More and more research reports and medical journals have shown that drinks like tea and coffee contain ingredients beneficial to the human health. For example, a tea infusion contains such wholesome ingredients as carbohydrates, proteins, free amino acids, fatty acids, polyphenols, organic acids, plant alkaloids, and minerals. A cup of coffee, on the other hand, contains caffeine, antioxidants, polyphenols, proteins, tannins, linoleic acid, alkaloids, and so on. Therefore, many people drink tea or coffee during or after work in order to reinvigorate themselves and maintain or enhance health.
Nowadays, a variety of portable brewer structures are commercially available to facilitate the making of tea and coffee. One such brewer is now described with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 by way of example. As shown in the drawings, a brewer 1 includes a container 10, a lid 12, a filter 14, and a drinking cup 16. The container 10 has an opening on the top side. A receiving space 100 is provided in the container 10, corresponds in position to the opening, and is configured for holding a liquid. External threads 102 are circumferentially provided on the outer periphery, and adjacent to the top side, of the container 10. The lid 12 has a second opening on its bottom side. An assembly space 120 is concavely provided in the lid 12 and corresponds in position to the second opening. The inner bottom surface of the lid 12 is protrudingly provided with a first engaging portion 121 which extends toward the second opening. Internal threads 122 are circumferentially provided on the inner periphery, and adjacent to the bottom side, of the lid 12. The internal threads 122 are threadedly engageable with the external threads 102 to secure the lid 12 to the container 10. The filter 14 is cup-shaped, is composed of a perforated frame 141 and a filter screen 142 connected thereto, and is configured for receiving a brewing material (e.g., tea leaves or ground coffee). A second engaging portion 143 is protrudingly provided on the outer periphery, and adjacent to the top side, of the frame 141. The second engaging portion 143 can engage with the first engaging portion 121 to secure the filter 14 to the lid 12.
As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, a plurality of blocks 123 are protrudingly provided along the outer periphery, and adjacent to the top side, of the lid 12, and a groove 161 is concavely provided on the inner periphery, and adjacent to the bottom side, of the drinking cup 16. When the drinking cup 16 is assembled to the top side of the lid 12, the blocks 123 are engaged in the groove 161, thereby securing the drinking cup 16 to the lid 12. In order to prevent the liquid in the container 10 from leaking through the gap between the internal threads 122 and the external threads 102 once the lid 12 is threadedly connected to the container 10, a gasket 18 is additionally provided between the first engaging portion 121 and the internal threads 122 of the lid 12. The gasket 18 is ring-shaped and, after the internal threads 122 are threadedly engaged with the external threads 102, provides water-tightness between the container 10 and the lid 12.
However, the inventor of the present invention has found that the brewer 1 described above is difficult to clean. First of all, referring again to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, now that the lid 12 and the filter 14 are designed to connect with each other by mutual engagement, the filter 14 cannot be assembled to or removed from the lid 12 for cleaning unless the user presses and consequently deforms the frame 141 with his or her thumb and fingers to bring the second engaging portion 143 either into or out of engagement with the first engaging portion 121. The frame 141, therefore, is subject to permanent deformation after long-term use or if inadvertently pressed with too great a force. Should the frame 141 be permanently deformed, it will be impossible to securely position the filter 14 on the lid 12, and, as a result, the brewing material in the filter 14 may escape into the liquid in the container 10 during the brewing process, making the brew undrinkable.
Secondly, referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the spacing between the first engaging portion 121 and the internal threads 122 is typically less than the width of the gasket 18 so that the gasket 18 is tightly positioned in, and is prevented from coming off, the lid 12. However, the gasket 18, too, needs cleaning after long-term use. With the aforesaid configuration, a user may have problem taking out the gasket 18 directly with his or her thumb and fingers. In fact, the gasket 18 must be dug out with a pointed object, which not only adds to the difficulty of cleaning the gasket 18, but also may damage the gasket 18, compromising the water-tightness between the container 10 and the lid 12.
Therefore, one major issue facing the brewing device industry is to overcome the foregoing drawbacks of the existing brewers, particularly in terms of cleaning, and to develop new products capable of giving users a better use experience.