The storage and use of spices, extracts, herbs such as herbal teas and tea leaves, condiments such as sugar, sweeteners, and creams (natural and artificial), powdered beverages, and ground and/or flavoured coffee beans, is problematic in that same are usually stored in their individual containers, with consumers manually measuring spoonfuls thereof to obtain the desired quantity thereof in preparing foods or beverages. Consumers however want the ability to instantly create a vast number of culinary spice mixtures that can be used for cooking (i.e. for various meat seasonings or pastes or sauces), and/or for desired mixtures of powdered flavourings, teas, ground coffee beans, sweeteners, and the like, for beverages.
This demand is currently being met through the use of pre-packaged and/or pre-blended spice mixtures or through pre-packaged coffee and/or tea blends or other flavoured powdered beverage blends. However, there is no appliance that allows the consumer to both store and automatically select and dispense a prescribed or programmed quantity and selection of different spices, condiments, herbs, ground coffees and flavourings and condiments, and in particular no such device exists which provides for a series of refillable cartridges of unique contents, each mountable on a carrier which is alignable or may be aligned with a dispensing means such as a spindle to open one or more selected cartridges to allow quantities of the contents thereof to be dispensed.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 618,219 entitled a “Revolving Cannister” teaches a plurality of spice compartments (not removable cartridges) which may be manually rotatable to allow a user to manually select, and measure, a quantity of spice to be selected from a desired compartment. This patent, however, fails to teach a rotatable selector arm which rotates on command to a particular spice compartment (cartridge) in order to dispense a predetermined quantity of spice from one or more selected spice compartments.
Other patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 607,716 and U.S. Pat. No. 502,453, relate to a spice storage and dispensing cabinet, but those devices are manually operated by the user and do not disclose an automated actuator arm which automatically selects a desired dispenser, in accordance with a selected spice or blend of spices. Nor are either of those devices equipped with the means to dispense a predetermined quantity or mixture of spice.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,311,233—US Publication 2005/0247730—teaches a dispensing device for dispensing powdered pigments of paints, dyes, caulking, or powdered cosmetics. It discloses a rotatable turntable having a plurality of containers. A screw type “pump” is shown for dispensing a quantity of powder from an individual container. A weighing means may be used to weigh the amount of material dispensed via a “coarse” screw, with finer adjustments to the material being dispersed being made with a “fine” screw adjustment. Depending on the amount of material to be dispersed, the screws are rotated a calculated number of times to yield the required amount of product. The device, however, rotates the cartridges on a turntable as opposed to keeping the cartridges fixed and rotating a rotary or trigger arm to obtain the desired product. Moreover, the device as taught in US '233 fails to disclose a means to automatically dispense a desired (variable) amount of product from various containers in sequence. The containers are also to be manually refilled and the patent does not disclose the use of pre-filled cartridges for the device.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,776,489 discloses a herb and spice dispenser that manually dispenses a premeasured amount of stored herbs and spices. The device is equipped with a housing that has separate spice and herb storage compartments, and a measured dispenser associated with each compartment. Each compartment also includes a vibrating device for breaking up the spices and stored therein. The consumer pushes a button, which opens the individual spice compartment and allows the spices or herbs therein to fall downwardly to the lower compartment The button is held until the preselected quantity of herbs or spices is obtained from an individual compartment, which is visibly determined. The process is simply repeated if more than one spice is desired. A removable shaker is manually shifted laterally underneath the storage compartments in order to collect the spices dispensed. The device does not, however, provide a means to automatically dispense a desired quantity from a selected spice cartridge or cartridges, nor does it disclose an automated selector arm which may be activated to dispense spices from various cartridges or containers in sequent. The device also specifies that each compartment is to be refilled with spice or herbs, and does not disclose the use of a plurality of replaceable spice and herb cartridges.
The prior art is therefore deficient in that it fails to disclose a device that is truly automated and allows a consumer to obtain a desired mixture spices, herbs, powdered beverages, coffees, teas, or condiments in the correct and desired quantities and proportions, without the need to manually dispense the various spices or condiments.
This background information is provided for the purpose of making known information believed by the applicant to be of possible relevance to the present invention. No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that any of the preceding information constitutes prior art against the present invention.
It is therefore useful to provide for a device that allows the consumer to automatically select one or more pre-programmed mixtures, or, to automatically dispense an individual spice(s), herb(s), tea(s), coffee bean mixture(s) in the quantity or and “blend” selected by the user or programmed by the user.