CN214230921U - Beverage machine - Google Patents

Abstract

The utility model relates to a beverage machine, beverage machine includes: a brewing device adapted to produce a beverage stock containing active ingredients of a host material therein; a blender adapted to receive a secondary material forming part of the beverage; and a liquid path including an intermediate section connecting the brewing device and the blender to deliver the beverage stock made by the brewing device to the blender such that the beverage stock and the secondary material mix in the blender to make a finished beverage. The beverage machine of this application can make the concentration of main material suitably high and the good beverage of taste of accessory material misce bene.

Description

Beverage machine

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a beverage machine, in particular to a beverage machine with an improved liquid path.

Background

This section provides background information related to the present disclosure, which does not necessarily constitute prior art to the present disclosure.

Along with the improvement of living standard and the adjustment of eating habits of people, the number of people drinking tea, coffee, soymilk and mixed products thereof is continuously increased, and meanwhile, the requirements of people on the aspects of taste diversity and mouthfeel of the beverage made by the beverage machine and the beverage making efficiency and automation of the beverage machine are higher and higher. In the prior art, beverage machines such as coffee machines or milk tea machines have the defects of low brewing efficiency, uneven mixing, poor concentration and taste of the prepared beverage and the like. Moreover, in the prior art, the beverage machine also has the situation that the beverage making efficiency and the automation degree are not high.

Therefore, there is a need for a beverage maker that can produce a beverage having a high brewing efficiency and a uniform mixing concentration and having a good taste and consistency.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

It is an object of one or more embodiments of the present invention to provide a beverage maker with an improved liquid path to solve one or more of the problems described above.

The utility model provides a beverage machine, beverage machine includes: a brewing device adapted to produce a beverage stock containing active ingredients of a host material therein; a blender adapted to receive a secondary material forming part of the beverage; and a liquid path including an intermediate section connecting the brewing device and the blender to deliver the beverage stock made by the brewing device to the blender such that the beverage stock and the secondary material mix in the blender to make a finished beverage.

Advantageously, the beverage machine is configured such that: water for making the beverage is supplied entirely to the brewing device to participate in the brewing of the active ingredients of the main material.

Advantageously, stirring means adapted to mix said beverage base with said auxiliary material are provided in said blender.

Advantageously, the beverage machine is configured such that: simultaneously adding the secondary material to the blender and/or simultaneously activating the stirring means while delivering the beverage base liquid to the blender.

Advantageously, the brewing device and the mixer comprising the stirring device are arranged in the interior of the beverage maker.

Advantageously, the liquid path further comprises a water supply section connecting a water source of the beverage maker with the brewing device for providing water to the brewing device.

Advantageously, the water supply section comprises a hot water supply branch provided with a boiler adapted to provide hot water to the brewing device.

Advantageously, the water supply section further comprises a cold water supply branch adapted to provide cold water to the brewing device.

Advantageously, a first valve group is provided in the water supply section, the hot water supply branch comprising: a water supply line and a hot water supply line disposed upstream of the first valve block connecting the water source with the first valve block; and a water outlet line arranged downstream of the first valve group and connecting the first valve group with the brewing device, and the cold water supply branch comprises: a water supply line and a cold water supply line disposed upstream of the first valve block connecting the water source with the first valve block; and a water outlet pipeline which is arranged at the downstream of the first valve group and is connected with the first valve group and the brewing device.

Advantageously, the liquid path further comprises a mixer water supply line connecting the first valve block and the mixer adapted to supply water to the mixer.

Advantageously, the first valve group comprises a hot water valve adapted to control the flow of hot water provided by the hot water supply branch and a cold water valve adapted to control the flow of cold water provided by the cold water supply branch, and is configured to be able to control the respective opening times of the hot water valve and the cold water valve in a proportional pulsed manner.

Advantageously, a second valve group is provided in the intermediate section, the intermediate section comprising: an upstream stock solution line disposed upstream of the second valve block connecting the brewing device and the second valve block; and a downstream stock solution pipeline arranged at the downstream of the second valve group and connecting the second valve group and the mixer.

Advantageously, the downstream dope conduit is implemented as a single conduit.

Advantageously, the liquid path further comprises a raw liquid dispensing line connecting the second valve block with the first beverage outlet of the beverage machine.

Advantageously, the liquid path further comprises a finished beverage dispensing line connecting the blender with a second beverage outlet of the beverage maker, the raw liquid dispensing line merging with the finished beverage dispensing line and the first beverage outlet merging with the second beverage outlet into a single beverage outlet.

Advantageously, the beverage machine further comprises an air pump connected to the second valve group, the air pump being configured to inject air into the brewing device for agitation to facilitate extraction of the active ingredient when the brewing device is making the beverage bulk, and/or the air pump being configured to inject air into the blender for agitation when the blender is mixing the beverage bulk and the secondary material.

Advantageously, the brewing device comprises two or more brewing devices connected in parallel.

According to the utility model discloses embodiment's beverage machine has following beneficial effect: all or most of the water is used for extracting the main material, so that the concentration of the main material in the beverage is provided, and the mouthfeel is improved. The auxiliary materials are added to the beverage stock solution in the beverage machine, and a stirring device can be provided to automatically mix the auxiliary materials, so that the finished beverage can be directly and fully automatically prepared. Particularly, the technical scheme is particularly beneficial to the preparation of the beverage with more added amounts and/or types of the auxiliary materials, and the beverage with good mouthfeel and with properly high concentration of the main material and uniformly mixed auxiliary materials can be prepared.

Drawings

The features and advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood from the detailed description section provided below with reference to the drawings, in which:

fig. 1 illustrates a system configuration diagram of a related art beverage maker;

fig. 2 shows a system block diagram employing a beverage maker with an improved liquid path according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The following description of the preferred embodiment(s) is merely exemplary in nature and is in no way intended to limit the invention, its application, or uses.

A related art beverage maker will first be described with reference to fig. 1. The beverage maker 10 comprises a brewing device 11 for brewing coffee or tea or the like to obtain a beverage base, an ingredient device 14 for providing an ingredient liquid, and a boiler 12 connected to the brewing device 11 and the ingredient device 14, respectively, by a valve block 16.

The process of making a finished beverage by the beverage maker 10 will now be described with reference to fig. 1.

Water from the water source WS is heated along a water supply line 18 and by the boiler 12 in the upstream of the water supply line 18 to provide hot water, a portion of which flows into the brewing device 11 via a first water outlet line 19 through a valve block 16 in the downstream of the water supply line 18 and is used in the brewing device 11 to brew a raw material, such as coffee beans or tea leaves, to obtain coffee or tea raw liquid. At the same time, another part of the hot water also flows through the valve block 16 via the second water outlet line 22 into the dosing unit 14 and is mixed in the dosing unit 14 with a dosing liquid, such as instant milk powder or chocolate powder, to obtain a dosing liquid, for example milk or chocolate liquor. Finally, the beverage base liquid from the brewing device 11 is dispensed along the base liquid line 20 and through the further valve block 17 via the base liquid dispensing line 21 downstream of the valve block 17 through a beverage outlet into a container (not shown). At the same time, the ingredient from the dosing assembly 14 is dispensed via an ingredient dispensing line 23 downstream of the dosing assembly 14 to the container through another beverage outlet, so that the beverage base and the ingredient are mixed in the container to obtain the final beverage product, e.g. milk tea.

With the above-mentioned beverage machines of the related art, while brewing coffee or tea to obtain a beverage base, an ingredient such as an instant powder (e.g. milk powder or chocolate powder) needs to be mixed with water to produce an ingredient of the so-called instant beverage ingredient, and then the beverage base and the ingredient of the instant beverage ingredient are mixed together in a container. This has the following drawbacks: given the volume of the container for containing the final drink, if you want to brew coffee or tea with more hot water (generally, the more water used for brewing, the better the brewing efficiency and strength, the better the mouthfeel, with the same amount of coffee beans or tea leaves) to obtain more raw liquid, it is at the same time necessary to add the amount of water mixed with the instant powder, which is not possible (beyond the volume of the container). In other words, the above described beverage machines must produce a beverage at the expense of the amount of water mixed with the instant powder or reduce the efficiency of brewing the material.

In addition, in order to obtain a better taste of the beverage, there is also a beverage maker in the related art in which a beverage stock obtained from a brewing device is first dispensed into a container, then ingredients are manually put into the container, and finally the beverage stock and the ingredients are manually stirred in the container to be mixed. However, this beverage machine requires a lot of human action to take part, so that it is labour consuming and not fully automatic.

A beverage maker 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to fig. 2.

The utility model provides a beverage machine 100, this beverage machine 100 includes: a brewing device 110, the brewing device 110 being adapted to produce a beverage stock containing active ingredients of a host material (e.g. coffee beans or tea leaves) in the brewing device; a blender 140, the blender 140 being adapted to receive a secondary material (e.g., powdered milk or chocolate powder) that forms part of the beverage; and a liquid path FP including an intermediate section connecting the brewing device 110 and the blender 140 to deliver the beverage raw liquid made by the brewing device 110 to the blender 140 so that the beverage raw liquid and the sub-material are mixed in the blender 140 to make a finished beverage. Compared with the beverage machine of the prior art which needs more water to dissolve the auxiliary materials independently, the beverage machine of the utility model can use all or most of water to brew and extract the main materials, improve the concentration of the main materials in the beverage and improve the taste, particularly under the condition of making the beverage with more amount and/or types of the added auxiliary materials.

Experiments show that under the same cup volume requirement, the utility model discloses an instant powder mixing volume can be higher than the mixing volume of traditional mode greatly. Simultaneously, the taste and the concentration of the drink are subjectively evaluated by a plurality of people, and are also consistent to be evaluated and adopted by the utility model discloses a mode is to add well.

In one aspect of an embodiment, the beverage maker 100 is configured such that: the water for making the beverage is entirely supplied to the brewing device 110 to participate in the brewing of the effective components of the main material, so that the extraction of the effective components of the main material can be maximally improved, and the concentration of the main material in the beverage can be improved.

In one aspect of the embodiment, a stirring device (not shown) adapted to mix the beverage base and the auxiliary material is provided in the blender 140 to achieve automated in-machine stirring mixing for improved beverage uniformity. Beverage machine 100 may also be configured such that: while the beverage base is being delivered to the blender 140, the side-stream is synchronously added to the blender 140 and/or the blending device is synchronously activated to rapidly produce the beverage. Further, the brewing device 110 and the mixer 140 including the stirring device are arranged in the interior of the beverage maker to achieve an automated brewing of the main material, addition of the auxiliary material and mixing of the beverage raw liquid and the auxiliary material in the beverage maker.

The liquid path of the beverage maker of the present invention will now be described with reference to fig. 2, the liquid path FP of the present invention further comprises a water supply section connecting the water source WS of the beverage maker with the brewing device 110 for supplying water to the brewing device, wherein the water supply section comprises a hot water supply branch provided with a boiler 120 adapted to provide hot water to the brewing device 110 and a cold water supply branch adapted to provide cold water to the brewing device 110. By virtue of the design of the water supply section, hot or cold water may be selectively supplied to the brewing device 110 and/or the mixer 140, as desired. For example, in addition to hot extraction brewing of coffee with hot water at an appropriate temperature, hot extraction brewing of coffee with warm water may alternatively be used.

In an advantageous aspect of the above embodiment, a first valve block 160 may be provided in the water supply section, and the hot water supply branch may include: a water supply line 191 and a hot water supply line 192 provided upstream of the first valve block 160 to connect the water source WS and the first valve block; and an outlet line 193 disposed downstream of the first valve block 160 connecting the first valve block 160 with the brewing device 110. And, the cold water supply branch may include: a water supply line 191 and a cold water supply line 196 provided upstream of the first valve block 160 connecting the water source WS with the first valve block 160; and an outlet line 193 disposed downstream of the first valve block 160 connecting the first valve block 160 with the brewing device 110. Further, the first valve block 160 includes a hot water valve adapted to control a flow rate of hot water supplied from the hot water supply branch and a cold water valve adapted to control a flow rate of cold water supplied from the cold water supply branch, and the first valve block 160 is configured to control respective opening times of the hot water valve and the cold water valve in a proportional pulse manner, thereby providing warm water of an optimal dissolving and brewing water temperature, not only ensuring efficient dissolution of the beverage base but also ensuring that nutritional components of the beverage base are not damaged.

Also, a second valve group 170 is provided in the intermediate section, which may further include: an upstream stock solution line 194 disposed upstream of the second valve group 170 connecting the brewing device 110 and the second valve group 170; and a downstream raw liquid line 195 disposed downstream of the second valve group 170 connecting the second valve group 170 and the mixer 140 to facilitate selective dispensing of the beverage raw liquid.

Although the present invention facilitates the selective dispensing of hot and cold water or beverage liquids by providing a valve block, other suitable fluid dispensing mechanisms, such as a dispensing manifold, may be used by those skilled in the art.

In a preferred aspect of the present embodiment, the beverage maker 100 may further include an air pump 180 connected to the second valve group 170, and the air pump 180 may be configured to inject air into the brewing device 110 to stir to promote extraction of the effective components of the main material when the brewing device 110 makes the beverage raw liquid. Referring to fig. 2, the air pump 180 is connected to the bottom of the brewing device 110 through the upstream stock solution line 194 via the second valve block 170, which is advantageous in that: compared with the method that gas is injected from the top of the brewing device to stir and the bottom layer stock solution cannot be uniformly stirred, the extraction raw material can be precipitated at different liquid level layers due to gravity in practice, the gas is injected from the bottom to stir, the stock solution can be uniformly stirred integrally, and therefore the best effect of rapid and uniform stirring is achieved.

Additionally, the air pump 180 is configured to inject air into the mixer 140 to mix the beverage raw liquid and the subsidiary material while the mixer 140 mixes the beverage raw liquid and the subsidiary material. Referring to fig. 2, an air pump 180 is connected to the top of the blender 140 through a downstream stock solution pipe 195 via a second valve block 170, and gas is injected from the top of the blender 140 to blend the beverage stock solution with the subsidiary materials. Alternatively, the air pump 180 may also be connected to the bottom of the blender 140 through an additional downstream stock solution line via the second valve block 170 to inject air from the bottom of the blender 140 for blending, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.

In addition, the liquid path FP may further include a mixer water supply line 197 connecting the first valve block 160 with the mixer 140 and adapted to supply cold or hot water to the mixer 140. This has the advantage that in case the brewing device 110 is not in operation, hot water from the boiler 120 can be fed directly into the mixer 140 to be mixed with ingredients such as milk powder or chocolate to obtain pure milk or hot chocolate paddle. An additional advantage is that the mixer 140 can be cleaned with cold water or the temperature of the water in the mixer 140 can be adjusted with warm water, for example, in making tea soup, it is suitable to adjust the temperature of the water to 80 degrees celsius.

In fig. 2, the downstream raw liquid line 195 is implemented as a single line, so that in case of a plurality of brewing devices 110, only a single downstream raw liquid line to the mixer 140 is provided to simplify the structure. Of course, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that when multiple brewing devices 100 are used to brew different types of primary materials, corresponding different multiple downstream stock solution lines may be provided, respectively, to avoid cross-flavor mixing of portions of different primary material stock solutions.

Advantageously, the liquid path FP may further comprise a raw liquid dispensing line 199 connecting the second valve set 170 with the first beverage outlet 151 of the beverage maker 100, which makes it possible to conveniently obtain the beverage raw liquid tea soup or coffee directly from the first beverage outlet when it is desired to obtain it directly. Also, the liquid path FP may further comprise a finished beverage dispensing line 198 connecting the blender 140 and the second beverage outlet 152 of the beverage maker 100, and the first beverage outlet 151 and the second beverage outlet 152 are combined into a single beverage outlet. This can simplify the structure so that the beverage stock without the auxiliary material and the beverage finished product with the auxiliary material are supplied to the user through the single beverage outlet. Although the raw liquid dispensing line 199 and the finished beverage dispensing line 198 in fig. 2 are connected to different beverage ports separately and without merging, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the raw liquid dispensing line 199 and the finished beverage dispensing line 198 may also merge and be connected to a single beverage port.

Although only two brewing devices 110 are shown in parallel in fig. 2, one brewing device 110 may be used for brewing coffee beans and the other brewing device 110 may be used for brewing tea leaves, although a single brewing device or more than two brewing devices in parallel may be provided as desired, e.g., depending on the type of material desired to be brewed. Although the ingredient is in the example milk powder or chocolate powder, the ingredient may also be other desired instant powders, such as soy, corn or albumen powder.

The beverage making process of the beverage maker 100 of the present invention will now be described.

A portion of the water from the water source WS is heated by the boiler 120 via the water supply line 191 and the hot water supply line 192 to become hot water, and then distributed to the corresponding two brewing devices 110 in parallel via the first valve set 160 through the two parallel water outlet lines 193, 193 to respectively brew a beverage raw liquid (e.g., a coffee raw liquid or a tea raw liquid), the brewed beverage raw liquid enters the mixer 140 through the upstream raw liquid line 194, the second valve set 170 and the downstream raw liquid line 195, and in the mixer, the beverage raw liquid and the by-product (e.g., powdered milk or chocolate) are uniformly stirred by the stirring device to form a beverage product (e.g., milk tea), and finally the beverage product is distributed to the container for the user to enjoy through the beverage product distribution line 198.

In an alternative embodiment, when brewing the beverage stock solution, the air pump 180 is turned on, the air pump 180 injects air from the bottom of the brewing device 110 through the upstream stock solution pipeline 194 through the second valve set 170 to stir, after stirring is completed, the air pump 180 is stopped, and the stirred brewing stock solution flows out of the brewing device 110 through the upstream stock solution pipeline 194. When the beverage stock solution and the auxiliary material are mixed in the mixer 140, the air pump 180 is turned on, the air pump 180 injects air from the top of the mixer 140 through the downstream stock solution pipe 195 through the second valve set 170 to stir, after the stirring is completed, the air pump 180 is stopped, and the stirred beverage finished product is dispensed from the mixer 140 into the container through the beverage finished product dispensing pipe 198.

Compare with the beverage machine of correlation technique, according to the utility model discloses a beverage machine has guaranteed to improve when the water yield of mixing with instant powder batching and has guaranteed the taste and the concentration of beverage to the efficiency of dashing of material. Furthermore, the utility model discloses the problem of the quick even integration of stoste such as coffee or tea soup and instant powder has also been solved.

Although illustrative embodiments of the present disclosure have been described herein, the present disclosure is not limited to the embodiments described herein, but includes combinations, variations and/or alternatives having modifications, omissions, combinations, e.g., of aspects across various embodiments, as would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art based on the present disclosure. The limitations in the claims are to be interpreted broadly based on the language employed in the claims and not limited to examples described in the present specification or during the prosecution of the application, which examples are to be construed as non-exclusive.

Claims (15)

1. A beverage machine, comprising:

a brewing device adapted to produce a beverage stock containing active ingredients of a host material therein;

a blender adapted to receive a secondary material forming part of the beverage; and

the path of the liquid is such that,

characterized in that the liquid path comprises an intermediate section connecting the brewing device and the compounder for transporting the beverage stock made by the brewing device to the compounder such that the beverage stock and the secondary material are mixed in the compounder for making a finished beverage.

2. Beverage machine according to claim 1, characterized in that stirring means adapted to mix the beverage base liquid with the secondary material are provided in the mixer.

3. Beverage machine according to claim 2, characterized in that the brewing means and the mixer comprising the stirring means are arranged in the interior of the beverage machine.

4. The beverage machine according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the liquid path further comprises a water supply section connecting a water source of the beverage machine with the brewing device to provide water to the brewing device.

5. Beverage machine according to claim 4, wherein the water supply section comprises a hot water supply branch provided with a boiler adapted to provide hot water to the brewing device.

6. The beverage machine according to claim 5, wherein the water supply section further comprises a cold water supply branch adapted to provide cold water to the brewing device.

7. The beverage machine according to claim 6, wherein:

a first valve block is provided in the water supply section,

the hot water supply branch includes: a water supply line and a hot water supply line disposed upstream of the first valve block connecting the water source with the first valve block; and a water outlet pipeline arranged at the downstream of the first valve group and used for connecting the first valve group and the brewing device, an

The cold water supply branch includes: a water supply line and a cold water supply line disposed upstream of the first valve block connecting the water source with the first valve block; and a water outlet pipeline which is arranged at the downstream of the first valve group and is connected with the first valve group and the brewing device.

8. Beverage machine according to claim 7, wherein the liquid path further comprises a blender water supply line connecting the first valve block and the blender adapted to supply water to the blender.

9. The beverage machine according to claim 7, wherein the first valve group comprises a hot water valve adapted to control the flow of hot water provided by the hot water supply branch and a cold water valve adapted to control the flow of cold water provided by the cold water supply branch, and the first valve group is configured to be able to control the respective opening times of the hot water valve and the cold water valve in a proportional pulsed manner.

10. The beverage machine according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein a second valve group is provided in the intermediate section, the intermediate section comprising: an upstream stock solution line disposed upstream of the second valve block connecting the brewing device and the second valve block; and a downstream stock solution pipeline arranged at the downstream of the second valve group and connecting the second valve group and the mixer.

11. Beverage machine according to claim 10, characterized in that the downstream dope conduit is implemented as a single conduit.

12. The beverage machine of claim 10, wherein the liquid path further comprises a raw liquid dispensing line connecting the second valve block with a first beverage outlet of the beverage machine.

13. Beverage machine according to claim 12, wherein the liquid path further comprises a finished beverage dispensing conduit connecting the blender and a second beverage outlet of the beverage machine, and the first beverage outlet and the second beverage outlet are combined into a single beverage outlet.

14. The beverage maker of claim 10, further comprising an air pump connected to the second valve set, the air pump being configured to inject air to the brewing device for agitation to facilitate extraction of the active ingredient when the brewing device is making the beverage precursor, and/or the air pump being configured to inject air to the mixer for agitation when the mixer is mixing the beverage precursor with the secondary material.

15. The beverage machine according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the brewing device comprises two or more brewing devices in parallel.

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