Multi-handled Beverage Pitcher

Abstract

A nestable two-handled pitcher has two pouring spouts spaced 180° away from one of the two handles. The container, typically of cylindrical or frustoconical shape, has a bottom, a peripheral wall and an upper lip. The container has features to facilitate de-nesting. The handles are spaced about the container by about 30°-180° apart along the peripheral wall or upper lip. The pitcher can be passed from one person holding one handle with one hand to another person who can grab the second handle with one hand whereupon the first person releases his grip upon the first handle.

Description

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims benefit of priority of U.S. provisional App. No. 61/667,815, filed Jul. 3, 2012, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein.

STATEMENT AS TO RIGHTS TO INVENTIONS MADE UNDER FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Not applicable.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to pitchers in general such as are typically used for serving beer, water or soda, for example in a restaurant, and pitchers with two or more handles or spouts in particular.

Where several persons participate in an activity involving the consumption of a liquid, be it beer, sangria, or water, the serving of the liquid, or the refill of serving containers, is often accomplished using self-service from a pitcher of the liquid.

When eating in a group, unless a buffet style service is arranged, the serving dishes are normally placed on the table where the meal is consumed. In such cases, often the liquid repasts which are served are made available in pitchers. Similarly when a restaurant is simultaneously serving a large number of people, pitchers of water, coffee or other drinks are typically left on the table where the individual diners can serve themselves by pouring liquid into their glasses. If another diner at the same table wishes to also refill his or her glass and the first diner cannot immediately reach his glass or is unsure about how much he would like in his glass or cup, etiquette dictates handing the pitcher to the second diner. Handing the pitcher from person to person is the normal way of passing a beverage from one person to another. Each person then helps himself to the quantity he desires or passes it on without taking any of the beverage.

Unlike a serving plate which can be grabbed conveniently from an opposite edge, a pitcher which incorporates a serving function involving a handle and an opposed spout is awkward to pass from one person to another. Either the person receiving the pitcher or the person passing the pitcher must handle the pitcher without access to the handle which is being used by the other party in the handoff of the pitcher. This is an awkward procedure which can result in the liquid within the pitcher spilling, or even a complete fumble with the loss of all contents of the pitcher. Further, the awkward process resulting from the handoff can result in contamination of the beverage because of contact with the receiving person's hands with the spout or the interior of the pitcher or even with the liquid contained in the pitcher. What is needed is a multi-handled pitcher which can be easily passed between people.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The pitcher of this invention comprises a container, typically of cylindrical or frustoconical shape, having a bottom, a peripheral wall and an upper lip. The pitcher has two or more spaced apart handles which are attached to the peripheral wall and preferably abutting the upper lip, and two or more pouring spouts on the upper lip. The pouring spouts are generally spaced 180° away from one of the two handles i.e., each spout is opposite one of the handles. The handles may be, for example, spaced about the peripheral lip about 30°, or 40°-180° apart. The handles for example can be spaced 90° apart so that the pitcher has a first handle, a second handle spaced 90° along the upper lip or about peripheral wall, a first spout spaced 90° along the upper lip from the second handle, and a second spout spaced 90° along the upper lip from the first spout and 90° along the upper lip or peripheral wall from the first handle. Preferably the pitcher will be nestable i.e. stackable for storage when empty. Nestablity of the pitcher is conferred by a frustoconical body section terminated by a generally circular bottom, and a de-nesting structure formed by a discontinuous, slightly larger frustoconical section which adjoins the frustoconical body and forms the upper lip which functions to limit nesting so the pitcher can be easily de-nested.

It should be understood that the two or multi-handled pitcher can be of any convenient volume, for example 60 ounces, 64 ounces or 4 pints or 2 metric liters.

It should further be understood that the two or multi-handled pitcher can be made out of any convenient material, advantageously one that can be injection molded and meets all the standards for food service liquid containers but can be glass, plastic, stainless steel, etc.

It should be understood the multi-handled pitcher can be used for any beverage.

It should be understood while the two-handled pitcher is preferably stackable, it may be made in non-stackable configurations.

The handles can be molded into location, and the mold can be designed to allow the locations of the handles to be changed in the mold.

Further objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a top view of a two-handled pitcher of this invention showing handles at and corresponding spouts about 40° (shown in phantom), 90° (solid lines), 140° (shown in phantom), and 180° (shown in phantom).

FIG. 2 is a side isometric view of a first embodiment the two-handled pitcher of this invention.

FIG. 3 is an isometric view of two two-handled pitchers of FIG. 2 nested one within the other.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring more particularly to FIGS. 1-3 wherein like numbers refer to similar parts, a pitcher 20 as shown in FIG. 2. has a container 22, typically of cylindrical or frustoconical shape, with a bottom 24, a peripheral wall 26 and an upper lip 28. The pitcher 20 has two spaced apart handles 30, 32 which are attached to the peripheral wall and preferably abutting the upper lip, and two or more spouts 34, 36 on the upper lip 28 generally positioned opposite the two handles. The handles 30, 32, as shown in FIG. 1, may be, for example, spaced about the peripheral lip about 40°, 90°, 140° or 180° apart. In FIG. 1 the two handles 30, 32 and the two spouts 34, 36 are shown 90° apart in solid lines. A handle 31 is shown in phantom, which if combined with handle 30 (instead of handle 32) would form a pitcher with handles at about 40°. Similarly, handle 33, shown in phantom, if combined with handle 30 (instead of handle 32) would form a pitcher with handles at about 140° apart. Finally, a handle 35 shown in phantom if combined with handle 30 (instead of handle 32) would form a pitcher with handles at about 180°. The handles have corresponding spouts 37, 39, and 41. In FIGS. 2-3 the pitcher has a first handle 30, a second handle 32 spaced 90° along the upper lip or about the peripheral wall 26, a first spout 34 spaced 90° along the upper lip 28 from the second handle 32, and a second spout 36 spaced 90° along the upper lip from the first spout 34 and 90° along the upper lip or peripheral wall from the first handle 30.

Preferably the pitcher 20 will be nestable, i.e. stackable as shown in FIG. 3. Nestablity of the pitcher is conferred by a frustoconical body section 38 terminated by a generally circular bottom 24, and a de-nesting structure 40 formed by a discontinuous slightly larger frustoconical section 42 which adjoins the frustoconical body. The larger or second frustoconical section 42 comprises less than 25% of the height of the smaller or first frustoconical container. The second slightly larger frustoconical section 42 forms the upper lip 28, and the larger frustoconical section functions to limit nesting so the pitchers 20 can be easily de-nested. The handles 30, 32 can be aligned in the nesting stack so that the handles nest within or overlap handles in a pitcher 20 above or below in the stack of pitchers.

Generally the spouts 34, 36 will always be opposite or nearly opposite one of the handles 30, 32. As shown in FIG. 1, each spout 34, 36 and handle 30, 32 combination defines an axis 44, 46. The axes 44, 46 are generally shown in FIG. 1 as crossing at 90°. However the handles 30, 32 may be separated by more or less than 90° for example between 10° to 180°. A configuration such as 140° increases the ease of passing at maximum arm reach while still substantially avoiding interference of the second handle 32, with the first spout 34, and the first handle 30 with the second spout 36. The arrangement of the spout is always opposite the handle so as to conform to convention so that a person unfamiliar with the operation of a one-handed pitcher will naturally be able to utilize the two-handed pitcher with little or no thought.

LED lighting of pitchers is known for the fun or artistic effect. One or more LEDs is generally located in the base then driven by electronics to flash, or to change colors by switching to one of several different colored LEDs. The pitcher 20 can employ a similar system of lighting. The LEDs may be part of an assembly including a printed circuit board PCB-LED which snaps to the bottom of the pitcher 20. An acceleration sensor turns the LED on when the Pitcher is set down or bumped.

It is understood that the invention is not limited to the particular construction and arrangement of parts herein illustrated and described, but embraces all such modified forms thereof as come within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

1. A multi-handled beverage pitcher comprising:

a beverage container having a bottom and a peripheral wall, defining a container height, the beverage container having a first wall portion joined to a second wall portion at a step change, so that the second wall portion is larger than the first wall portion and forms a de-nesting structure which prevents the beverage container from becoming jammed in a second and substantially identical multi-handled beverage pitcher;

wherein the second wall portion defines an upper lip;

wherein the second wall portion has two integrally formed spouts and two integrally formed handles, the spouts forming breaks in the upper peripheral lip through which liquid may be poured, wherein each of said two spouts is approximately opposite one of said two handles, and said two handles are spaced from each other about the peripheral lip by about 30° to about 180° so that the beverage container can be passed from one person holding one handle with one hand to another person who can grab the second handle with one hand whereupon the first person releases his grip upon the first handle.

2. The pitcher of claim 1 wherein said two handles are spaced from each other about the peripheral lip by about 30°.

3. The pitcher of claim 1 wherein said two handles are spaced from each other about the peripheral lip by about 40°

4. The pitcher of claim 1 wherein said two handles are spaced from each other about the peripheral lip by about 90°.

5. The pitcher of claim 1 wherein said two handles are spaced from each other about the peripheral lip by about 140°.

6. A multi-handled beverage pitcher comprising:

a frustoconical container having a bottom and a peripheral frustoconical wall which defines a frustoconical container height;

wherein the frustoconical container further comprises a first frustoconical wall portion joined to a second frustoconical wall portion at a step change, so that the second frustoconical wall portion is of larger diameter than the first frustoconical wall portion and forms a de-nesting structure which prevents the frustoconical container from becoming jammed in a second and substantially identical multi-handled beverage pitcher, and wherein the second frustoconical wall portion comprises less than 25% of the height of the frustoconical container;

wherein the second frustoconical wall portion defines an upper lip; and

wherein the second frustoconical wall portion has two integrally formed spouts and two integrally formed handles, the spouts forming breaks in the upper peripheral lip through which liquid may be poured, wherein each of said two spouts is approximately opposite one of said two handles, and said two handles are spaced from each other about the peripheral lip by about 30° to about 180° so that the frustoconical container can be passed from one person holding one handle with one hand to another person who can grab the second handle with one hand whereupon the first person releases his grip upon the first handle.

7. The pitcher of claim 6 wherein said two handles are spaced from each other about the peripheral lip by about 30°

8. The pitcher of claim 6 wherein said two handles are spaced from each other about the peripheral lip by about 40°

9. The pitcher of claim 6 wherein said two handles are spaced from each other about the peripheral lip by about 90°.

10. The pitcher of claim 6 wherein said two handles are spaced from each other about the peripheral lip by about 140°.