It is appropriate for many drinks that they are served at a relatively low temperature, and for this reason these drinks are normally stored in a refrigerator, being taken out of the refrigerator when they are to be consumed. Some of these drinks, milk, for example, are actually harmed by storage at room temperature and taste bad, and during the summer, both indoors and outdoors in direct sunlight, such drinks have a noticeably shorter lifetime if they are exposed even for a short period to the heat that direct sunlight can impart to the drinks carton. For milk, it may be a matter of minutes in direct sunlight before the temperature of the milk starts to rise to values such that the milk rapidly becomes unappetis- ing or even undrinkable, if it is placed in direct sunlight, even if the milk is taken directly from a refrigerator and thus has an initial temperature of 4-8°C.

A cooler for cooling an object such as a bottle is known through, for example, EP-B1-0 526 928, which cooler comprises cooling chambers containing a cooling agent, which cooling chambers are surrounded by an insulating elastic cover. This cooler is intended for placement over, for example, a bottle, in order to maintain the contents of the bottle cooled dur- ing, for example, an open-air outing.

However, the above-mentioned cooler is not suitable for cool- ing paperboard milk cartons, for example, during the period under which they are temporarily removed from a refrigerator.

The cooler is too complex to be mounted onto a paperboard milk carton, and the milk carton becomes so difficult to handle with such a cooler that it is not possible to serve from the milk carton without removing the cooler from the milk carton.

It is therefore an aim of the present invention to achieve a serving vessel for the accommodation of and for the serving from a drinks carton. This serving vessel comprises a cavity for the accommodation of the drinks carton and a handle for holding the serving vessel and it can at the same time main- tain the drinks carton cooled such that the properties of the drink are not adversely affected when the drinks carton is removed from the refrigerator.

The above-mentioned aim of the invention is achieved through the cavity being surrounded by walls that are at least par- tially on at least two sides double-walled, and through a cooling agent being arranged in the volume that is limited by the double-walled walls.

It is a further aim of the invention to achieve a serving vessel that can be used for drinks cartons with somewhat differing external dimensions.

The above-mentioned aim of the invention is achieved through projecting elements that protrude from the walls being ar- ranged on the walls in the cavity.

The invention will now be described in more detail in the form of a non-limiting embodiment, illustrated with the aid of the attached drawings, where Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a serving vessel according to the invention, Figure 2

shows a plan view of the serving vessel in Figure 1, and Figure 3 shows a sectioned view through the serving vessel along the section A-A in Figure 2.

Figure 1 thus shows a serving vessel 1, or a serving jug. The serving vessel comprises a cavity 2 for a drink that it is to be possible to serve from the serving vessel, either through a drinks carton being placed in the cavity 2 of the serving vessel, or through the drink being directly poured into the cavity 2 of the serving vessel. The drinks cartons that are intended for use are drinks cartons that are readily avail- able in shops, such as cartons for milk, cultured milk, yo- ghurt, juice, wine, etc. The serving vessel 1 is provided on one side with a handle 3, and with a spout 4 on the side opposite to that of the handle, in order to facilitate serv- ing the drink from the vessel.

Figure 2 shows clearly the cavity 2 in the serving vessel 1, and the cavity preferably has a rectangular cross-section as is shown in the figure. The cavity 2 is limited internally in the serving vessel 1 by inner walls 5, and a closed volume 7 is formed between these inner walls 5 and the outer walls 6 of the vessel. This volume contains a cooling agent. As Fig- ure 2 makes clear, such a closed volume 7 is present between the inner walls 5 and the outer walls 6 at three of the inner walls 5, but not at the side of the cavity 2 at which the spout 4 is situated. The reason that the inner wall 5a at the spout 4 is placed directly next to the outer wall 6a without forming a closed volume between them is to facilitate serving from the serving vessel 1. This will be easier if the drinks carton is located close to the inner wall 5a.

A cooling agent, for example of the type that is used in what are known as"cooling blocks", is arranged in the closed volume 7 between the inner walls 5 and the outer walls 6.

Thus, if the serving vessel is stored in a refrigerator, the cooling agent in the closed volume 7 will be cooled to the temperature of the refrigerator. When the serving vessel 1 is subsequently taken out from the refrigerator, the rise in temperature of the serving vessel will take place more slowly than that which occurs in, for example, milk, and this is the reason that the serving vessel 1 will contribute to reducing the speed at which the temperature of the milk rises when it is removed from the refrigerator. It is more preferable that the serving vessel 1 is stored at a freezer temperature when it is not being used for serving, and the rate of rise of temperature of the milk when it has been taken out of the refrigerator will then be even slower.

Experiments have shown that milk that is taken out from a refrigerator at 4°C and placed at room temperature at 28°C achieves a temperature of 8°C as early as 20 minutes after.

This is the highest temperature at which fresh milk should be kept. When using a serving vessel according to the invention, which also had been placed in a refrigerator at a temperature of 4°C, it took approximately 50 minutes before the milk reached a temperature of 8°C. When the serving vessel accord- ing to the invention was placed in a freezer at a temperature of-18°C, and then removed from the freezer at the same time as the removal of the milk from the refrigerator, with the milk then being placed into the serving vessel, it took as long as 155 minutes, nearly 3 hours, before the milk had reached a temperature of 8°C in a room of temperature 28°C.

Although in the example shown cooling agent is placed for practical reasons only on three sides of the cavity 2, it is of course possible to design the serving vessel 1 such that the cavity is surrounded by the cooling agent on all four sides. It is also possible to arrange the volume 7 for cool- ing agent on only two sides of the cavity 2, in this case preferably along the two long sides. This provides, of course, a somewhat reduced cooling effect, but is neverthe- less a significant improvement over having a drinks carton totally without cooling.

According to the further aim of the invention, the serving vessel is also to be designed such that it can be used for drinks cartons of somewhat differing external dimensions. It is, of course, possible to design the inner cavity 2 of the serving vessel 1 such that it can accommodate exactly one special size of carton, for example, a one-litre milk carton with a rectangular base. It is, however, desirable that a serving vessel according to the invention is to have a wider area of application. Many other paperboard drinks cartons are available for, for example, milk, juice, etc., having a more nearly square base, while the width remains even so essen- tially in agreement with that of the above-mentioned milk carton with a rectangular base. It is also appropriate that such drinks should be served cooled, and they can thus with advantage be served from the serving vessel according to the invention.

In order for the serving vessel according to the invention to be able to be used for drinks cartons with somewhat differing dimensions, therefore, the serving vessel according to the further aim of the invention is provided with projecting elements 8 on the inner surface of the inner walls 5 of the

cavity 2. These projecting. elements 8 protrude inwards from the inner walls 5 a certain distance into the cavity 2 at some locations. They may, for example, be designed as is shown in Figures 2 and 3 as flanges that extend essentially vertically in the cavity, but they may also have another design, such as, for example, protruding brushes or protrud- ing partially spherical knobs. The projecting elements 8 are designed such that they themselves or the drinks carton that is placed into the cavity 2 of the serving vessel 1 are de- formed somewhat and provide fixation of the drinks carton in the serving vessel 1, preventing the drinks carton falling out when the serving vessel is tilted in order to serve a drink from the serving vessel. The serving vessel 1 according to the invention in this way acquires the ability to absorb certain small differences in the dimensions between different drinks cartons.

It is appropriate that the projecting elements 8 are arranged only along one part of the height of the cavity, stretching, for example, from the bottom of the cavity 2 upwards to ap- proximately half of the height of the serving vessel 1.

It is appropriate that the serving vessel is manufactured from a plastic material, and in this case the projection elements 8 can be designed as integral with the inner walls 5. It is, of course, possible that the projection elements 8 are not designed to be integral with the inner walls, having been separately mounted. In such a case, it is an advantage that the projection elements are made from a softer material than that used otherwise for the serving vessel.

The serving vessel according to the invention can, naturally, be used for serving drinks that are not in any form of drinks

carton, being poured instead directly into the serving ves- sel. In this case, it can be a matter of, for example, water, juice or fruit squash, which can be maintained cooled consid- erably longer with the aid of the serving vessel than would be possible if they were to be served directly from another jug. A serving vessel that has been kept in the freezer also has the ability to cool ordinary tap water, for example, to a lower serving temperature.