Teabag Holder and Method

Abstract

The teabag holder is located in a lid for a tea brewing container. The string of the teabag passes through a hole in the soft, flexible material of the lid and holds it at any desired level so that it extends into the liquid in the container or is held above the liquid, or at any other desired position. The underside of the lid serves as a receptacle for liquid drained from a teabag placed therein. The sides of the lid can be squeezed together to squeeze the liquid from the teabag without touching the bag with the fingers.

Description

This patent application claims priority from Community Design Registration application no. 002041699-0001 filed May 15, 2012.

This patent application is directed to a device and method for holding teabags during and after use in brewing tea.

Teabags are very popular products, widely used for the convenient brewing of tea, in one-cup, or other quantities. As it is well known, such bags conveniently contain a pre-measured amount of tea leaves ready for brewing, in a water-permeable bag, which can be immersed in hot water for a period of time, and then removed from the water when brewing is complete.

Usually, the used teabag either is discarded or set aside for use in brewing more tea, and is discarded when the tea bag is no longer capable of brewing a desirable cup of tea.

Although teabags are highly convenient to use, there are several problems with using tea bags that, if resolved, would greatly enhance the ease and attractiveness of their use.

One problem is that, if one wishes to remove the teabag from contact with the liquid, either to prevent the tea from being stronger than desired, or in order to conserve the teabag to brew more tea, the teabag usually is removed from the liquid and set aside in a dish or other receptacle where any excess liquid can be drained without spilling it onto a countertop or other surface.

A further problem is that, in order to prevent the teabag from dripping, and in order to assure maximum flavor in the tea being brewed, it is common for the brewer to attempt to squeeze the excess liquid from the teabag before either disposing of it or putting it aside for further use. This can be painful and burn the fingers of someone trying to do this with the fingers.

In accordance with the foregoing, the object of the invention is to provide a teabag holder and method which resolve or greatly alleviate the foregoing problems.

In particular, it is desired to produce a device which will conveniently hold a teabag during, before and after the brewing of the tea, and which is relatively simple and inexpensive to manufacture.

A further object is to provide such a device and method which allows a teabag to be immersed selectively or removed from a quantity of brewing liquid with minimal mess and effort.

Still further, it is an object of the invention to provide such a device which forms a lid on a liquid container which can be used for brewing tea in that container while using a teabag held by the lid.

A further object is to provide such a device which can be used to squeeze liquid out of a teabag without contacting the bag with the fingers.

It is a further object of the invention to provide such a device which forms a convenient receptacle for holding a used teabag without leakage.

In accordance with the present invention, the foregoing objectives are met by the provision of a lid for a liquid container, the lid having a teabag holder which allows the bag to be held at a variety of desired levels inside the container so that the bag can be held, immersed in the water, or above the water, or at any other desired position within the liquid container, to conduct brewing or to stop brewing, with the lid still in place covering the liquid to hold heat therein, or removed to allow a person to drink the liquid.

Preferably, the lid is made of a flexible, resilient, food grade sanitary material such as silicone rubber.

Preferably, the lid has a hole through it, through which the string and tag attached to the string of the teabag can be inserted. The material of the lid flexes so as to selectively open the hole for insertion purposes, and closes to secure the string.

The lid has a handle extending upwardly, and a recess on the underside of the lid, which leads to the hole through which the string and the tag attached to the string can be inserted.

Preferably, the material of the lid is separated at a point opposite the location where the insertion hole is located, so that both sides of the lid can be bent downwardly by almost 90° so that the bent edges of the lid can be used to press against a teabag located between the two sides, thereby allowing the user to squeeze the liquid from the teabag without contacting the teabag and burning his or her fingers.

The foregoing and other objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in or apparent from the following description and drawings.

FIG. 1 is a side elevation view, partially schematic, showing one embodiment of the invention in use;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating one operative position of the lid of the present invention shown in FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 4 is another perspective view, similar to that of FIG. 3, of the lid in a second operative position;

FIG. 5 is a top plan view, partially perspective, of the lid shown in FIGS. 1-4, turned upside down for insertion of a teabag tag and string through the hole in the lid; and

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the lid of the invention shown in FIGS. 1-5 with both sides bent down in order to allow the user to squeeze the two sides of the lid together to squeeze liquid from a teabag.

As it is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the invention comprises a lid 10 for placing on the top of a liquid container 12 which holds a liquid 14 such as hot water whose upper level is shown at 16. A teabag 18 is shown in solid lines immersed completely in the liquid 14. It is held by a string 20 which extends upwardly through a hole in the lid 10 and which is gripped by a holding structure in the lid to hold the teabag in place. A paper tag 22 is attached to the end of the string 20 and hangs downwardly over the lid 10.

The holding structure in the lid 10 holds the string 20 and thereby holds the teabag 18 at any height above the bottom of the container 12 desired.

The position of the teabag 18 in the container can, for example, be moved upwardly out of the liquid to the position in which the teabag is shown in dashed lines. This can be done merely by pulling on the string 20 from outside of the container against the frictional grip of the holding structure, until the string reaches a new lower position shown in dashed lines in FIG. 1, and the teabag is at the desired height.

In the position shown in solid lines in which the teabag is immersed in the liquid 14, the tea is being brewed. When the tea has been brewed long enough, the person using the device can simply lift the bag up to the upper position shown in FIG. 1, where brewing ceases. Also, from that position, liquid drains from the bag back into the body of brewed tea.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view take along line 2-2 of FIG. 1 and shows the internal construction at the center of the lid 10. The lid 10 includes an outer surface 24, a knob 26 extending upwardly from the center of the lip, with a recessed outer portion 28.

A hole 36 is formed in the under surface of the lid in a recessed portion 38. The lower portion of the handle 26 is shown at 34. Sideways recesses in the handle at its base are shown at 30 and 32 on opposite sides of the lid. Although it is not visible in the drawings, two portions of lid material on two opposite sides, one away from the plane of the drawing, and the other towards the drawing, hold the handle 26 onto the lid.

The lid portion 24 has enlarged, rounded protrusions at 40 and 42 which fit into the recesses 30 and 32 to seal them tight against leakage when the lid is in the unbent position as shown in FIG. 2.

Use of the lid 10 in the invention now will be explained. First referring to FIG. 5, in order to insert the end of a teabag with its paper tag 22 through the hole in the lid, the lid 10 is turned upside down to rest on the horizontal support surface provided at the top of the handle, and the lid is bent as necessary to open the hole 36, which is wide enough to allow the paper tag 22 to be inserted through it. The tag and the string then are pulled through the hole to the position desired, and the lid is released to return to its original shape.

The lid then can be used to cover the container 12 as shown in FIG. 1 with the teabag 18 immersed in the liquid 14. After it has been brewed for a sufficient length of time, the user can simply pull on the string 20 and lift the teabag up to the higher position shown in FIG. 1 where it no longer does any further brewing because it is out of contact with the brewing liquid.

When the bag is lifted up and held internally in the container 12, brewing is prevented, and yet the lid 10 remains in place on the container, keeping the liquid hot.

If the user wishes to remove the lid to drink some of the tea in the container, the lid is removed and is turned over to come to rest in the upside down position, as shown in FIG. 5. Because the protrusions 40 and 42 (see FIG. 2) seal the outlet opening 36, the liquid that drains from the wet teabag collects in the receptacle formed by the lid, without leakage.

FIG. 6 shows the use of the lid to squeeze liquid from the teabag without touching the hot teabag with the fingers.

The opposed edges of the lid are squeezed downwardly and together, while the teabag is between them, and pressure is put on the opposed sides of the bent lid to squeeze liquid out of the bag 18.

When it is desired to remove the teabag from the lid, the lid edges are bent downwardly so as to allow the string and the tag to go back through the hole 36, if desired. However, it also is possible to remove the paper tag 22 from the string and merely pull the string back through the holding mechanism, which will allow it to slip through, with some resistance, for easier removal of the teabag.

The teabag holder and method of the invention can be seen to meet the objectives set forth above and as expressed in the claims that follow.

The above description of the invention is intended to be illustrative and not limiting. Various changes or modifications in the embodiments described may occur to those skilled in the art. These can be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A teabag holder comprising a. a lid for a liquid container,b. said lid having an underside surface with a centrally-located gripping device for gripping the string of a teabag,c. said gripping device being adapted to selectively grip said string at a plurality of points along the length of said string,d. whereby said teabag can be suspended below said lid by a selectively variable distance to either immerse said bag in liquid in said container or suspend said bag above said liquid.

2. A device as in claim 1 in which said underside surface is concave to receive said teabag and hold it and liquid leaking from said bag when said lid is removed from said container and placed upside down on a support surface.

3. A device as in claim 1 including a horizontal support structure on the upper side of said lid opposite said underside surface to support said lid in a horizontal orientation when said lid is turned over and said upper side of said lid is placed downwardly on a horizontal support surface, whereby the overturned lid serves as a receptacle for liquid draining from said tea bag.

4. A device as in claim 1 in which said gripping device comprises a hole in said lid through which said string can be selectively inserted, said lid being made of flexible, resilient material so that said lid can be bent to separate the edges of said material bordering said hole to facilitate insertion, said material being resilient to return said lid to its unbent state when released, said edges of said hole being pressed together to grip said string when it is located in said hole and said lid is unbent.

5. A device as in claim 4 in which said hole has a size sufficient to allow entry therethrough of a tab attached to said string, as well as said string.

6. A device as in claim 1, including a centrally located knob protruding above the upper surface of said lid, said lid having at least one sidewall and one bottom wall forming a liquid-holding cup whose entrance is on the bottom surface of said lid, whereby said cup is available as a teabag drainage receptacle when said lid is upside-down.

7. A device as in claim 1, including a centrally located knob protruding above the upper surface of said lid, said lid having at least one hole adjacent the junction of said knob with said lid, said lid being made of flexible, resilient material so that said lid can be bent to separate the edges of said material bordering said hole to facilitate insertion, said material being resilient to return said lid to its unbent state when released, said edges of said slit being pressed together to grip said string when it is located in said slit and said lid is unbent.

8. A tea bag holder comprising a. a lid for a liquid container, said lid being made of flexible, resilient materialb. said lid having a convex upper surface with a handle extending upwardly therefrom,c. said lid having a concave lower surface with a recess in said lower surface and a hole through the material of said lid to said upper surface,d. said lid having a protruding inwardly-extending edge which bears against the material around said hole to seal it when said lid is not bent and to hold a teabag string passing through said hole,e. said lid being shaped to pull said protruding edge away from said material around said hole when said lid is bent, to allow a string to be passed through said hole.

9. A device as in claim 8 in which said lid has a second protruding edge opposite said first protruding edge at a separation of the material of said lid to allow two opposed edges of said lid to be bent simultaneously to squeeze a teabag between said opposed edges.

10. A method of using a teabag holding device comprising a. Providing a teabag holder comprising 1. a lid for a liquid container,2. said lid having an underside surface with a centrally-located gripping device for gripping the string of a teabag,3. said gripping device being adapted to selectively grip said string at a plurality of points along the length of said string,4. whereby said teabag can be suspended below said lid by a selectively variable distance to either immerse said bag in liquid in said container or suspend said bag above said liquid.b. Suspending a teabag from said holder by a distance selected to position the teabag at a desired distance relative to the level of a liquid in said container.

11. A method as in claim 10 in which said distance is selected from the group consisting of above said level, partially within said liquid, and fully immersed in said liquid.

12. A method as in claim 11 in which said underside surface is concave to receive said teabag and hold it and liquid leaking from said bag when said lid is removed from said container and placed upside down on a support surface, inverting said lid and placing a wet teabag on said concave surface to drain.

13. A method as in claim 11 in which said gripping device comprises a hole in said lid through which said string can be selectively inserted, said lid being made of flexible, resilient material so that said lid can be bent to separate the edges of said material bordering said hole to facilitate insertion, said material being resilient to return said lid to its unbent state when released, said edges of said hole being pressed together to grip said string when it is located in said hole and said lid is unbent, and bending said lid to open said hole and inserting said string therethrough to a desired length.

14. A method as in claim 13 in which said holder comprises two separated portions on opposite sides of a handle in the center of said lid, and bending said lid at said opposite sides while said teabag is located closely adjacent the underside of said lid to squeeze said teabag with the fingers contacting said opposite sides of said lid to compress said teabag between those sides without the fingers contacting said teabag.