Patent Application
20140144910
The present invention generally relates to a container for holding a beverage and a food product such as soup, curry and snacks, and more specifically relates to a container for food and drink, which can be conveniently carried around.
At various amusement places such as a theater and a baseball stadium, snacks and a drink are sold in paper containers which are separated from each other. A user has no hand free to carry the containers when he or she bought a drink and food at the same time. This is particularly inconvenient when both hands are engaged in carrying and supporting the containers and the theater or stadium is crowded.
In order to solve such a problem, some solutions have been proposed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,288,344 discloses a double container dispensing package, which comprises inner and outer cups, the inner cup shaped to hold an edible and to be received in the outer cup. The cups have interference fit limiting the downward reception with the cups then defining a liquid storage zone below the bottom of the inner cup.
Also, U.S. Pat. No. 5,180,079 discloses a combined cup comprising an upper cup body and a lower cup body joined together by a connecting body, wherein in a center of the connecting body, a nozzle, which sticks upward and which is received into a nozzle sleeve formed on the upper cup body keeps both cut bodies firmly connected. The lower cup body is used to contain soft drink while the upper cup body is used to contain solid snacks. By applying such combined cup, the user can enjoin the fun of eating and drinking with one hand holding the combined cup containing both snacks and drink and one hand free.
However, such a container is designed to hold a cold drink, so that no consideration is made about a hot drink such as hot coffee and hot tea. That is, in the prior art, it is designed so that a straw is used to drink a soft drink. Thus, the hot coffee or hot tea is not sold with such a container.
In general, when a person drinks a hot beverage, he sips it unconsciously from a surface thereof so that the beverage is mixed with air, whereby the beverage is cooled down. If a person drinks a hot beverage with a straw, there is high possibility that he or she suffers burns to his or her tongue since in case such a straw is used, air is hardly mixed with the hot beverage so that it can not be cooled down.
Because it is desirable that a beverage is stored in a lower cup in order to prevent it from spilling out, a hot beverage is stored in the lower cup. In such case, the upper cup and the lower cup are separated from each other, when the user may drink beverage from the lower cup. However, food contained in the upper cup tends to be dropped due to imbalance caused by the vertical motion. Thus, in the prior art ease of handling the cups is not considered.
The present invention is made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to offer a food and drink container which can be carried around in one hand without inconvenience and can be easily handled. It is another object of the present invention to offer a food and drink container capable of holding a hot drink.
Another object of the present invention is to offer a food and drink container capable of easily handling the container when enjoining drinking and eating.
The present food and drink container comprises a main container having a side opening formed in a side face thereof, and an upper opening formed at a top of the main container, a food cup, which is held in a upper part of the main container; and a drink cup, which is held in a lower part of the main container, wherein the main container receives the food cup from a top thereof through the upper opening, and receives the drink cup from a side thereof through the side opening.
In the food and drink container, the main container may have an engagement wall, which prevents the drink cup from dropping off.
In the food and drink container, the food cup may be divided into a first section and a second section.
In the food and drink container, the first section and the second section may be connected to each other at a ridge portion.
A main container comprises a body having an upper opening and a side opening, wherein the top opening is formed so as to receive a food cup from a top thereof, and the side opening is formed so as to receive a drink cup from a side thereof.
A food cup having a shape so as to be inserted in a main container having an upper opening and a side opening, through the upper opening.
A drink cup having a shape so as to be inserted in a main container having an upper opening and a side opening, through the side opening.
The foregoing and other objects and features of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the accompanying drawings when considered in conjunction with the following description and appended claims. Although the drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are thus not to be deemed limiting of the invention's scope, the accompanying drawings help explain the present invention in added detail.
Other features and advantages of the present food and drink container will be apparent from the ensuing description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
A description will now be given, referring to embodiments thereof. While the claims are not limited to such embodiments, an appreciation of various aspects of the invention is best gained through a discussion of various examples thereof.
Detailed description of the present invention will be given below.
As shown in
The upper opening 4 has such a size that the food cup 2 can be inserted therefrom. The main container 1 is has such a shape that the food cup 2 is held at an upper part of the main container 1. An inner wall of the main container 1 whose shape is a circular truncated cone, defines an inner space thereof, so that the food cup 2 may be held at the upper part of the main container 1. Or, a thick diameter portion 6 formed on the food cup 2 may be brought in contact with an upper edge of the main container 1, so that the thick diameter portion 6 may limit a downward movement of the food cup, whereby the food cup 3 is held by the main container 1.
The side opening 5 is formed to receive the drink cup 3. Specifically the side opening 5 is shaped so that the drink cup 3 can abut the inner wall of the main container 1 when it is inserted in the side opening 5. A lower edge of the side opening 5 is located at a position higher than the bottom of the main container 1, so that an engagement wall 7 is formed. The engagement wall 7 prevents the drink cup 3 from dropping off even when a user carries the food and drink container if the drink cup 3 is set in the bottom of the main container 1.
The shape of the main container 1 is not limited to such a circular truncated cone and it may be a cylinder, or polygonal column such as a triangle prism, quadrangular prism, etc. The main container 1 may be made from paper material, plastic etc. Because the main container 1 holds the food cup 2 and the drink cup 3 thereinside which contain hot food and hot drink, the main container 1 is preferably made from heat insulating material.
In this embodiment, as shown in
As shown in
The preceding description has been presented only to illustrate and describe exemplary embodiments of the present food and drink container. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to any precise form disclosed. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the invention without departing from the essential scope. Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed as the best mode contemplated for carrying out this invention, but that the invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the claims. The invention may be practiced otherwise than is specifically explained and illustrated without departing from its spirit or scope.
