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US 11,425,920 B2Granted
Methods and systems for producing frozen cocktail ice structures
AssigneeDrinkwell LLC
InventorMichael Benton
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and systems for producing cocktail ice cubes are provided. One method includes setting a temperature of an interior surface of a tumbler below a desired temperature for an ice structure loaded into the tumbler; executing a sauce coating cycle for coating the ice structure with a sauce; executing a freeze cycle after the sauce coating cycle, by spraying nitrogen on the ice structure; alternating between the sauce coating cycle and the freeze cycle for applying sauce on the ice structure; and executing a water cycle for applying water to the ice structure coated with the sauce to produce a frozen cocktail ice structure.
Claims20
A method, comprising:
- setting a temperature of an interior surface of a tumbler below a desired temperature for an ice structure and loading the ice structure in the tumbler;
- maintaining the ice structure stationery in the tumbler for a certain duration until a surface temperature of the ice structure is within a certain temperature range;
- verifying the surface temperature of the ice structure;
- in response to verifying the surface temperature, executing a sauce coating cycle by a programmable controller to coat the ice structure with a sauce in the tumbler operating at a first speed;
- executing a freeze cycle by the programmable controller, after the sauce coating cycle, by spraying nitrogen on the ice structure in the tumbler operating at a second speed that is different from the first speed, while maintaining an ambient temperature within the tumbler that is different from a temperature range of the ice structure;
- alternating between the sauce coating cycle and the freeze cycle by the programmable controller for applying sauce on the ice structure in the tumbler;
- and
- executing a water cycle by the programmable controller for applying water in the tumbler on the ice structure coated with the sauce to produce a frozen cocktail ice structure.
5 more elements
A frozen cocktail ice structure, comprising:
- an ice structure coated with a plurality of sauce layers;
- wherein the ice structure is loaded in a tumbler whose interior surface temperature is preset to a temperature below a desired temperature for the ice structure, wherein for an ice tempering process, the ice structure upon being loaded is maintained in a stationery state for a certain duration until a surface temperature of the ice structure is within a certain range and upon verification of the ice structure surface temperature, the ice structure is coated with a first sauce layer during a sauce coating cycle in the tumbler operating at a first speed controlled by a programmable controller and after the sauce coating cycle, nitrogen is sprayed on the ice structure in the tumbler, during a freeze cycle controlled by the programmable controller, the tumbler operating at a second speed that is different from the first speed;
- wherein the sauce coating cycle and the freeze cycle alternate for applying the plurality of sauce layers and nitrogen on the ice structure in the tumbler;
- and after a last freeze cycle, water is applied in the tumbler on the ice structure coated with the plurality of sauce layers.
1 more element
A system, comprising:
- a tumbler whose interior surface temperature is pre-set below a desired temperature of an ice structure loaded in the tumbler, wherein an ice tempering process is executed in the tumbler by maintaining the ice structure stationery in the tumbler for a certain duration until a surface temperature of the ice structure is within a certain temperature range;
- and
- a controller having a processor executing instructions out of a memory for:
- alternating between a sauce coating cycle in the tumbler operating at a first speed to apply a sauce layer on the ice structure, and a freeze cycle that occurs after the sauce coating cycle to spray nitrogen on the ice structure, wherein the tumbler operates at a second speed during the freeze cycle, the second speed being different from the first speed, and during the freeze cycle, an ambient temperature within the tumbler is different from a temperature range of the ice structure;
- and
- executing a water cycle for applying water to the ice structure coated with sauce for producing a frozen cocktail ice structure having sauce coated on the ice structure.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.