Patent ID: 8459178

Claim:
A system for controllably and automatically producing on a commercial scale a high quality cold tea beverage that can be dispensed in a sweetened or in an unsweetened condition, comprising, substantially completely contained within a controlled access cabinet means: a. a tea brewing system component configured to automatically and controllably brew a high quality tea beverage directly from a controlled supply of fresh tea leaves and purified water and to hold and maintain the high quality tea beverage in a cold condition until dispensed, and comprising a plurality of tea leaf reservoirs comprising containers, wherein a first end of each said container is designed to register with a corresponding access means in said cabinet means to receive a supply of fresh tea leaves and a second, opposed end of each said container is configured to dispense automatically a selected quantity of fresh tea leaves; and a brew basket mounted to be automatically movable from a position to receive an automatically dispensed selected quantity of fresh tea leaves from a second end of a tea leaf reservoir to a position aligned with an automatic tea brewing means to brew automatically said high quality tea beverage with water from said water purification system component and then to an inverted position wherein used tea leaves are dumped after brewing b. a sweetener system component fluidically integral with said tea brewing system and configured to hold and maintain a supply of a liquid sweetener comprising naturally occurring sweeteners in a cold condition; c. a water purification system component and a sanitizing system component, each said component being fluidically integral with said tea brewing system component and said sweetener system component, wherein said water purification system component comprises filter means, disinfecting means, and reverse osmosis purification means designed to provide a supply of purified water to said tea brewing system component to brew said high quality tea beverage, and wherein said sanitizing system component comprises ozone generation means to produce ozonated water from said purified water and means for automatically directing ozonated water through said tea brewing system component and said sweetener system component to sanitize said tea brewing system component and said sweetener system component when said system is not automatically and controllably producing or dispensing said high quality cold tea beverage; and d. a programmable system controller designed to be programmed to automatically control and operate said system components whereby said high quality cold tea beverage is consistently produced on a commercial scale.