Sealed pack of ingredients for an individual smoothie, and associated methods and apparatuses
A sealed pack ( 440 ) contains quantities of ingredients to make an individual smoothie portion. The ingredients comprise a flavour ingredient ( 410 ) such as pieces of fruit (strawberries, raspberries, mango), a frozen portion of liquid ( 420 ) such as water, fruit juice, milk, coffee or tea; and a consistency ingredient ( 430 ) such as ice-cream, sorbet and yoghurt. The pack may be subjected to a temperature sufficiently low to maintain the frozen state of some of the ingredients in the pack ( 440 ). Also disclosed is a method of packaging the ingredients into the pack, or into first and second containers, or into a container with compartments for different ingredients in frozen and unfrozen states; and a method of preparing an individual smoothie using the sealed pack wherein the ingredients are blended with additional liquid; and an apparatus that uses sealed pack for automatically vending an individual smoothie portion.
1. A method for preparing an individual portion of a smoothie, the method comprising steps of:
transferring contents of a sealed pack to a container, the contents of the sealed pack comprising
a flavour ingredient, the flavour ingredient selected of a quantity suitable for the individual portion of the smoothie and of a quantity to suitably fill a cup of a standard cup size when served to a consumer;
a frozen ingredient of an amount selected to produce the individual portion of the smoothie when combined with the quantity of the flavour ingredient, the frozen ingredient comprising a plurality of frozen individual pieces sized to contribute through blending to predetermined product consistency of the individual portion of the smoothie; and
at least one consistency ingredient in an amount to produce the individual portion of a smoothie when combined with the amount of the flavour ingredient and the amount of the frozen ingredient, when served, the at least one consistency ingredient selected to consistently produce single-serving smoothies including the individual portion of the smoothie with a predetermined texture or runniness following blending of the at least one consistency ingredient with the flavour ingredient, the frozen ingredient, and a predetermined portion of liquid;
adding the predetermined portion of liquid to the container; and
blending the contents of the container.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein transferring contents of a sealed pack to a container comprises transferring as the frozen ingredient a plurality of frozen portions of at least one liquid selected from a group of liquids consisting of water, fruit juice, milk, coffee and tea.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein transferring contents of a sealed pack to a container comprises transferring as the flavour ingredient a portion of fruit.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein transferring as the flavour ingredient a portion of fruit comprises transferring into the container a plurality of individually frozen pieces of fruit.
5. The method of claim 4 wherein transferring into the container a plurality of individually frozen pieces of fruit comprises transferring into the container a plurality of individually frozen pieces of fruit selected to have a size suitable to assist in the blending of the portion of fruit by a blender with the flavour ingredient and the frozen ingredient to produce the individual smoothie portion at the predetermined product consistency.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein transferring contents of a sealed pack to a container comprises transferring as the at least one consistency ingredient an ingredient selected from a group of ingredients consisting of ice-cream, sorbet and yoghurt.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein transferring contents of a sealed pack to a container comprises transferring as the frozen ingredient at least one of frozen water, frozen fruit juice or frozen pieces of fruit.