US3346388A - Tea packet - Google Patents

Description

1967 F. P. ANDREWS ETAL 3,346,388

TEA PACKET Filed Feb. 4. 1966 FREDERICK PERCY ANDREWS STANLEY FOSTER REED United States Patent 3,346,388 TEA PACKET Frederick Percy Andrews, 2924 McKinley St. NW., Washington, D.C. 20015, and Stanley Foster Reed, 1621 Brookside Road, McLean, Va. 22101 Filed Feb. 4, 1966, Ser. No. 525,025 Claims. (Cl. 99-77.1)

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A tea infusion packet in the form of an elongated tube made entirely of a sheet of creped pervious material, the wall of the tube being more stretchable along its longitudinal axis than transversely thereof, and the tube firmly packed and filled with tea particles. Additionally, ring means are provided for forming the tube into a ring.

This invention relates to beverage infusion packets and more particularly to tea packets and a forming and dispensing package therefor.

Present tea bags and similar packets produce a bulking of the contents, causing slow, and sometimes only partial, contact of the hot water with the tea particle mass. It has been found that the outside particles on contact with water sometimes form a barrier which inhibits further penetration by the hot water. Also, it has been found that the liquid film which builds up on the surface of tea bags pr duces a barrier which inhibits infusion. This barrier further prevents infusion by preventing venting of air trapped in the tea bag. This entrapped air may cause the tea ag to float, thus reducing the infusion potential. Attempts to overcome these problems have involved multi-section bags, pleated bags, and the like. However, such packets require added paper, continue to contain the tea as an 1111- controlled mass, and therefore have not provided the ultimate answer to the bulking problem, the surface tension barrier problem, the floating problem, and others. Further problems arise from the fact that the flat face of the packet clings to the side of the cup or pot and substantially reduces infusion.

This invention provides an infusion packet of stretchable pervious material of high compliance formed into an elongated tube having a substantially oval or circular transverse cross section with the ends of the tube drawn together to form a ring of a size compatible with a tea cup. The stretchable material is preferably a tea bag paper of suitable characteristics which has been creped to provide stretchability along the tube and, if desired, across the tube.

When hot water contacts the ring, the outer peripheral sheath of tea particles in the tube becomes wet and eX- pands. While the force developed by this initial expansion is not large, it is sufiicient to start a stretching action of the stretchable material because of its high compliance. The wetting tea particles move as they continue to swell thereby agitating neighboring drier particles, maintaining the stretching action of the tube material and continually preventing the production of a film barrier. As the forces generated by the swelling tea particles continue to develop and expand the tube material, new channels for water flow are continuously and rapidly formed resulting in a wetting of the internal core of particles in a significantly short period of time.

The firmly packed tea ring has a very low air content and its rounded shape presents a very small surface area to the cup thereby avoiding the loss of infusion potential due to buoyancy and a face-to-face sealing contact formed by clinging to the wall of the cup. During expansion the rounded shape is maintained and the damaging face-toface sealing contact is avoided.

3,346,388 Patented Oct. 10, 1967 "ice A preferred tea ring involves an elongated tube formed of a tea bag paper which has been creped to enable a stretching of the paper itself of about 100%. This tube material does not actually stretch to this extent when formed into the final tea ring; rather it provides a high expansion compliance of the tea ring which enables the stretching action described above. The tube may be mad in any suitable fashion; high speed cigarette making techniques may be used to produce a tube of circular or oval cross section. Preferably the tube is formed by a longitudinal stitching technique to form a longitudinal connecting means which automatically assumes an internal peripheral position when the tube is formed into the tea ring due to the longitudinal expansion of the tube material. Heat sealing and other longitudinal connecting techniques may be used to produce a similar automatic internal peripheral positioning of the connecting means. The tea ring may be packaged and merchanised in its ring form or in its tube form. If merchandised in its tube form, it may be packaged somewhat similar to cigarettes or the like with the special package of this invention enabling the formation of the tube into a ring upon withdrawal of the tube by its string, as will be explained.

These and further objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent upon reference to the following specification, appended claims and drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view with a cutaway portion of a tea packet;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged transverse cross sectional view of the packet of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a top view of the packet of FIG. 1 drawn into a ring;

FIG. 4 is a top view of a ring packet of modified design;

FIG. 5 is a top view of a ring packet of another modified design;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a special dispensing and forming package; and

FIG. 7 is an enlarged side view showing the forming procedure of the special dispensing and forming package of FIG. 5.

FIGS. 1 and 2 show a longitudinal sheet 15 of stretchable pervious material formed into a tube 16 with its side edges 17 and 18 (FIG. 2) joined by longitudinal connecting means 19 and-its ends 20, 21 closed by end closing means 22. Tea particles 23 fill the tube 16 and, s seen in FIG. 3, the tube 16 when formed into a ring is held in ring shape by ring means 24.

The material used is preferably a creped tea infusing paper which has been longitudinally creped to produce a longitudinal stretchability of the material itself of about 100% or within a range of about to 200% and which has been transversely creped to produce a transverse stretchability of the material itself of about 20% or within a range of about 15% to 25%.

While various means may be used to form the longitudinal connecting means 19, a desirable feature is the provision of a stitched seam along the length thereof. Such a seam has the characteristic of buckling against the compressive forces generated in converting from a longitudinal cylindrical form to a ring form and yet which, when subject to expansion forces in immersion, will resist extension not only to maintain the ring but even eventually to force the deformation of the ring itself into convoluted form.

The tube 16 is firmly packed with tea particles 23 leaving no air volume of significance within the tube. The end closing means 22 are provided by staples 30 and 31. A string 32 is firmly anchored to one end of the tube 16 by staple 30 and frictionally held at the other end of the tube by staple 31. The string 32 extends over the seam 26 so that upon pulling the string through staple 31, the seam 26 of the longitudinal connecting means 19 automat ically assumes an internal peripheral position in the ring. The outer peripheral surface of the ring has a high compliance through the creped material and it readily expands to the enlarged surface area when the tube is formed into a ring. When done just prior to use, this ring forming process .primes or conditions the packet for the infusion process by moving the tea particles and flexing the paper material from their fixed positions assumed during storage.

The packet is maintained in ring form by ring means 24 which may take many forms; FIG. 3 shows a string and staples combination while FIG; 4 and FIG. 5 show two modifications of a single staple ring means 24.

When a ring packet of the stitched design shown in FIG- 3 'is immersed in hot water, its inner periphery is restrained against significant expansion. The progressive expansion of the tea particles causes the outer periphery of the ring to balloon. This action eventually causes the' packet to change its shape from a flat ring to a somewhat U-shaped packet with the ends of the tube lying in side by side relationship defining one leg of the U with the middle of the tube being folded back on itself defining'the other leg of the U. This formation process identifie the undulating action of the packet which increases its infusion capabilities and eliminates the need for external agitation. The resultant packet is neatly oriented for disposal.

A special dispensing and forming package is shOWn in FIG. 5 and includes a box '40 having a bottom 41 on which rest rows of vertically oriented infusion packets 16 in tube form. A header 42 is horizontally mounted in the box 40 above'the tops of the tubes. The strings 32 extend through parallel slits 33 in the header 42 and have pyramid tags 43 at their ends housed in the chamber 44 formed by the box top 45 when closed and the header 42 in a manner which reduces entanglementLThe front wall 46 of the box provides an open top access opening 47 which is vertically dimensioned to allow withdrawal of the packet in ring shape. The slits 33 in the header 42 produce pairs of spaced forming fingers 48 which can flex upwardly to release a ring. In use, the pyramid tag 43 is pulled upwardly, causing the top of the tube 16 to seat against the fingers 48, the string 32 then to slide through staple 31 causing the tube bottom end to curl upwardly until in engagement with the tube top end, and finally causing the upward flexing of fingers 48 and enabling removal through access opening 47.

If desired the tubes or packets 16 may have lap joint seals, be formed for sale as rings and packaged as aserieS on an internal bar, be made as oval or circular tubes or 4 rings. Many variations are envisioned within the scope of this invention.

While the invention has been described with reference to certain embodiments, they are to be considered illustrative rather than limiting, and it is intended to cover all further embodiments that fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

We claim: a

.1. A tea infusion packet comprising an elongated tube formed entirely of a longitudinally creped sheet of pervious paper, longitudinal connecting means joining the longitudinal side edges of the sheet, end closing means closing the ends of the tube, tea particles firmly packed in and filling the tube, said paper being more stretchable along its longitudinal length than transversely thereof to provide a tube having a wall of high longitudinal compliance to facilitate expansion thereof when the tea particles become wet and expand whereby new channels for water flow are formed to facilitate the wetting of the internalcore of tea particles. V

2. A tea infusion packet as'defined in claim 1 and wherein the end closing means includes a staple at each end of the tube.

3. A tea infusion packet as defined in claim 2 and including ring means for holding the ends of the tube adjacent each other and forming said tube into ring shape, said ring means including a string having one end afiixed to one of said staples and its intermediate portion slidably extending under the other of said staples, said other of said staples producing a friction grip on said string sufiicient to maintain the ring formation.

4. A tea infusion packet as defined in claim '15 and wherein said creped paper has a longitudinal stretchability of about to 200%. V 1

5. A tea infusion packet as defined in claim 4.aud wherein said creped paper is transversely creped and has a transverse stretchability of about 15% to 25%.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,947,523 2/ 1934 Hirschhorn 9977.1 2,143,302 1/1939 Cross 7 9977.1 2,244,520 6/1941 Ferrante 9977.1 2,475,241 7/ 1949 Hermanson. 2,878,927 3/1959' Haley 99-77.1 X

JOSEPH R. LECLAIR, Primary Examiner.

THERON E. CONDON, Examiner.

J. M. CASKIE, Assistant Examiner,

Claims (1)

1. A TEA INFUSION PACKET COMPRISING AN ELONGATED TUBE FORMED ENTIRELY OF A LONGITUDINALLY CREPED SHEET OF PERVIOUS PAPER, LONGITUDINAL CONNECTING MEANS JOINING THE LONGITUDINAL SIDE EDGES OF THE SHEET, END CLOSING MEAN CLOSING THE ENDS OF THE TUBE, TEA PARTICLES FIRMLY PACKED IN AND FILLING THE TUBE, SAID PAPER BEING MORE STRETCHABLE ALONG ITS LONGITUDINAL LENGTH THAN TRANSVERSELY THEREOF TO PROVIDE A TUBE HAVING A WALL OF HIGH LONGITUDINAL COMPLIANCE TO FACILITATE EXPANSION THEREOF WHEN THE TEA PARTICLES BECOME WET AND EXPAND WHEREBY NEW CHANNELS FOR WATER FLOW ARE FORMED TO FACILITATE THE WETTING OF THE INTERNAL CORE OF TEA PARTICLES.

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