Patent ID: 7044336

Claim:
An apparatus for dispensing a flavored beverage, comprising: a) a hopper adapted to hold a common base powder and having a hopper outlet, the hopper being operative to dispense the base powder via the hopper outlet in accordance with a powder dispense signal; b) a water dispenser having a water outlet, the water dispenser being operative to dispense water via the water outlet in accordance with a water dispense signal; c) a flavor dispensing unit adapted to store a plurality of supplies of flavoring syrups, the flavor dispensing unit being operative to dispense via at least one flavor dispensing outlet at least one of the flavoring syrups in accordance with a respective one of a plurality of flavor dispense signals; d) a mixing unit adapted to receive and admix base powder from the hopper outlet, water from the water outlet, and the at least one of the flavoring syrups from the at least one flavor dispensing outlet to produce the flavored beverage; and e) a control unit operative to produce the powder dispense signal, the water dispense signal, end the plurality of flavor dispense signals in response to user actuation indicative of a selected beverage flavor and a desired beverage volume, the control unit being further operative to generate the water dispense signal in accordance with the desired beverage volume, to generate the powder dispense signal in accordance with at least the desired beverage volume, and to generate the at least one flavor dispense signal in accordance with both the desired beverage volume and the selected beverage flavor.