Keurig Green Mountain, Inc.

Keurig, Inc.

Keurig Green Mountian, Inc.

Jianming Huang

Ian Tinkler

James P Lynch

James E Shepard

Geoffrey Y Smith

Samuel Ross Rulli

Stoyan Plamenov Hristov

Stuart Jay Foster

Jonathan Alexander Brodie

Kevin William Hartley

Yvona Hlobilova

Blair Mikkelsen

Kevin P Sullivan

Peter Thomas Launie, Jr

Nicholas George Ioannidis

Brian David Rheaume

Jeffrey Sol Hadden

Philip Hadley

Cameron McLeod

Finn Brudevold

Roger Johnson

Darius Dilmaghani

Jennifer Zimmerman

Constance L Fortini

Carl Gottfried Kammer

Peter Thomas Launie

James K Lynch

Cameron Mcleod

Francis Nutter

A beverage machine having a heater arranged to receive unheated liquid and deliver heated liquid to a dispensing station to form a beverage, and to receive unheated air and deliver heated air to the dispensing station to preheat portions of the dispensing station before forming a beverage. The machine may be arranged to deliver heated air to the dispensing station only if a temperature at the dispensing station is below a threshold.

Air preheating of brew chamber

An apparatus and method for sharing capsule image data and beverage preparation parameters, from one or more beverage preparation machines with a remote computer system via a network, such as the Internet, is disclosed. The remote computer system may process the capsule image data to determine characteristics of the capsule (e.g., a type of capsule, such as a brand, or beverage ingredients in the capsule), thereby relieving the beverage preparation from having to determine information about the capsule. The remote computer may track a user's consumption of capsules, may compare this value to the user's past capsule purchase history, and may determine if the user's supply of capsules is below a threshold value (e.g., below a week's worth of capsules).

Beverage preparation machine arranged to share capsule image and machine operation data

Method and apparatus for forming both carafe quantities and smaller (e.g., cup) quantities of a beverage using a cartridge-based beverage machine. A beverage forming machine accommodates cartridges having different sizes and/or shapes, including different rim sizes/shapes. The outlet used for receiving a beverage from a standard cartridge differs from the outlet used for receiving the beverage from a carafe cartridge inserted in a same cartridge holder. Beverage may exit the cartridge in an upward direction in some embodiments.

Apparatus for beverage production

Apparatus for cup and carafe beverage production

A method and apparatus for forming a beverage. A brewer may be operated so that when water or other beverage precursor is detected to be heated to a desired temperature, the liquid may be provided to a brew chamber to form a beverage. In one embodiment, detection of the water temperature may be performed by a temperature cut off switch (TCO) which is normally closed to provide power to a water heater, but opens when the water reaches a predetermined temperature. Opening of the TCO may cause delivery of the liquid to the brew chamber, e.g., by causing pressurization of a reservoir containing the liquid. In another embodiment, control of delivery of water from the reservoir may be made based on power interruption to the heater. For example, an air pump may be controlled to deliver air to the reservoir in response to power to the heater being cut off.

Method and apparatus for beverage formation with liquid delivery control

Growing community of inventors

Andover, MA, United States of America

Jianming Huang