A beverage preparation machine (1) comprises: a beverage preparation module (20, 30) having a front face (21) with an outlet (31) for dispensing a prepared beverage; and a cup support (10) located under the outlet (31) for placing a cup (2) under the outlet (31). The cup support (10) has a rear face (11) removably assembled to the front face (21) by a mechanical connector arrangement (12,22) that comprises a front hook (22) on the front face (21) disassemblable from a corresponding rear hook (12) on the rear face (11). The rear hook (12) has a retaining element (121) and the front hook (22) has a retaining element (221), the retaining elements (121,221) being mutually engaged when the cup support (10) is assembled to the front face (21) and disengaged when the cup support (10) is disassembled from the front face (21). The retaining element (121) of the rear hook (12) extends generally in parallel to the rear face (12) and the retaining element (221) of the front hook (22) extends generally in parallel to the front face (21), so that the rear face (11) and the front face (21) are relatively slid in parallel one over another to move the retaining elements (121,221): together from disengagement into mutual engagement to assemble the rear face (11) to the front face (21); and apart from mutual engagement into disengagement to disassemble the rear face (11) from the front face (21).

The invention proposes a device for preparing a beverage from a food substance contained in a capsule (24) by injection of a liquid into the capsule (24), wherein said liquid is provided by a pump (70) of the device, said device comprising an extraction head (20) having an aperture (22) for inserting a capsule-holder (30) providing the capsule (24) to a capsule-holder receiving chamber (25) of the device, a closing mechanism (21) to selectively enclose said capsule (24) in the capsule-holder receiving chamber (25), at least one injection member (11) to supply a liquid received from the pump (70) to the inside of the capsule (24), a control unit (80) for controlling at least the pump (70) of the device, and decoding means (1) connected to the control unit (80) and designed to read information from the capsule-holder (30).

The invention relates to a device comprising: a support arranged to receive a capsule containing material to be infused, provided with a front face comprising a filter wall, a ring, a rear face and a solid casing; injection means arranged to introduce an infusion liquid into the capsule; an infusion chamber having a substantially vertical opening arranged to be in fluid communication with the filter wall, said ring comprising sealing means arranged to maintain the fluid communication sealed from the surrounding medium; and an outlet provided with closing/opening means.

A pack (100) having an inner volume in which a food or beverage ingredient is stored and in which a food or beverage product is produced when a fluid is introduced inside, said inner volume being defined by sheets of material joined to one another at their edges and said inner volume presenting a generally plane shape defining a plane (P) essentially vertically oriented during beverage production, said pack (100) comprising at least one fluid inlet (110) for supplying a fluid in the inner volume and at least one dispensing outlet (120) for delivering the food or beverage product from said inner volume, said fluid inlet (110) and said dispensing outlet (120) being positioned at the bottom of the pack (100) and being at least partially positioned between two joined edges of the sheets of material, the fluid inlet (110) being oriented essentially perpendicularly to the plane (P) defined by the inner volume, the dispensing outlet (120) being configured as an essentially parallel tube arranged essentially vertically from the inner volume, configured so as to enable a free flow of the food or beverage product form the pack (100), the dispensing outlet (120) comprising a primary outlet section (300) and a secondary outlet section (400), the secondary outlet section (400) being arranged vertically higher than the primary outlet section (300) and having a bigger diameter than that of the primary outlet section, such configuration allowing the sequential dispensing of the food or beverage product at least in two phases, a first phase where dispensing is done through the primary outlet section (300) and a second phase where dispensing is done through the secondary outlet section (400).

A method prepares and dispenses a beverage with a dispensing device. The device includes a housing with a beverage unit having a liquid line, a pressure controller to control liquid line pressure, and an ingredient container receiving means. The content of the ingredient container is in fluid communication with a liquid line to mix the ingredient container contents with a base liquid in the liquid line. The device further includes an ingredient container identification unit and a processor coupled for controlling the pressure controller. The method includes providing an ingredient container in the device, identifying the ingredient container, providing a base liquid, and mixing the contents of the ingredient container with the base liquid dispensing the prepared beverage. The pressure in the liquid line changes from a first pressure level to a second pressure level by the pressure controller during mixing and dispensing of the beverage.

A capsule that contains at least one ingredient for preparing an edible product by flowing water therethrough includes a water-inlet wall and a product-outlet wall. The product-outlet wall has at least a first, pierceable wall portion, and a second, pierceable wall portion. The second wall portion is recessed with respect to the first wall portion. The product-outlet wall is asymmetrical with respect to a longitudinal axis of symmetry of the capsule.

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).

A method of operating a beverage preparation machine, the beverage preparation machine being of the type comprising a brewer comprising: a reservoir containing water; a delivery head for receiving in use a cartridge containing one or more beverage ingredients; a pump for pumping water from said reservoir to said delivery head; a primary heater for heating the water contained in said reservoir; a secondary heater in between the reservoir and the delivery head; a controller for controlling energisation of the primary heater and the secondary heater; and wherein the controller operates to prevent energisation of the primary heater simultaneous with energisation of the secondary heater. An apparatus for carrying out the method is also disclosed and methods and apparatus utilising first and second brewers.

The present invention relates to dispensing of a substance from a container by means of a dispensing apparatus. Specifically, the exemplary embodiment of the present invention relates to (1) a container and (2) the automated method for opening such container and (3) the automated method of dispensing of the contents from such container into a customer receptacle or glass.

A machine (1) for preparing and dispensing a beverage has an actuation arrangement (5) that includes an actuator (57) and an actuation transmission (50,510,520,530) actuated by the actuator (57). The actuation transmission (50,510,520,530) has an actuation distributor (50) actuated by the actuator (57) and a first actuation output device (510) having a first input port (511) and a second actuation output device (520) having a second input port (521). The actuation distributor (50) has a first output port (50′) for operating the first actuation output device (510) via the first input port (511) and a second output port (50″) for operating the second actuation output device (520) via the second input port (521). The first actuation output device (510) and the second actuation output device (520) are displaced in a non-identical manner via the first and second output ports (50′,50″).