US20090266829A1

US20090266829A1 - Disposable foam enhancing espresso drink lid

Info

Publication number: US20090266829A1
Application number: US12/150,245
Authority: US
Inventors: Craig Bailey
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2008-04-24
Filing date: 2008-04-24
Publication date: 2009-10-29

Abstract

Applicant provides a disposable foam enhancing espresso drink lid which enhances the coffee and espresso drinking experience, and includes a curved dome having a drinking hole with a top and bottom in a top surface and a curved face, wherein said curved dome is formed out of said lid, a lip depression at the bottom of said curved face, wherein said lip depression is formed out of said lid, a nose depression separated from said lip depression by a support structure, wherein said nose depression and said support structure are formed out of said lid, a smell slit provided in said support structure, a rim encircling said curved dome, lip depression, nose depression, and support structure. In use a drinker's lips curve around said dome curved face and into said lip depression, and drinker's nose extends into said nose depression with nostrils in proximity to said smell slit. The lid may be formed from a contiguous plasticized material. The lid can include an annular mounting portion beneath and connected to said rim for sealingly engaging the lid of the beverage container having a circular edge with a bead thereon.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to disposable plasticized “to-go” cup lids. More particularly, the present invention relates to disposable plasticized “to-go” coffee or espresso cup lids.

BACKGROUND

Coffee and espresso drink imbibers frequently drink from either paper product based coffee cups with plasticized lids, or, for more pleasure, from un-lidded coffee mugs, frequently ceramic. Drinking from a mug provides an enhanced experience. The smell, foam, and ability to control the temperature, all combine to enhance the drinking experience. Drinking from a mug is an experience many times better than from a “to go” cup and lid.
Drinking from existing paper product “to-go” cups with plasticized lids does not give the same experience. Currently, enjoyability from drinking from a paper product “to-go” cup with plasticized lid is limited by several factors. Foam, with tight and tiny air bubbles and a creamy texture, is a differentiator (besides the quality of the raw materials and technique) to the fast food versions of coffee shops. The problem with the “to go” cups is that the hole does not allow the foam to pass through. With the cup tilted, the hole is below the floating layer of foam. Plus, with existing “to go” lids, the depression in the lid skims off the top layer of foam while drinking. Temperature is another factor. Most “to go” coffee lids have a small hole forcing the consumer to ingest 100% coffee. With this design it is very difficult to slurp air with the hot liquid to cool it down. Smell is also a factor. Smell is a contributor to the overall sensory experience. Yet it is difficult to smell the coffee with existing “to go” lids. Nose fit is another factor. Existing “to go” lids have a top surface at the location where the drinker's nose hits which forces the drinker to tilt their head back quite far to reach the last drop. This can be quite dangerous while driving a car. Upper lip fit is yet another factor. Existing “to go” lid designs force the consumer to match their upper lip (shaped to a frown) to the rim of the lid (shaped to a smile).
Thus, there is a need for a disposable foam enhancing espresso lid usable with “to go” cups for either coffee or coffee like drinks such as espresso that addresses these limiting factors, foam, temperature, smell, nose fit, and upper lip fit.
Presently known art has not solved the problem. The following represents a list of known related art:


		Date of
Reference:	Issued to:	Issue/Publication:

US Pat App Pub. 2008/0000921	Leon	Jan. 3, 2008
US Pat. 7,185,781	Pitts	Mar. 6, 2007
US Pat. 7,134,570	Heath et al.	Nov. 14, 2006
US Pat. 6,431,390	Waller	Aug. 13, 2002
US Pat. 6,419,112	Bruce	Jul. 16, 2002
US Pat. 5,553,731	Schuyler	Sep. 10, 1996
US Pat. 5,509,568	Warden et al.	Apr. 23, 1996
US Pat. 4,619,372	McFarland	Oct. 28, 1986
US Pat. 4,503,992	Sitko et al.	Mar. 12, 1985
US Des. Pat. D437,223	Coy	Feb. 6, 2001

The teachings of each of the above-listed citations (which does not itself incorporate essential material by reference) are herein incorporated by reference. None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singularly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.
Thus, while the foregoing body of art indicates it to be well known to have a “to go” cup disposable lid, the art described above does not teach or suggest a disposable foam enhancing espresso lid which has the following combination of desirable features: (1) addressing the limiting factors of foam, temperature, smell, nose fit, and upper lip fit; (2) ingesting more foam and leaving less foam after consuming the drink; (3) reducing or eliminating occurrence of tongue burning; (4) providing a degree of temperature control; (5) allowing the experience of drinking coffee with the foam and smelling the aroma of the drink; (6) optimally placing a smell aperture in proximity to a drinker's nostrils; and (7) providing a curved surface to which a drinker's lip can seal.

SUMMARY AND ADVANTAGES

A disposable foam enhancing espresso drink lid which enhances the coffee and espresso drinking experience The disposable foam enhancing espresso drink lid includes a curved dome having a drinking hole with a top and bottom in a top surface and a curved face, wherein said curved dome is formed out of said lid, a lip depression at the bottom of said curved face, wherein said lip depression is formed out of said lid, a nose depression separated from said lip depression by a support structure, wherein said nose depression and said support structure are formed out of said lid, a smell slit provided in said support structure, and a rim encircling said curved dome, lip depression, nose depression, and support structure. In use, the consumer's lips curve around said dome curved face and into said lip depression, and the consumer's nose extends into said nose depression with nostrils in proximity to said smell slit. The lid may be formed from a contiguous plasticized material. The lid can include an annular mounting portion beneath and connected to said rim for sealingly engaging the lid of the beverage container having a circular edge with a bead thereon.
Applicant's lid addresses the problem with foam by extending the horizontal oval hole into a vertical triangular slot. This allows enjoyment of the foam while drinking coffee. The foam remains available to the hole at all angles of tilting of the cup. The consumer can control the amount of foam and coffee with the positioning of the lips on the dome and hole. Moreover, because foam is mostly air, with the ability to control the amount of foam in the sip, the consumer will be able to control the temperature of the drink. The dome on Applicant's lid creates a top surface shaped to a frown like the upper lip making it easier to seal between the lid and lip.
Applicant's lid also enhances the drinking experience by making available to the user the smell of the coffee vapors by incorporating a slit positioned under the nose in the optimum location for proximity to the user's nostrils to allow a minimal amount of coffee vapors to escape and be smelled. In conjunction and to allow this optimum location, a depression in Applicant's lid provides a space for the nose allowing the consumer to fully tilt the cup with less tilting of the head.
The disposable foam enhancing espresso drink lid of the present invention presents numerous advantages, including: (1) addressing the limiting factors of foam, temperature, smell, nose fit, and upper lip fit; (2) ingesting more foam and leaving less foam after consuming the drink; (3) reducing or eliminating occurrence of tongue burning; (4) providing a degree of temperature control; (5) allowing the experience of drinking coffee with the foam and smelling the aroma of the drink; (6) optimally placing a smell aperture in proximity to a drinker's nostrils; and (7) providing a curved surface to which a drinker's lip can seal, among others.
Additional advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. Further benefits and advantages of the embodiments of the invention will become apparent from consideration of the following detailed description given with reference to the accompanying drawings, which specify and show preferred embodiments of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated into and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate one or more embodiments of the present invention and, together with the detailed description, serve to explain the principles and implementations of the invention.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of Applicant's Disposable Foam Enhancing Espresso Drink Lid.

FIG. 2 shows a view of the lid of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 shows another view of the lid of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 shows another view of the lid of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 shows another view of the lid of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 shows a view of the lid of FIG. 1 in use.

FIG. 7 shows a A-A′ cross section view of the lid of FIG. 3

REFERENCE NUMERALS IN DRAWINGS

- 10 Disposable Foam Enhancing Espresso Drink Lid
- 12 Dome
- 12 a Dome Curved Face
- 12 b Dome Top Surface
- 14 Drinking Hole
- 14 a Drinking Hole Top
- 14 b Drinking Hole Bottom
- 16 Nose Depression
- 18 Lip Depression
- 20 Smell Slit
- 22 Support Structure
- 24 Rim
- 26 Annular Mounting Portion
- N Nose
- C Cup
- L Lips
- O Nostrils

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Before beginning a detailed description of the subject invention, mention of the following is in order. When appropriate, like reference materials and characters are used to designate identical, corresponding, or similar components in differing figure drawings. The figure drawings associated with this disclosure typically are not drawn with dimensional accuracy to scale, i.e., such drawings have been drafted with a focus on clarity of viewing and understanding rather than dimensional accuracy.
In the interest of clarity, not all of the routine features of the implementations described herein are shown and described. It will, of course, be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made in order to achieve the developer's specific goals, such as compliance with application and business-related constraints, and that these specific goals will vary from one implementation to another and from one developer to another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of engineering for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.
As shown in FIGS. 1-7, Applicant provides a disposable foam enhancing espresso drink lid 10 to enhance the coffee and espresso drinking experience. Applicant's disposable foam enhancing espresso drink lid 10 includes a curved dome 12 having a drinking hole 14 with a top 14 a and bottom 14 b in a top surface 12 b and a curved face 12 a, wherein said curved dome 12 is formed out of said lid 10, a lip depression 18 at the bottom of said curved face 12 a, wherein said lip depression 18 is formed out of said lid 10, an nose depression 16 separated from said lip depression 18 by a support structure 22, wherein said nose depression 16 and said support structure 22 are formed out of said lid 10, a smell slit 20 provided in said support structure 22, a rim 24 encircling said curved dome 12, lip depression 18, nose depression 16, and support structure 22. In use, a consumer's lips L curve around said dome curved face 12 a and into said lip depression 18, and a consumer's nose N extends into said nose depression 16 with nostrils O in proximity to said smell slit 20. The lid 10 may be formed from a contiguous plasticized material. The lid can include an annular mounting portion 26 beneath and connected to said rim 24 for sealingly engaging a cup C having a circular edge with a bead thereon (not shown).
The upper circumference of the dome 12 fits the curvature of the upper lip L. The user can adapt to the surface of the lid 10 with less pressure and lip manipulation. Compared to the existing lids, Applicant's lid 10 does not skim off foam while drinking. The dome 12 helps to funnel foam to the drinking hole 14 and provides the proper angled surface for the hole 14 to be effective at all tilting angles. It is possible that with the dome 12, the female user can drink with less damage to lipstick coverage.
The purpose of the dome 12 is to create a funnel effect to channel the foam to the drinking hole 14 and to present a curved surface to match with the drinker's upper lip. The dome 12 is in effect a portion of the surface of a sphere. The top surface 12 b of the dome 12 is flush to the top surface of the rim 24 of the lid. The top curved edge of the dome has a large radius bend to the downward sloping face 12 a. The dome 12 is the same size for all sizes of lids.
The drinking hole 14, preferably an inverted isosceles triangular rectangle, is designed to present a wide opening to the foam at the top 14 a which reduces the restriction to flow of the foam, with a narrow opening to the liquid at the bottom 14 b for the dense coffee fluid resulting in more restriction to fluid flow. Preferably, all corners are rounded. Preferably, the drinking hole 14 is offset from the out edge of the lid 10 by 2/10″. The result is the ability to ingest a satisfying higher ratio of foam to coffee. The bottom 14 b of the inverted triangle is raised off the outer edge of the lid 10. This allows the consumer to tilt the cup and not be forced to drink liquid coffee. Foam can be sucked through the drinking hole 14 without liquid.
The nose depression 16 in the lid 10 has been placed to receive the average consumer's nose N and place the consumer's nostrils O in optimum proximity to the smell slit 20. The nose depression 16 is separated from the lip depression 18 by the support bar 22. The support bar 22 provides rigid support for the lid 10. The smell slit 20 is positioned on the side of the support bar 22 right beneath the average consumer's nostril's O allowing the consumer to smell the coffee. Preferably, the smell slit 20 is ½″× 5/100″ and centered on the sloping surface of the support bar 22. The coffee aroma can be sensed if the user gently squeezes the cup to expel air from the cup and inhales through the nose N just before drinking.
In operation in one embodiment, with lid 10 mounted on a cup C, user drinks and placement of nose depression 16 and smell slit 20 on support structure 22 places smell slit in optimum proximity to user's nostrils O so smell of coffee drink can be enhanced, user's upper lip L curves around dome curved surface 12 a and seals to drink with lip depression 18 providing an area where lip L can be inserted. Drinking hole 14 allows user to drink liquid through bottom narrow width 14 b leaving the top 14 a broader width for the foam.
Those skilled in the art will recognize that numerous modifications and changes may be made to the preferred embodiment without departing from the scope of the claimed invention. It will, of course, be understood that modifications of the invention, in its various aspects, will be apparent to those skilled in the art, some being apparent only after study, others being matters of routine mechanical, chemical and electronic design. No single feature, function or property of the preferred embodiment is essential. Other embodiments are possible, their specific designs depending upon the particular application. As such, the scope of the invention should not be limited by the particular embodiments herein described but should be defined only by the appended claims and equivalents thereof.

Claims

1. A disposable foam enhancing espresso drink lid, comprising:

a curved dome having a drinking hole with a top and bottom in a top surface and a curved face, wherein said curved dome is formed out of said lid;

a lip depression at the bottom of said curved face, wherein said lip depression is formed out of said lid;

a nose depression separated from said lip depression by a support structure, wherein said nose depression and said support structure are formed out of said lid;

a smell slit provided in said support structure; and

a rim encircling said curved dome, lip depression, nose depression, and support structure; and

wherein a drinker's lips curve around said dome curved face and into said lip depression, and a drinker's nose extends into said nose depression with nostrils in proximity to said smell slit.

2. The lid of claim 1, wherein said lid is formed from a contiguous plasticized material.

3. The lid of claims 1 or 2, an annular mounting portion beneath and connected to said rim for sealingly engaging the lid of the beverage container having a circular edge with a bead thereon.

4. A disposable foam enhancing espresso drink lid, comprising:

a lip depression at the bottom of said curved face, wherein said lid depression is formed out of said lid;

a smell slit provided in said support structure; and

a rim encircling said curved dome, lip depression, nose depression, and support structure;

an annular mounting portion beneath and connected to said rim for sealingly engaging the lid of the beverage container having a circular edge with a bead thereon; and

wherein a consumer's lips curve around said dome curved face and into said lip depression, and a consumer's nose extends into said nose depression with nostrils in proximity to said smell slit; and

wherein said lid is formed from a contiguous plasticized material.