Abstract: A beverage dispensing machine (2) has a housing that provides a receptacle for receiving an expandable cartridge (12) that is coupled into the machine so that it can receive a charge of water. A kneading system (40) is provided to act on the cartridge within the receptacle. The kneading system is activated after water has been allowed to enter the cartridge and mechanically acts on or from the exterior of the cartridge in order to compress and release regions of the cartridge in order to create vigorous agitation to move the contents of the cartridge around inside the main compartment and bring them into close contact with a charge of water from the supply. Such a machine allows a wide variety of beverages to be created conveniently on demand from freeze-dried ingredients that can be stored inside the cartridges with a long shelf life.

Abstract: A beverage dispensing machine (2) has a housing that provides a receptacle for receiving an expandable cartridge (12) that is coupled into the machine so that it can receive a charge of water. A kneading system (40) is provided to act on the cartridge within the receptacle. The kneading system is activated after water has been allowed to enter the cartridge and mechanically acts on or from the exterior of the cartridge in order to compress and release regions of the cartridge in order to create vigorous agitation to move the contents of the cartridge around inside the main compartment and bring them into close contact with a charge of water from the supply. Such a machine allows a wide variety of beverages to be created conveniently on demand from freeze-dried ingredients that can be stored inside the cartridges with a long shelf life.

Abstract: A method of developing a flavoured product comprises the steps of establishing a set of parameters in respect of a plurality of flavour components; selecting a platform for the product; selecting a group of flavour components based on objective requirements and the known established parameters; establishing for each of said flavour component relative to the selected platform at least two specific concentrations of the component in that platform relating to a human response in order to define a titration curve; measuring for a primary flavour component relative to that platform containing a predetermined concentration of each other flavour component the shift of said at least two specific concentrations; and utilising that shift information to restrict a number of measurements of the primary flavour component in the presence of additional flavour components in order to derive a range of concentrations for each component which lie between those specific concentrations.