Patent Application
20160345764
The present disclosure generally relates to a garnish tray for storing stackedly arranged pieces of whole garnish, such as a cherry, an onion or an olive, in a solution for subsequent use in a beverage.
Many cocktail formulas include some form of whole garnish; most notably, olives and/or onions for martinis, and cherries for manhattans. In order to secure such garnishes to decorate a cocktail, a toothpick or spear is often utilized, wherein the spear passes through the garnish, retaining the garnish thereupon.
Since such garnishes are placed in drinks and/or subsequently eaten, hygiene of the garnish is of great importance. Unfortunately, typical methods of packaging garnishes militate against maintaining the garnishes in hygienic condition. That is, since such garnishes are typically packaged in large quantities, often in glass or plastic containers, the drink preparer must fish or pluck the garnish from the container; thus, requiring the use of an implement or, as is often the case, fingers. Accordingly, after the first garnish is extracted from its container via potentially germ-laden fingers, the remaining garnishes, and/or pickling liquid in which such garnishes are often kept, are in less than sanitary condition.
Contamination of such garnishes is further particularly notable in a tavern atmosphere, where garnishes are typically left out in the open, often on a partitioned tray or basket, and unprotected from spills, drips and/or exhaust breath of patrons and bartenders.
Exposure of garnishes to open air is also detrimental to the maintenance of garnish freshness. Although garnishes are often pickled in some fashion, garnishes will still lose freshness over time unless retained in constant fluid surroundings.
Disclosed herein is a garnish tray and processes for serving a whole garnish. The garnish tray includes a plurality of wells having an opening at one end defined by sidewalls extending from a top surface to a bottom surface to define a well depth; and a plurality of channels extending between adjacent wells, wherein the plurality of channels extend from the top surface to a channel depth equal to or less than the well depth.
The process of serving whole garnish includes placing a plurality of whole garnish and a solution onto a garnish tray, wherein the garnish tray comprises a plurality of wells having an opening at one end defined by sidewalls extending from a top surface to a bottom surface to define a well depth; and a plurality of channels extending between adjacent wells, wherein the plurality of channels extend from the top surface to a channel depth equal to or less than the well depth; and maneuvering the whole garnish into selected ones of the plurality of wells, wherein each one of the plurality of wells is configured to stackedly maintain multiple whole garnish and a portion of the solution.
The disclosure may be understood more readily by reference to the following detailed description of the various features of the disclosure and the examples included therein.
Referring now to the figures wherein the like elements are numbered alike:
Referring now to
Each well 12 can be dimensioned such that a stacked arrangement of a desired amount of the whole garnish can be achieved as may be desired in some applications. For example, each well can be configured to contain two or three stackedly arranged olives of a particular size. By stackedly maintaining the whole garnish in individual wells, a server can easily spear a toothpick or the like into the garnish without physically touching the whole garnish. Moreover, each well can carry the solution or brine in which the particular whole garnish was originally packed or any desired solution.
A raised lip 18 relative to the top surface 14 circumscribes a perimeter of the garnish tray 10 so as to prevent juices from flowing out of the tray and/or into the tray from adjacent garnish trays. For example, in some embodiments, the garnish tray of the present disclosure may be utilized in combination with a conventional elongated partitioned tray that is configured to seat multiple garnish trays having different types of garnish, e.g., lime slices, orange slices, and the like. In this manner, contamination of juice or solution from and into the garnish tray of the present disclosure can be minimized or substantially prevented.
The garnish tray further includes fluid channels 20 from one well to an adjacent well, wherein each channel 20 extends from the top surface 14 to a depth equal to or less than an overall height of the well so as to maintain a constant amount of fluid within the different wells. In one embodiment, the channel depth corresponds to about 50% of the well depth, in other embodiments, the channel depth corresponds correspond to about 25% of the well depth; and in still other embodiments, the channel depth corresponds to about 10% of the well depth. Consequently, the whole garnish stackedly arranged and carried in the garnish tray can be maintained in its packing juices or the like so to prevent the garnish from drying out or losing its freshness. Moreover, when the channel depth is a fraction of the well depth, the fluid will be at a minimum level even when some of the stackedly arranged whole garnish is selectively removed from only a portion of the wells.
As shown more clearly in
The garnish tray can be manufactured from metals, plastics, and the like.
In operation, a server pours or utilizes a utensil such as a spoon or the like to place the whole garnish from a packaging container e.g., a jar holding olives in brine, onto the top surface of the garnish tray. The server then uses the same utensil to maneuver the whole garnish into the various wells. Any excess brine inn the garnish tray may be returned to the original packaging or discarded. Likewise, additional brine may be added such that each well has sufficient brine to submerge the olive completely and also to provide sufficient fluid within the channel so as to provide fluid communication between the different wells. For example, as shown ion
This written description uses examples to disclose the invention, including the best mode, and also to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the invention. The patentable scope of the invention is defined by the claims, and may include other examples that occur to those skilled in the art. Such other examples are intended to be within the scope of the claims if they have structural elements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims, or if they include equivalent structural elements with insubstantial differences from the literal languages of the claims.
The present application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/997,025, filed on May 20, 2014 and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
