Patent ID: 8459497

Claim:
A smoothie dispenser comprising: a frame; a smoothie receptacle storage section provided within the frame and configured to house plural smoothie receptacles at a first temperature; a chiller section arranged to receive a selected smoothie receptacle released from the smoothie receptacle storage section and configured to crystallize contents of the selected smoothie receptacle, the chiller section comprising: a thermal transfer assembly configured to lower temperature contents of the selected smoothie receptacle to a second temperature for crystallizing the contents of the selected smoothie receptacle, the thermal transfer assembly comprising: a thermal transfer member comprising a receptacle contact surface configured to conform to at least a portion an exterior profile of the selected smoothie receptacle and a thermal transfer surface; cooler coupled to the thermal transfer surface; an agitator configured to agitate the thermal transfer assembly during lowering of the temperature of the contents of the selected smoothie receptacle; wherein the thermal transfer surface is a module mating surface and wherein the cooler is a thermoelectric cooling module mounted on the module mating surface of the thermal transfer member; wherein the thermal transfer assembly further comprises: two thermal transfer members; an actuator configured to move the two thermal transfer members into an engaged position wherein the selected smoothie receptacle is clamped between the two thermal transfer members.