Beverage making cartridge

A low-cost generally bulb-shaped beverage cartridge for brewing a beverage under pressure with pressurized hot water from a beverage machine having a mounting head comprising:

• a predetermined amount of flavor-containing materials which provides a beverage when mixed in pressurized hot water from a beverage machine;
• a generally water- and air-impermeable chamber containing said flavor-containing materials, said impermeable chamber being adapted to have a sufficient rigidity and strength to function both as a pressurized brewing chamber for said flavor-containing materials to interact with the pressurized hot water from the beverage machine and as a handle for mounting said beverage cartridge to the mounting head without substantial deformation;
• a cartridge inlet having a rigid body and a through-opening for forming a water-tight seal to the mounting head and introducing the pressurized hot aqueous medium into said impermeable chamber, the cross-section area of said cartridge inlet being adapted to be substantially smaller than that of said impermeable chamber, thereby facilitating both the mounting and seal formation of said beverage cartridge to the mounting head;
• a filter for the beverage brewed in said impermeable chamber from said flavor-containing materials;
• a cartridge outlet comprising a collection chamber for receiving the beverage from said filter and a discharging opening for dispensing the drink into a container, the cross-section area of said cartridge outlet being adapted to be substantially smaller than that of said impermeable chamber, thereby facilitating the dispensing of the beverage into the container through its mouth;
• a crema generator located between said impermeable chamber and said discharging opening for producing a visually appealing crema for the beverage, said generator having an orifice of sufficiently small size adapted to generate a high-speed jet of beverage that is capable of causing said visually appealing crema to form in the beverage before said beverage is discharged at said discharging opening, wherein said filter is adapted to have sufficiently small filtration openings to prevent said orifice from being clogged by said flavor-containing materials;
• and
• wherein said impermeable chamber, said cartridge inlet and said cartridge outlet are formed from a single shot or sheet of plastic material by one of blow-molding and thermal forming processes as one piece without any seal or seam between said impermeable chamber, cartridge inlet and cartridge outlet in order to make said bulb-shaped beverage cartridge a seamless cartridge, thereby significantly reducing the cost of said beverage cartridge by eliminating the normal manufacturing process of sealing or connecting said impermeable chamber, cartridge inlet and cartridge outlet together, and thereby eliminating the safety risk associated with very hot water under pressure that may forcefully eject out of a defective seam of a cartridge and cause hot-water burning to the user when brewing a beverage.

A low-cost disposable beverage cartridge capable of providing a beverage having a visually appealing crema layer on top of the beverage comprising:

• a predetermined amount of flavor-containing materials which provides a beverage when interacted with pressurized water;
• a containing chamber containing said flavor-containing materials, said containing chamber having a cartridge inlet for connecting to a mounting head to receive pressurized water from a pressurized water source and to allow the water to interact with said flavor-containing materials under pressure therein to produce a beverage;
• a crema generator connected to said containing chamber for producing a visually appealing crema for the beverage, said crema generator comprising a filter for filtering the beverage produced in said containing chamber, a collection chamber located downstream of said filter for receiving the beverage from said filter and an orifice located on said collection chamber for the beverage received therein;
• a cartridge outlet opening for discharging the beverage produced in said containing chamber into a container;
• wherein the filtration openings of said filter are adapted to be of sufficiently small size to prevent the solid or un-dissolved flavor-containing materials from reaching and clogging said orifice;
• and
• wherein said orifice of said crema generator is adapted to be of sufficiently small size to generate a jet of beverage of sufficiently high speed to cause said visually appealing crema to form in the beverage.