The popularity of coffee shops and the beverages they serve has seen tremendous growth in the past thirty years. In places such as a city's downtown area, there are often several coffee shops within the same block. Coffee stores such as Starbuck are ubiquitous in many large cities, from Seattle to Boston. In addition to national chains, various areas of the country also have their local favorites. Of course, there are also many fast food restaurant and/or specialty food chains that also serve large amounts of coffee, such as Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds, Tony Horton, etc. Other beverages are also served in beverage containers typically referred to as “coffee cups,” whether or not the beverage is actually coffee.
A high percentage of coffee purchased at the foregoing coffee shops, restaurants, etc., is served in disposable (or recyclable) cups with plastic lids. The lids are used so that customers can easily transport their purchased beverages without spilling them. However, unlike a regular open cup or mug, a lid on the top restricts drinking when the cup is tilted towards the drinker as the lid comes in contact with the drinker's nose. This causes the drinker to tilt his or her head backwards to allow more of the beverage to reach the drinking opening. As coffee is, in general, drunk in small sips, a drinker needs to tilt his head repeatedly and progressively more with each sip until the remaining portion of the coffee is consumed. This can be uncomfortable. It can also disturb a conversation, even if for a short moment, as eye contact is lost when the consumer head tilts backwards. In other situations, like when driving a vehicle, taking the eyes of the road can even be dangerous.
These lids generally have a skirt around the lid's periphery that is adapted to engage a top lip of the disposable cup. These lids typically have a generally circular body and may either be generally flat on top, or have a relieved portion such as presented in U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,569 to Clements. Another approach is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,889,859 to Leon. The solution proposed by Leon was to have a raised rim where the drinking opening, or spout, is located. The amount the spout is raised allows for different clearances for the nose and can reduce or eliminate tilting of the head. The disadvantages of this solution are: 1) because the drinking opening was raised relative to the level of the coffee in the container, more initial tilting of the mug is required; 2) the mug appearance can be negatively affected by the disproportionately large and uneven lid; and 3) it is less comfortable to use a taller mug as the arc a consumer's arm has to move around has a larger radius and simply controlling the drinking opening for drinking takes more eye-hand coordination.
In addition to the use of disposable cups and lids, many customers bring in their own containers or otherwise transfer coffee from a disposable cup to their own container. Stores such as Starbucks sell various types of containers that are sized to hold the same amount of beverage as their normal serving sizes, e.g., 12 oz., 16 oz., and 20 oz. The containers are typically mated with removable (e.g., screw-on) lids that include provisions of various sorts for opening and closing an orifice through with the beverage can be consumed.