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This application is related to and claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent application No. 60/783,954 filed Mar. 20, 2006. Application 60/783,954 is hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of spice dispensing and more particularly to a special dispenser including a special cap for extra-hot peppers.
2. Background of the Invention
The use of different peppers on pizza and other foods is well-known. Most peppers, while being somewhat hot, are fairly benign. However, there are types of peppers such as the Habanero pepper can be characterized as extra-hot. The relative heat of peppers is normally measured on a scale called Scolville Units. Orange Habanero has a value of 200,000 to 300,000 units with a red variety (called Savana Red) that has 500,000 units. This is much hotter than a Jalapeno with a value of 25,000 units.
There several hazards associated with handling and dispensing extra-hot peppers. The first is eye contact, and the second is sneezing. It is very undesirable to get any of the pepper dust on the hands since contact with the eye can lead to severe burning. Also, when extra-hot peppers are dispensed with prior art methods, the associated dust can lead to sneezing bouts. In some cases, sneezing due to dust on dispensing Habanero pepper has persisted for over 30 minutes. This leads to extreme discomfort and even burning of nasal membranes.
It would be advantageous to have an extra-hot pepper dispensing apparatus that would eliminate the any stray pepper on the hands and prevent dust that can cause sneezing while still easily dispensing the pepper on a slice of pizza or other food product.
The present invention relates to an extra-hot pepper dispenser that can include a generally cylindrical pepper container (or any other shape) for holding a supply of extra-hot pepper; a flip-top cap attached to the pepper container with a lid connected with a hinge, where the flip-top cap fits snugly to close the container. The lid has a closed position where the pepper is protected and allows dispensing of pepper in an open position. The device can also have a grating covering an opening in the container where the grating contains a round or elliptical hole between around ⅛ inch or an ellipse around 3/16 inch by ⅛ inch or contains multiple holes each not larger than a size chosen for a particular pepper such as Habanero.
FIG. 1A shows a perspective view of an embodiment of the special cap of the present invention.
FIG. 1B shows the embodiment of FIG. 1A with the lid closed.
FIG. 1C shows a top view of the embodiment of FIG. 1A.
FIG. 1D shows a side view of the embodiment of FIG. 1A.
FIG. 2A shows a perspective view of a grating.
FIG. 2B shows a top view of the grating of FIG. 2A.
FIG. 2C shows a side view of the grating of FIG. 2A.
FIG. 3 shows the cap of FIG. 1 inserted into a test tube-like pepper container.
Several drawings and illustrations have been presented to aid in understanding the present invention. The scope of the present invention is not limited to the figures.
Turning to FIGS. 1A-1D, an embodiment of the present invention can be seen. A generally cylindrical pepper container cap 1 can be seen. This container cap 1 can be equipped with a lid 2 that can flip open on an attached hinge 3. The lid 2 can latch closed for storage by engaging the rim 4 of an inner top 5. The rim 4 can be shaped to snugly hold the lid closed when the device is not in use. A tab 6 can facilitate opening the lid 2. The device can have optional grips 7 that allow the cap to be inserted and snugly remain inserted into a test tube-like cylinder or other-shaped pepper container. A cylindrical embodiment of a container is shown in FIG. 3 with the cap of FIG. 1 inserted. The extra-hot pepper is normally placed inside the container 11 using a filling machine or filling method that prevents dust. The cap 2 in place can be clearly seen in FIG. 3. The inner top 5 of the cap can contain one or more holes 8. This hole can be larger than necessary to dispense the pepper since the flow is metered by a grating.
Under the inner top 5, a grating 9 contains one or more holes 10 of an exact size for dispensing the pepper in a sneeze-free manner. This hole(s) is chosen for the exact grain size of the pepper. Pure Habanero pepper granules can be supplied in #8 mesh. This is the preferred mesh size for application of this pepper to pizza and similar foods. The size of the hole 10 in the grating 9 for this mesh size of Habanero pepper should be around ⅛ in. or a little smaller An elliptical hole of around ⅛ in. by 3/16 in. also works A larger hole results in too much pepper being dispensed and possible dust; too small a hole results in clogging. It is within the scope of the present invention to use different hole sizes with different peppers and different hole sizes with the same pepper for different dispensing properties.
To use the dispenser of the present invention, the user simply flips the lid open and dispenses the pepper onto the food with a normal shaking motion. This can be done with the present invention without fear of dispensing too much, of getting pepper on the hands and thence into the eyes and of creating dust that can cause sneezing. The dispenser of the present invention is safe around small children because they cannot generally open the flip top.
Several descriptions and illustrations of the present invention have been presented to better aid in understanding the structure and functioning of the invention. One skilled in the art will realize that numerous changes and variations are possible without deviating from the spirit of the invention. Each of these changes and variations are within the scope of the present invention.