Abstract: A beverage preparation machine has a cooling module (70) for cooling a liquid beverage ingredient. The module comprises a heat exchanger (72) having a liquid conduit (74) and a thermal energy accumulator (80) comprising a phase change material (PCM) (82) thermally coupled to the heat exchanger. A heat pump (78) is thermally coupled to the heat exchanger discretely from the thermal energy accumulator so as to extract thermal energy from a liquid flowing through the liquid conduit in preference over the PCM. More than one thermal energy accumulator (80) may be coupled to the heat exchanger. The beverage preparation machine may have a flow-through heater for heating a liquid beverage ingredient.

Abstract: The apparatus (300) comprising a cooling unit (310) containing a coolant, a product conduit (330), a cooling conduit (331), a coolant supply conduit (317), a coolant return conduit (318), a coolant bypass conduit (320), a coolant pump (319), one or more valves (321, 322), and a controller. The controller being arranged and configured to operate the apparatus in at least a primary mode and in a secondary mode. In the primary mode coolant is circulated around a primary cooling circuit comprising the cooling unit (310), the coolant supply conduit (317), the cooling conduit (331) and the coolant return conduit (318). In the secondary mode coolant is circulated around a secondary cooling circuit comprising the coolant supply conduit (317), the cooling conduit (331), the coolant return conduit (318) and the coolant unit bypass conduit (320), wherein the secondary cooling circuit does not comprise the cooling unit (310).