprises" or "have" described herein are intended to designate the presence of features, numbers, steps, actions, components, parts, or a combination thereof described in the specification. It is to be understood that the above other features, or the possibility of the presence or addition of numbers, steps, actions, components, parts, or combinations thereof, are not preliminarily excluded.

1 is a perspective view of an ice capsule that is an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a bottom perspective view of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a perspective view with a cover removed from FIG. 1, FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 1, and FIG. 5 is a housing And FIG. 6 is a view with the housing removed from FIG. 3.

1 to 6, the ice capsule of the present invention includes a housing 10, a cover 20, a bottom part 30, a water supply pipe 40, a chamber 50, and a discharge part 60.

1 to 6, the ice capsule of the present invention has a diameter of 2 to 30 cm, 2 to 20 cm, 2 to 15 cm, 2 to 10 cm, 2 to 5 cm, and a height of 3 to 45 cm, 3 ~35cm, 3~25cm3~20cm, 3~15cm, 3~10cm, ground coffee 5~500g, 5~400g, 5~300g, 5~200g, 5~100g, 5~ It can contain 75g, 5~50g, 5~30g, 5~20g, 5~10g.

Ice capsules of the present invention have volumes of 10 to 3000 ml, 10 to 2000 ml, 10 to 1500 ml, 10 to 1000 ml, 10 to 750 ml, 10 to 500 ml, 10 to 385 ml, 10 to 200 ml, 10 to 150 ml , 10 to 100ml, 10 to 75ml, may be 10 to 50ml.

The ice capsule of the present invention may be disposable, but is not necessarily limited to disposable.

Ice capsules of the present invention can be extracted for one person or for multiples (two or more). For example, the ice capsule of the present invention can extract 50ml~5000ml of iced coffee per extraction.

Ice coffee, which is a term used in the present invention, is a term that includes not only ice americano, ice latte, etc., which are consumed cold by adding ice to hot extracted coffee, but also cold brew, which is extracted for a long time with cold water, that is, cold regardless of the extraction method. (COLD) Refers to all drinking coffee.

The term ice capsule used in the present invention refers to a capsule that extracts ice coffee, but extracts ice coffee with room temperature or cold water (less than room temperature) without applying high temperature and pressure, unlike capsule coffee or espresso machine.

The ice capsule of the present invention is not a method of extracting by pressing about 2 to 12 bar with an espress machine, but a non-pressing method of extracting by injecting cold water or room temperature water into the inside. The non-pressurized method refers to a method in which water can be supplied by a pump when water is supplied, but extraction is performed without compressing the inside of the ice capsule with a pump or a compressor.

The housing 10 forms a side wall of the capsule. The capsule of the present invention can be made of a thermoplastic material or biodegradable plastic because it does not extract coffee at high temperature and high pressure. For example, the usable thermoplastic material may be polypropylene (PP), ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH), poly-ethylene terephthalate (PET), and the like. In addition, the biodegradable plastic may be commercially used biodegradable plastic. For example, as a biodegradable plastic, potato or corn starch may be mixed with general purpose plastics such as PE and PP, or commercially available biodegradable plastics such as PLA and PCL.

The housing 10 may have a cylindrical shape or a cylindrical shape, but is not limited thereto. For example, it may be a square column, a hexagonal column, an octagonal column, a cup shape, or the like.

The inner wall of the housing 10 may be provided with a partition wall 51 forming a discharge part and a fixing part 11 to which an edge of the second partition wall is inserted and fixed.

The cover 20 may cover the housing to prevent the coffee powder filled therein from leaking to the outside.

A hole is formed in the center of the cover 20, and an upper end of the water supply pipe 40 is exposed to the outside through the hole.

The bottom part 30 forms a lower part (bottom surface) of the housing. The bottom part 30 may be screwed or fused to the housing.

The water supply pipe 40 supplies water to the bottom. The water supply pipe 40 is located in the center of the housing and extends from the hole of the cover to the bottom, and water can be injected from the top of the water supply pipe to the bottom.

The upper end of the water supply pipe 40 may be at the same position as or below the cover central hole, or may protrude above several mm to several tens of mm.

FIG. 7 shows an example of an ice capsule coupled to a coffee extraction mechanism (water supply unit) using a water head difference, and FIG. 8 shows an example of an ice capsule 100 coupled to a coffee extraction mechanism using a pump or motor. I did it.

In more detail, FIG. 7 shows an example in which a coffee device (or a supply tank 200) is coupled to an upper portion of the water supply pipe 40. Referring to FIG. 7, the supply tank 200 includes a storage unit ( 210), may include a connecting portion 220 and a pressure control hole 230.

The top of the water supply pipe is ?О? When protruding through the central hole, the protrusion of the water supply pipe is inserted and coupled to the inside of the connection part 220, and the speed (flow rate) of water falling through the pressure control hole 230 can be adjusted.

When the upper end of the water supply pipe 40 is at the same position as or below the cover central hole, the outer surface of the lower side of the connection pipe 220 may be inserted into and fastened to the inner side of the upper end of the water supply pipe.

Referring to FIG. 8, in the present invention, when water is supplied to the water supply pipe 40 of the ice capsule 100 using a water storage unit 310, a pump 320 or a motor, a pipe or a hose 330, water After flowing into the bottom of the chamber through the water supply pipe, the coffee liquid can be extracted while rising to the top of the chamber.

The water supply pipe 40 is located inside the capsule, and the lower end of the water supply pipe is blocked at the bottom. The water supply pipe 40 includes a communication hole 41 that communicates with the chamber from a lower portion and provides water to the bottom of the chamber.

The communication holes are formed in the water supply pipe 40 by one or more of the chambers because water must be supplied to each chamber 50 at the same time.

The bottom part 30 may include a fine pattern (not shown) formed radially from the outer surface of the water supply pipe toward the housing.

The fine pattern may be a groove repeatedly formed on the bottom part 30. Water flowing out of the communication hole 41 at a predetermined water pressure may be rapidly distributed radially (in the housing direction) along the groove of the fine pattern.

The plurality of chambers 50 are located inside the housing and above the bottom part 30, and divide the inside of the capsule into a plurality, and the top is opened to fill the ground coffee therein.

The chamber (column) 50 may be 2 or more, preferably 3 or more, 3 to 50, 3 to 30, 3 to 20, 3 to 15, 3 It may be to 12.

The chamber is a hollow pillar having a predetermined height. There is no particular limitation on the cross-sectional shape of the chamber. For example, the cross section of the chamber may have a fan shape as shown in FIGS. 1 to 6.

In addition, the cross section of the chamber may be a circle or a polygonal shape such as a square, a pentagon, a hexagon, or an octagon. For example, referring to FIG. 7A, the capsule has four chambers having a rectangular chamber cross section (ie, the chamber is a rectangular column), and the capsule of FIG. 7B has a circular chamber cross section (ie, the chamber is a cylinder). It can have five chambers.

It is preferable that the plurality of chambers have the same volume, but the volume difference between columns may be within 25%.

3 to 6, the chamber 50 may be formed to include a part inside the housing and a part of the outer surface of the water supply pipe, and the chamber is a partition wall extending from the outer surface of the water supply pipe to the inner wall of the housing. It can be formed including (51). Referring to FIGS. 3 to 6, the chamber may be formed including two partition walls, an inner wall of a housing, and an outer surface of a water supply pipe.

Protrusions 52 may be formed in a height direction on an inner wall of the chamber forming the chamber at predetermined intervals. The protrusion may increase the rate at which water rises along the inner wall of the chamber.

When water is continuously (or intermittently) injected to the bottom of the chamber through the water supply pipe 40 and the communication hole 41, the water rises from the bottom of the chamber to the top and coffee can be extracted.

The amount of water supplied may be appropriately adjusted according to the size of the capsule and chamber, the amount of coffee, and the like. For example, when the capsule volume is in the range of 10 to 385 ml, the amount of water supplied may be 0.05 ml/s to 0.5 ml/s, 0.1 to 0.5 ml/s, or 0.15 to 0.4 ml/s.

The chamber has a cross section that is 2 to 20 times smaller than the entire cross section of the capsule (preferably 4 to 20 times) or more, and blocks water from moving to the side (adjacent chamber) through the chamber, thereby increasing the rate of water for each chamber. I can keep the coffee invasion rate uniform.

Among the existing cold brews, dripping (extracted by dropping into coffee drop by drop) takes a long time because water particles permeate the coffee powder for a long time and are discharged, and between the coffee in the center and the outer coffee powder in direct contact where water falls. (Because water descends due to gravity), a large non-uniformity occurs in the water contact time, and a long time is required to solve this (caffeine content is high, and depending on the long extraction (4 hours to 24 hours), coffee freshness, taste, Fragrance decreases).

In cold brew, the leaching type (coffee extraction after leaching coffee in water for 24 hours) is completely immersed in water and mixed and leached. As the content of water increases, the solubility of coffee by water increases. As the chemical components of are dissolved together, the caffeine content increases, and the freshness, taste, and aroma of coffee decrease with long-term extraction (extracting for 24 hours).

In contrast, the capsule of the present invention is a method of extracting each chamber and continuously injecting a small amount of water into the chamber from the bottom.In the capsule of the present invention, water particles slowly rise and pass through the coffee filled in each column (invasive ) To brew coffee and then discharge. Therefore, in the capsule of the present invention, since these water particles are continuously supplied to the column (for 5 to 20 minutes), the number of passages or contact times of the water particles passing through (invasion) the filled coffee powder is increased. Cold brew can be extracted with a thick and uniform concentration.

In addition, unlike the method of leaching by mixing a large amount of water with coffee in the capsule of the present invention, the ice capsule of the present invention has a synergistic force acting on the water particles in the process of moving water (at a very slow speed) from the bottom of the chamber to the top. The amount of coffee is doubled compared to the conventional cold brew extraction method because the contact area with the coffee powder and the invasion time can be increased due to the (elevating pressure), falling force due to gravity, and the capillary force penetrating water between neighboring coffee particles. It can be reduced by about 3 times.

The coffee capsule of the present invention has a structure in which coffee is independently extracted for each chamber, so the higher the chamber height and the wider the cross section of the chamber, the more concentrated coffee can be extracted (however, if the cross section is too wide, the water rise rate or coffee invasion It is not possible to keep the speed uniformly), the flow rate of the supplied water (relative to time), the head difference or the water supply rate can be controlled to control the extraction rate or concentration.

The discharge unit 60 communicates with one side of the upper chamber and discharges the extracted coffee to the outside of the capsule. The discharge part 60 may be formed in various ways in the capsule.

1 to 6, the discharge part may be formed on the inner wall side of the housing. One or more discharge units 60 may be formed in each of the chambers, and may be connected to the inner surface of the housing and extend from the top to the bottom of the chamber and have an opening 63 at the bottom.

More specifically, the discharge part 60 includes an inner wall of the housing, a partition 51 extending to the housing, and a second partition 61 branching from the partition and extending to the housing, and the partition wall or the second partition wall The upper portion of the chamber may include a hole 62 communicating with the upper side of the chamber.

10 is another embodiment of the discharge unit. Referring to FIG. 10A, the discharge part may be formed on the side of the water supply pipe. For example, the ice capsule of the present invention includes a discharge unit 160 of a double pipe structure surrounding the water supply pipe 40, and a hole (not shown) is formed for each chamber at the upper side of the discharge unit, and the hole The coffee liquid extracted to the upper part of the chamber may be moved to the discharge part. As a double pipe structure (inner pipe is a water supply sub-pipe), coffee may fall between the outer surface of the inner pipe and the inner surface of the double pipe to be discharged to the outside of the capsule.

Referring to FIG. 10B, the discharge part 260 may be a tube attached to the outer surface of the housing. The discharge portion may be formed or communicated with the upper portion of the chamber through a hole (not shown) formed on the outer surface of the housing to which the discharge portion is attached. That is, the coffee extracted to the upper part of the chamber may be transported and dropped to the discharge unit attached to the outer surface of the housing through the hole and discharged to the outside of the capsule.

Example 1

10g of coffee was filled in the ice capsules prepared in FIGS. 1 to 6, and the capsules were fastened to the supply tank 200 as shown in FIG. 8. 160ml (2~4℃) of water was supplied to the storage, and the pressure control hole 230 opened only the top hole and closed the rest. 150 ml of ice coffee was extracted over 15 minutes.

FIG. 11 is a photograph of a currently commercially available capsule coffee (Dolce Gusto) and an ice capsule of the present invention used in Example 1, and FIG. 12 is a photograph of a coffee shop disclosed in a press release of the Korea Consumer Agency (February 6, 2018). It is the caffeine content of cold brew, and FIG. 13 is a test report for caffeine content, E. coli, etc. of the iced coffee of the present invention prepared in Example 1.

Referring to FIG. 11, it can be seen that the ice capsule of the present invention has a volume substantially similar to that of the existing capsule coffee. 12 and 13, the average caffeine of cold brew sold in coffee shops is 212 mg/cup, Americano is 125 mg/cup, Example 1 is 37.5 mg/cup, and Example 1 is conventional cold brew coffee. It can be seen that it contains 5.7 times less caffeine than (ice) Americano and 3.3 times less caffeine. In addition, because Nespresso Cashew Coffee contains 50 to 80mg when extracted 1 capsule (answered by Nespresso official website), Nespresso Capsule Coffee has 1.3 to 2.1 times more caffeine content than the iced coffee of the present invention.

In the above, a preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail as an example, but this description merely describes and discloses an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Those skilled in the art will readily recognize that various changes, modifications and variations are possible from the above description and accompanying drawings without departing from the scope and gist of the present invention.

Claims (9)

As a sealed capsule 100 after filling a small amount of ground coffee, the capsule 100
A housing 10 forming a side wall of the capsule;
A cover 20 covering the upper portion of the housing;
A bottom part 30 forming the lower part of the housing;
A water supply pipe 40 located in the center of the housing as a pipe extending from the cover to the bottom portion;
A plurality of chambers (50) located inside the housing and above the bottom part (30) and partitioning the interior of the housing into a plurality, and the upper part is opened to fill ground coffee therein;
A communication hole 41 communicating with the chamber under the water supply pipe to provide water to the bottom of the chamber;
It includes a discharge unit 60 in communication with the upper side of the chamber to discharge the extracted coffee to the outside of the capsule,
The chamber includes a partition wall 51 extending from an outer surface of the water supply pipe to an inner wall of the housing,
Ice capsule, characterized in that water is supplied to the bottom of the chamber through the water supply pipe, the water rises from the bottom of the chamber to extract coffee liquid from the coffee powder, and the extracted coffee liquid is discharged through the discharge part. The ice capsule according to claim 1, wherein the chamber is an empty column having a predetermined height, and the cross section of the chamber is a sector, circle, square, pentagonal, hexagonal, or octagonal shape. delete The ice capsule according to claim 1, wherein at least one discharge part (60) is formed in each of the chambers, and is connected to the inner surface of the housing, extends from the top of the chamber to the bottom, and the bottom is opened. The method of claim 1, wherein the ice capsule includes a discharge part of a double pipe structure surrounding the water supply pipe 40, and a hole is formed for each chamber at an upper side of the discharge part, and is extracted to the upper part of the chamber part through the hole. Ice capsule, characterized in that the coffee liquid is moved to the discharge unit. The method of claim 1, wherein the discharge part has a tubular shape connected to the outer surface of the housing, the upper part of the discharge part communicates with the upper part of the chamber through a hole formed in the upper part of the housing, and the lower part of the discharge part is opened to allow coffee to flow out. Ice capsule characterized by. The ice capsule according to claim 1, wherein protrusions at predetermined intervals are formed in a height direction on an inner wall of the chamber. The method of claim 4, wherein the discharge part (60)
The inner wall of the housing, a partition wall extending to the housing, and a second partition wall 61 branching from the partition wall and extending to the housing, and a hole 62 communicating with an upper side of the chamber is disposed above the partition wall or the second partition wall. Ice capsule, characterized in that formed. The ice capsule according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of chambers have the same volume.

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