Apparatus and methods for producing beverages

摘要

An apparatus for producing beverages. The apparatus comprises a dispensing system, a mixing unit, and a control unit comprising a user interface, which interact to prepare a particular beverage when requested by a user. When the control unit receives user input requesting the particular beverage via the user interface, it causes the dispensing system to dispense various ingredients (e.g., fragmented ice, water, flavoring ingredients, milk product) that are mixed by the mixing unit in order to prepare the particular beverage, which is served in a cup. In various embodiments, the apparatus may produce frozen beverages that include fragmented ice (e.g., shaved or crushed ice) as one of their ingredients, such as slush beverages and smoothie beverages, and/or hot beverages that include heated water as one of their ingredients, such as coffee and flavored coffee beverages (e.g., French Vanilla, Mocha, etc.).

主权项

1. An apparatus for producing frozen beverages, the apparatus including:
a control unit including a user interface, the user interface configured to allow a user to input a request for a frozen beverage, the request being indicative of at least a desired flavor, the control unit producing signals based on the request; a dispensing system responsive to signals from the control unit indicative of the desired flavor and a beverage size, the dispensing system configured for dispensing ingredients for the requested frozen beverage into a cup in which the requested frozen beverage is to be served, the dispensing system including:
an ice dispensing apparatus configured to store ice in sufficient quantity for multiple frozen beverages, and further configured to dispense a quantity of the ice for the requested frozen beverage in accordance with said beverage size;a flavoring ingredient dispensing unit configured to store a plurality of supplies of flavoring ingredients, and further configured to dispense at least one flavoring ingredient from the supplies of flavoring ingredients in accordance with said desired flavor; and a mixing unit responsive to at least one of the signals from the control unit, for mixing in the cup the dispensed ice and the dispensed at least one flavoring ingredient.