Beverage Container Attachment for Sequential Tastant Dispensing
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a need to enhance the taste perception of tastants like sugar and salt in beverages while reducing their intake levels, as recommended by health organizations, without altering the perceived taste experience.
Innovation Solution
An attachment for a beverage container that sequentially dispenses a liquid and a beverage with differing tastant concentrations, where the liquid is dispensed before the beverage, allowing for a combined taste experience in a single sip, using a cap with a tube and a restrictor system to control the flow, including a non-return valve to ensure the liquid exits before the beverage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If lower levels of sugar and salt are used in beverages, then health recommendations are met and harmful factors are reduced, but taste perception intensity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The device introduces a liquid containing tastant (sugar or salt) into the user's mouth before the beverage is dispensed. This preliminary action of coating the taste buds with concentrated tastant allows subsequent perception of the beverage's taste to be enhanced, enabling lower overall tastant levels in the final beverage while maintaining perceived intensity.
2Reliability
If multiple liquids are dispensed sequentially to enhance taste perception, then taste perception intensity is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The device is divided into separate functional components: a container for the concentrated tastant liquid, a dispensing mechanism for the liquid, a beverage container, and a beverage dispensing mechanism. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function independently, simplifying the overall design while enabling sequential dispensing of multiple liquids.
Solution Approach 2:
The device uses an intermediary liquid containing high concentration tastant that mediates between the user's taste buds and the diluted beverage. This intermediary substance amplifies the taste perception without requiring high concentrations of tastant in the final beverage, thus resolving the contradiction between enhanced perception and device complexity.
3Ease of operation
If a restrictor system is added to control liquid flow sequence, then dispensing control is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The restrictor system is designed to automatically control the flow sequence based on pressure differentials and flow dynamics. The system self-regulates to dispense the concentrated liquid first, followed by the beverage, without requiring complex electronic controls or user intervention. This maintains ease of operation while minimizing added complexity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution allows for reduced sucrose and salt intake while maintaining the perceived intensity of sweetness and bitterness, enabling a single sip experience with enhanced taste perception, as demonstrated by experimental data showing equivalent sweetness and bitterness levels with reduced sugar and caffeine concentrations.
Implementation Method 1
a second restrictor within the tube to control and/or restrict the flow of the beverage through the tube and out of the opening in the cap, wherein the second restrictor is a non-return valve
Data Source
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AI summary
An attachment for a beverage container may comprise a cap configured to attach to an opening in the beverage container. The cap comprises an opening. The attachment also comprises a tube passing through the cap. The opening in the cap is located proximate to a first end of the tube and a second end of the tube is configured to be located within the beverage container when the cap is attached to the beverage container, such that a beverage contained in the beverage container can flow through the tube and out of the opening in the cap. The attachment also comprises a container attached to the tube and configured to hold a liquid. The container comprises an opening to allow the liquid to flow from the container into the tube and out of the opening in the cap. The attachment also comprises a restrictor between the opening of the container and the tube to control and/or restrict the flow of the liquid from the container into the tube. The restrictor and the tube are configured such that the liquid begins to exit the opening in the cap before the beverage begins to exit the opening in the cap.