Method for managing orders and dispensing beverages

#The mark COCA-COLA® is a registered trademark of The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Ga., U.S.A. Other marks used herein may be registered trademarks, tradenames, or product names of The Coca-Cola Company or other companies.

#This application relates generally to a method for managing orders and dispensing beverages products, such as beverage products, pharmaceutical products, or any other products that can be dispensed and more particularly relates to a method of placing an order at an order entry station, prompting a user to select a product type, printing indicia on the container into which the product will be dispensed, indicating at least the product type selected, relocating the container to a product dispensing station, reading the indicia at the beverage dispensing station, configuring the product dispensing station to dispense the product type selected based in part on the indicia, and dispensing the product type selected into the container.

#Ordering and filling a beverage order at a quick or full serve restaurant often may not be a managed task. A crew member simply may hand a consumer an empty cup. The consumer then has to use a self serve beverage dispenser to select and fill the cup. The quick or full serve restaurant generally has no way of knowing which beverage product the consumer selected or how many times the consumer refilled the cup. The quick or full serve restaurant also may have no way of linking the consumer's beverage selections to the original food and beverage order. As such, there is little opportunity to managing and collect information related to consumer beverage consumption in a self server beverage environment.

#The subject matter herein is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion of the specification. The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of the present application may be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

#FIG. 1A illustrates one example of a micro-dosing beverage dispensing station including an interface portion of the micro-dosing beverage dispensing station.

#FIG. 1B illustrates one example of a micro-dosing beverage dispensing station including an interface portion of the micro-dosing beverage dispensing station.

#The detailed description explains the preferred embodiments of the application, together with advantages and features, by way of example with reference to the drawings.

#Turning now to the drawings in greater detail, it will be seen that in FIGS. 1A and 1B there is a micro-dosing beverage dispensing station 202. The micro-dosing beverage dispensing station 202 may manage the dispensing of a number of concentrated ingredients, water, dairy, soy, sweetener, carbonated water, and or other beverage forming ingredients in precise recipes to form hundreds of different beverages. To effectuate the ability of a user to select which beverage recipe to dispense, a user accessible graphical user interface 206 may be provided. In this regard, a menu of beverage choices may be displayed on the graphical user interface 206 such as beverage selections 204A-204E.

#For example and not as a limitation, a COCA-COLA ZERO® beverage may be dispensed by selecting the COCA-COLA ZERO™ beverage selection 204A. In a similar fashion, a BARQ'S ROOT BEER® beverage may be dispensed by selecting the BARQ'S ROOT BEER® beverage selection 204B. A COCA-COLA® beverage may be dispensed by way of the beverage selection 204C, a DIET COKE® beverage may be dispensed by way of the beverage selection 204D, and a SPRITE® beverage may be dispensed by way of the beverage selection 204E. The beverage dispenser 202 may be configured to dispense hundreds of beverage types limited only by the ingredients needs to formulate a beverage recipe.