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  Frozen smoothie kit and methodRelated Patent Categories: Food Or Edible Material: Processes, Compositions, And Products, Packaged Or Wrapped Product, Having Nonedible Spacer To Segregate All Units Of Multiunit Food Product, Diverse FoodThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070042090. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] None STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT [0002] None REFERENCE TO A "SEQUENCE LISTING" [0003] Not applicable. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0004] 1. Field of the Invention [0005] This invention relates generally to a frozen beverage, drink or snack such as a smoothie or the like and more particularly to a combination of frozen ingredients presented in a kit or package form for making a high quality smoothie either at home or in a restaurant setting. [0006] 2. Description of Related Art [0007] While the term smoothie means different things to different people, the classic smoothie includes a creamy dairy product such as yogurt, a sorbet or a sherbet blended together with fresh fruits, vegetables and a liquid such as juice, or milk, it being understood that other flavors or ingredients may also be added. A high quality smoothie characteristically is most desirably quite thick, similar in thickness to a milkshake and is served very cold. [0008] The most common recipes for smoothies include fresh or frozen fruit, yogurt and a liquid such as milk, soda, fruit juice or vegetable juice. Typically the ingredients including the fruit, liquid and optional additives such as flavorings, protein powders and the like are put into a blender with ice. The blender is run for a time sufficient to bring all ingredients together into a thick, smooth, chilled and preferably very cold consistency. The blend then is poured into a glass or cup and consumed by sucking through a straw, by spooning or drinking. [0009] There is a relatively large number of variations on the basic smoothie recipe, but none is particularly convenient for making a high quality smoothie at home in that typical homemade smoothies may or may not be consistent in quality or remain as cold and thick over time as those made by a commercial establishment. In this respect it is unlikely that typical households have the high-powered smoothie blending equipment or cooling equipment often found in a commercial establishment to produce a product that is consistently smooth in texture and that is sufficiently chilled so it remains thick and refreshingly cold over time. [0010] Also, both in home and in commercial environments, ice often is added to the blender to produce the desired deep refreshing coldness of a smoothie. Such use of ice, even in a commercial establishment, may result in the smoothie having a crystalline or granular texture if the smoothie is not properly blended. For example, if the blending time is too short, the ice may not be ground into small enough particle sizes leaving the smoothie with a granular mouth feel. While a grainy mouth feel is not necessarily objectionable, a more desirable smoothie attribute is as its name suggests, a smooth mouth feel. [0011] Thickness is another particular attribute that is difficult to obtain in a non-commercial setting. In a commercial establishment, a gum, starch or other thickener may be added to thicken the smoothie. The most common ingredient for thickening a smoothie made at home is banana but banana adds a flavor that may not be desirable. Accordingly, while it is certainly possible to make a decent smoothie either in a commercial establishment or at home, making a high quality smoothie in a truly simple manner that is both cold and that has a smooth mouth feel remained an elusive goal, until now. [0012] Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide ingredients for making a smoothie that simplify previously known methods of making a smoothie without reducing the quality of the resulting smoothie and, in fact, producing a superior smoothie. [0013] It is another object of this invention to provide a smoothie making kit including essential ingredients that can be blended without the use of ice to produce a smoothie that is cold and that has a smooth mouth feel. [0014] A further object is to provide a method for making a smoothie using frozen ingredients and a liquid that produces a cold, smooth textured smoothie with out the need to add ice. [0015] Yet another object of the invention is to provide smoothie making ingredients including at least yogurt and fruit both in the form of frozen-solid pieces that can be stored in a frozen condition at conventional home freezer temperatures for a relatively long time and which can be assembled into a smoothie easily and quickly when desired. [0016] It is further an object of this invention to provide a number of variations on the basic process to substitute flavorings for fresh fruit and/or to combine the fruit and dairy ingredients into a few frozen ingredients or even into a single ingredient to even further simplify the process of making a smoothie. [0017] It is yet another object of this invention to provide a frozen ingredient such as, but not limited to, yogurt in the form of small frozen solid chips, pellets, cubes or flakes to which fruit and a liquid such as fruit or vegetable juice or soda can be added, and the mixture blended to create a smoothie. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0018] Briefly stated the present invention in one aspect thereof comprises a package of smoothie making ingredients in a frozen state. In one embodiment the package comprises a kit including a yogurt in the form of a plurality of frozen-solid pieces including, but not limited to, chunks, pellets, cubes, chips or flakes. Also in the package are individually quick frozen (IQF) whole fruits or fruit pieces such as, for example, berries or whole berries, such as strawberries, raspberries or blueberries or pieces of larger fruits and vegetables such as chunks of pineapple, mango or banana or carrots among others. The package comprising a smoothie making kit, after purchase, can be stored in a conventional home freezer until the consumer desires to make the smoothie. [0019] The package or smoothie making kit preferably contains a measured amount of the frozen ingredients sufficient to make a particular size of smoothie. If the package contains one serving size, the entire frozen contents of the package is added to a blender along with a prescribed volume of liquid, preferably milk or juice. Running the blender transforms these frozen ingredients to a smoothie that has the desirable smoothie attributes of being cold and smooth. Continue reading... Full patent description for Frozen smoothie kit and method Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Frozen smoothie kit and method patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. 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