The present invention relates to a beverage infuser unit made as a disposable filter bag holding an amount of tea, coffee, cocoa, or the like and surrounded by an envelope having an openable or tearable mounting portion. These units are widely known as tea bags, some¬ times even referred to as 'tea letters' comprising both the inner tea bag and the outer envelope. Although the units may be used for products other than tea, they will here be named tea bags, because this reflects the pre¬ dominant use of the units. They are used in vast amounts in private housekeepings and not least in the restaurant trade in a wide sense.

While the well known tea bags present many advan¬ tages from different points of view, they also present a marked and well known problem, viz. with respect to their disposal immediately after use, where they are liable to give off a small amount of liquid when lifted from the cup. It is inconvenient to lay the used tea bag in the saucer because of the leaking liquid, and it cannot either be laid on the table. It is considered unnecessary to describe this problem in more detail, as practically everybody will know the problem, directly or indirectly. Particularly in restaurants, the only solu¬ tion is to deposit the used bags in ashtrays or in spe¬ cial waste cups or plates at each table, if not directly on a carrier tray, all with well known negative aspects. According to the present invention, it is proposed to overcome the problem by arranging for the envelope of the bag to be usable as a used bag receptacle in such a manner that the used bag can be replaced in the envelope and then be laid anywhere without the leaking liquid flowing out from the envelope. Thereby the used bag in its envelope may even be deposited on a table cloth without causing inconvenience or remorse on the part of the user/customer or particular difficulties for the

'cloth owner*'. The used bags, then, will occur as parti¬ cular waste without any annoying pollution effect of any kind.

Thus, according to the invention, a first condition will be that the envelope is made of a liquid tight material, while it is normally made of a non-tight paper material. It is realized that economy is a decisive factor, but is has been found that the provision of an envelope of a thin and liquid proof sheet material is sufficiently competitive with paper.

Thus, with the use of such a tight sheet material for the envelope, it will be possible to replace the used tea bag in the envelope, and the latter may be arranged on the table such that the excess liquid will not flow out of the envelope. It is realized, however, that this may be a matter of skill on the part of the user, combined with a suitable design of the envelope, the waterproof envelopes will also serve to aromatically protect the contents of the bags until they are brought into actual use.

The problem of how to design the envelopes for facilitating a leakproof replacement of the used tea bags therein may be solved in different manners. Accord¬ ing to the invention, it is a preferred solution to arrange for the envelope and thus also the tea bag it¬ self to be an oblong unit having a narrow mouthing por¬ tion that is foldable in a manner such that once the used tea bag has been replaced in the envelope, the narrow, open end portion of the latter may be closed by a simple folding of the relevant end of the elongated structure, provided this folding be self-holding. In that case, the envelope can be left lying on the table with its open end pointing upwardly, whereby no liquid can flow out of the refilled envelope.

In order to achieve this result, it will be a pos¬ sibility to provide the envelopes with a mouthing zone

of a pliable and self-holding material, but another and more attractive solution is to embody the tea bag member itself in a manner such that an extended rear or upper portion thereof is pliable in a self-holding manner, thus also folding the mouthing portion of the envelope into the shape, in which it extends upwardly from the supporting surface and thus prevents any outflow of liquid.

This may imply the use of a relatively long and narrow tea bag member having a certain stiffness, though being foldable when forced to be folded, and this turns out to be an advantage of its own, because the member will appear in a sticklike manner, preferably as a flat stick, which is then directly usable as a teaspoon for stirring purposes. There will be no need to use an ordi¬ nary teaspoon, if only for stirring. Admittedly, it has earlier been suggested to provide a tea bag with a handle stick, but not in combination with a recloseable, leakage proof envelope, and the stirring spoon feature is merely an advantageous side effect of a preferred type of embodiments of the invention.

It is desirable to design the tea bag member with the said oblong shape, in order to ensure that the length of the envelope mouthing portion required for the closing folding will not amount to, say half the entire length of the envelope, as it might then be difficult to house the used amount of tea in the other half. On the other hand, once the length or height is increased, it is possible to reduce the width of the bag portion, and thus reduce the material consumption of the envelope.

The filter material of the bag member should pre¬ ferably still be ordinary filter paper and, in order to make it foldable in a self holding manner, the filter bag can be connected with a frame or other reinforcing means able to be folded in that manner. Preferable the filter bag is provided with an insert consisting of a

ϋ-bent frame wire or a similar structure which is fold¬ able as required. For the purpose of the said closing, it could be sufficient to arrange for such frame means only in the closing or folding area itself, but it is preferred to let the frame means extend all over the length of the bag, in order to stiffen the bag to make it easily introduceable into the envelope after use - and also to achieve the said spoon character of the oblong bag.

In the following, the invention is explained in more detail, with reference to the drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an infuser packing according to the invention.

Fig. 2 is a similar view of a packing, partly opened or separated.

Fig. 3 is a perspective, exploded view of the infuser part of the unit.

Fig. 4 is a lateral view thereof.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the infuser part in used condition, and

Figs. 6 and 7 are lateral views of the unit after use thereof.

The packing shown in Fig. 1 appears as a closed capsule of a tubular, flat casing 2 made of a flexible and watertight foil or sheet material and closed at both ends, carrying an indication 4 of an end 6 adapted to be opened. For the immediate purpose of the invention it is not a condition that this end 6 be closed, but it is preferred anyhow to close the end in some easily openable manner, by peel sealing or in any other suitable manner.

Once opened, the casing 2 is accessible for gripping and drawing out its contents, which, as shown in Fig. 2, is a filter bag member 8 having an upper plate portion 10 and an elongated filter bag portion 12 depending therefrom.

As shown in Fig.3, the bag member 8 is preferably made with a reinforcing frame member 14 that may consist of metal wire, carboard, plastic or any other convenient and acceptable material mounted inside a filter bag 16.

In the production of the units the reinforced bag 16 is then filled with the desired amount of infusing material, and the bag is then closed by means of the plate portion 10, which, as shown in Fig. 3, may be a folded plate member of any suitable material, which is fastened to the top of the bag structure 14, 16 in any suitable manner such as by glueing or welding.

Thus, the unit 8 will be an integral element having a relatively stiff, lower filter bag portion 12 and an upper grip portion 10. The bag portion 12 may be lowered into the hot water in a cup or a pot, and it will even be possible to bend out the upper end of this unit 8 such that the unit can be carried on the upper edge of the cup or pot. Moreover, the unit 8 will be applicable as a combined stirring and infusion device owing to the reinforcement of the filter bag 16 by the frame 14 and the stiff engagement thereof with the grip portion 10. Thence, the unit 8 is applicable as a teaspoon for stirring in the water and at the same time being the unit holding the relevant infusion material in a filter bag.

As shown in Fig. 4, the infusion material may collect at the bottom of the filter bag 16, after the use of the unit 8.

In the meantime the empty casing 2 may have been left lying oh a table surface, but now this casing is gripped and opened at its mounting end as shown in Fig. 5, whereafter the used bag unit 8 is reinserted into the casing 2.

Once thus reinserted, the top portion of the reinserted unit 8 may be bent upwardly, e.g. as shown in Fig. 6, relatively to the casing 2 being placed in a

lying position on a horizontal support surface 18. When the top part of the unit 8 is bent this will cause an almost similar bending of the mouthing portion of the casing 2, and this will be sufficient to ensure that no water will leave the lying casing holding the used unit 8. Thus, the used unit may be placed even on a table cloth without causing any damage.

The said bending may be effected e.g. along a cross line A of the grip portion 10, above the reinforcing frame member 14, but another possibility is to effect a bending of the frame member itself (Fig. 7) , if it is capable of retaining a sufficient bending thereafter. The frame may even be provided with kerbs or the like for defining a bending area. It will not be inconvenient to effect the bending in a wet area, as it is done by exterior manipulation of the casing 2. There is no need to attempt to close the casing otherwise.

The frame will not necessary have to be a preshaped structure mounted inside a filter bag. If it is preshaped of any suitable material, it could be used for the holding of two opposed filter sheets secured to the frame sides by glueing, welding or otherwise, thus forming an integral part of the bag itself. On the other hand, it will not need to be preshaped, as it can be provided by applying to the edges of the bag 16, optionally only to the side edges thereof, some relevant substance which will harden or be hardened into a reinforcing structure. Even the handle portion may be preparedin a similar manner, directly on a top portion of the filter bag member.

Due to the preferred oblong and relatively narrow shape of the bag member the contents of the bag may be distributed over a relatively long length portion of the bag, corresponding to the contents being present, in a cup of water, in a relatively thin layer almost from the bottom to the top of the water, and it has been found

that at least as far as tea is concerned the unit according to the invention has an increased brewing capacity compared with conventional tea bags. In practice this may imply that the bags may hold a reduced amount of tea, which will of course be highly important.

To the extent it is desired to concentrate the infuser material at the outer or lower end of the unit it will be perfectly possible to provide the unit with a bottom end portion of expanded width.

The top end of the bag unit may be designed in any suitable manner as a relevant handle portion. For the primary aspect of the invention it is immaterial whether the folding of the casing 2 is effected in the bag or handle area of the reinserted bag unit, so the handle portion could well be of an extended length so as to be permanently foldable all by itself, without any overlapping with the frame member 14. It has previously been suggested to provide a tea bag with a handle for enabling the bag to be fully submerged and to be used for stirring in the cup, and of course the present unit will have also these qualifications, but apparently it has not previously been recognised that such a handle may be foldable into a stable position in which it will cause the mouthing of a surrounding watertight casing to be bent up in order to prevent a following outflow from the casing.

It has been emphasized that the unit considered is of an oblong shape which, however, is not a goal in itself. The primary condition is that the casing has a reasonable length in order to be closed as described and thereafter to be laid on the table without readily tilting over into a position, in which it is rested on the folded mounthing portion. Preferably, therefore, the latter portion should be of a length shorter than the remaining length, and the entire length should be noticeable, e.g. not less than the height of a cup.

Thus, once relatively long, the infuser unit can be made with reduced width, and hence the oblong shape.

In other words, it is not a condition that the unit should be of such narrow width, and the invention is not correspondingly limited.

.Another advantage of a relatively narrow casing is that its mouthing portion is more effectively closed by the folding of the reinserted infuser unit; what is important for the closing is that the lower side of the casing is folded upwardly, but the folding of the unit affects only the upper side in a direct manner, while the lower side is folded by virtue of the upper side being folded. Therefore, when the mounthing is narrow the lower side will more readily be folded upwardly all over its width, and of course it is important that also the middle area thereof is bent upwardly.

On the other hand, if the casing itself is prepared in such a manner that at least one side thereof, viz. the one to be placed as the lower side on the table, can be folded in a self holding manner, then it will be sufficient to fold up a rather short end portion, as only a small amount of liquid is to be held back in the casing, and it will not matter whether the mounthing is wide or narrow. For that sake, such a casing could be designed to take up a conventional tea bag after use, and it would not have to be supplied as a part of the unit from the beginning.

In particular when the casing is narrow, it may be sufficient if a permanently foldable strip is secured to the central area of one or both of the sides of the casing, optionally only along a short partial stretch next to the mounthing, whereby the casing material as such may still be easily flexible.