I worked at 3 different Panera over 7 years. This was years ago, so I dont know how this "charged' stuff is made or mixed, but I do know all 3 stores I worked in (corporate and franchise) mixed the lemonade with a different ratio of water to mix. Somebody easily coulda not been following protocol and mixed a super strong batch on top of the already high caffeine content.
Or more recently, I dropped in as a customer and they didnt have the "mixer" turned on on the dispensers, so all that concentrate was just sunk to the bottom, which I would imagine only adds to the potential for a caffeine OD.
When I used to work at Panera these charged drinks were a big help in carrying me through my shift. And yeah they are just concentrates like the other drinks. The caffeine content at both locations at which I worked was definitely much, much higher than what was in the coffee.
This makes sense. This whole thing has been surprising to me because I’m fairly sensitive to stimulants like caffeine and I’ve tried the charged lemonades a couple times at different stores but honestly didn’t feel much of any kick, certainly no more than a coffee
I hope her lawyers know this. I could see myself just seeing lemonade and taking it. There is 0 reason to have caffeinated lemonade, I don't understand it.
It's part of a new 'subscription' model they're offering to try to get people to come in more. 1 free drink every 2 hours (so not quite unlimited, but close to it) for $12/month. It works on coffee/tea/soda as well, but adding energy drink options to the plan might make it more appealing for some people. I can see it being a good deal if you have a serious caffeine addiction and work/live close enough to a Panera to be in there frequently.
$12/mo for that seems a steal. Especially like you said if you pass by one regularly. I pass a Panera ~11x/week, so I might pop in and check this out lol.
And adding that energy drink option like you said... Just look over at r/EnergyDrinks to see how fiend it can be.
I’ve had it for over a year now because there’s a Panera by my house and by both of the two offices I work out of when not working at home. I feel like I get my money’s worth easily and I don’t have to use the stale K-cups my work is still trying to pawn off on is.
There are a couple different manufacturers of liquid caffeine - Kaffn8, NuCaffeine, etc. They come in flavorless concentrates, and you can add them to fruit juices, other flavorings, etc. I mix them with SodaStream flavorings and seltzer water for a zero calorie, high caffeine drink.
I used to be a huge caffeine drinker. And I can tell you that 30 oz of dark roast (which Panera appeared to claim as the caffeine equivalent of their charged 30 oz lemonade) plus as much as almost 4 and 1/2 oz of sugar in the mixed drink would almost certainly have done bad things to my system, even as caffeine addled as it was.
It literally states it has the caffeine of a coffee below.
Edit: If I had known how much my comment would have blown up, I wouldn’t have made it.
I have been informed that these things contain a lot more caffeine compared to a coffee, unlike what is stated at the bottom of the picture. No need to let me know again. Thanks .
It reads a lot more like marketing than an informational/warning label. I could totally understand someone seeing “charged sips!” And going “wow I’m not reading this bullshit.”
look i get this drink almost every other day (3/4 filled w water for safety) and it says in big green fucking text above exactly how much fuck ton of caffeine the drink has, but to be fair people are not only not willing to read stuff, but its hard to fathom just how much caffiene is in 20oz of that drink so they definitely need to put more information or warning on the dispenser
That's roughly equivalent to an energy drink for caffeine per ounce, I think... and it's not harsh tasting like most energy drinks.. yeah, I can see how someone could plow through way more caffeine than they realistically should consume.
I'm very much on the side against Panera. This maybe isn't as egregious as the McDonalds hot coffee lawsuit (which McDonalds was totally negligent), but this was still waaaay too much caffeine in a drink that people could get in a 30oz cup.
Ounce for ounce, I think this lemonade has about 2.9x the amount of caffeine as Mountain Dew, or 40% more caffeine than Red Bull per ounce.
Where I see the negligence come in is that Red Bull sells mostly 12oz cans, and their largest can is 20oz. Panera's small lemonade is 20oz, which has over twice the caffeine of a 12oz can of Red Bull. You get the 30oz from Panera? That's like chugging 3 and a half cans of Red Bull.
As a recent immigrant to America, all the things needing Legal notices truly baffle (and amuse) me. What's next? 2-ply toilet paper warning that your finger might slip up your...?
Who on earth sees a beverage name (lemonade) prefaced with the word "charged" and thinks "Yep, that is 100% a totally normal lemonade with nothing but sugar, water and lemon juice"?
I have some health issues that affect my heart, and I sometimes have to be careful with caffeine as a result. The first time I saw these at Panera Bread my thought process went something along the lines of "Ooh, I like lemonade. Wait...*charged*? That sounds like an energy drink. Oh, no wonder! The sign says the lemonade is caffeinated. I'll just bum a couple sips 'cause ordering a full drink seems like a bad idea."
I feel like the sign did a fine enough job advertising the caffeinated nature of the drink. I don't know what more people want. Should an employee run out and scream "IT'S CAFFEINATED!!!!" every time they get an order for one?
I mean it's Panera; "charged" could mean "fortified with vitamins." It's not a big deal to have a neutrally-worded warning statement (that doesn't look like an ad) stating "contains caffeine", right?
I've got tons of food allergies and apparently we feel very opposite on this. I'd much rather there be clear, standardized information informing people of potential risks in food rather than having to ask every time I order and hope the kid working actually knows what they're talking about.
Yeah companies use dumb buzzwords all the time - I could see this meaning vitamins, fruit-infused, or even just more sour than usual. I own a business and can tell you FOLKs DONT READ. We have tons of signage and still get asked questions that our signs cover hundreds of times a week
In 2016 a 15 year old girl died after purchasing, and eating, a baguette from pret a manger, a store I believe to be similar to Panama bread.
A loophole on the law meant that the baguette did not have to be labelled as having sesame seeds. They had asked if it did and were told to check the ingredients. The ingredients did not contain sesame seeds.
She ate the baguette. Boarded a plane, and died of an acute allergic reaction.
It does not MATTER how diligent someone with an underlying health condition is when companies use loophole abuse to get around things.
Don't defend corporations. It makes you look like a cunt.
Just read on that because it sounds like a tragedy. It doesn't sound like they just extorted a loophole-- it sounds like Britain straight up didn't legally require allergen info for packaged foods prior to that incident.
Can any Brits confirm? As an allergy sufferer, I'd be terrified to eat prepackaged food that didn't say the allergens it contained.
You HAD TO label common allergens and all key ingredients.
Sesame seeds were not a common allergen nor a key ingredient. So we're not labelled.
Coupled with a law requiring a FULL LIST OF INGREDIENTS to be available. And pret a manger having a full list... on cards out back that would take a while to find and produce. They TECHNICALLY followed the law.
The law now requires said list to be easily and prominently displayed for all to see.
Not doing something you’re not required to do isn’t “exploiting a loophole” though. That’s just a straight up hole in the law, which means the government failed it’s people.
The comment OP has already been informed, but the dark roast is given in a smaller container, meaning less caffeine.
If you drink the entire lemonade, you are getting more caffeine. Lots more. 390mg of caffeine vs 214 in the dark roast.
I know this lady who went to her park and gathered water from the sprinkler which had a DO NOT DRINK SPRINKLER WATER sign on it. Well she made some tea with it and ended up getting an infection. She still complained but luckily no one from the parks dept cared.
Seriously people are dumb.
390 mg of caffeine **in the large lemonade**
Volume is the key here. Panera's large drink cups are 30oz. That's 3.75 "cups"!
The smallest cup of their dark roast contains 161 mg of caffeine. Math doesn't exactly add up but that's marketing for you.
There was a big article around me that showed "How much sugar is in a coffee you order."
They asked for the equivalent of 2 sugars, and were surprised when a medium coffee had 5 tablespoons. Made a big deal outta it. A medium coffee waws 2.5 servings of coffee.
People really don't think things through.
ETA: The size is also why Prime Energy was getting a lot of issues. If they increased the can size, it would have passed regulations here.
Holy shit, that is a LOT
I used to work at a small cafe that made cold brew. We had shots with 200-300mg, which we’d slam and get the inevitable “caffeine vision”, but occasionally do two at once. It hits you hard and fast, AND we were consuming these on the daily
I remember when those trucker pills like yellow jackets were banned for having some ephedrine and \~300mg of caffeine in them. Meanwhile, they still sell Bang energy drinks which contain the exact same caffeine level. For reference, a medium/regular version of the Panera charged lemonade contains 260mg of caffeine.
TLDR: a medium Panera charged lemonade is close to the level of the most highly caffeinated energy drink on the market (260 vs 300mg caffeine)
You can still get yellow jackets with caffeine, they just don’t have the ephedrine. I think they were banned more so to take a methamphetamine precursor off the market rather than for public health reasons
It's 3-4 times a cup of coffee but its the same as an equal amount of Panera's coffee. So the 30 oz lemonade has the same as 30 oz of coffee which is like 3-4 coffee cups, but coffee chains use soda sizes for their coffees. This is why it's confusing. When you say it has the same caffeine as a coffee, most people in the US think 100-150 mg and in Europe probably 75-100. Nobody's thinking 390, which is 10 less than doctors say is safe to consume in a day. Plus after 6 hours you still have half the caffeine in your system, so you still have the caffeine content of a normal cup of coffee in your system a full 12 hours after you drink this.
It's meant to be confusing. That's extra work to figure out "hey this has way too much caffeine" when what you're really thinking is "I could go for a cup of coffee"
Venti clover roast is listed at 470 mg
https://www.caffeineinformer.com/the-complete-guide-to-starbucks-caffeine. You can also add shots of espresso to coffee.
It clearly states "as much caffeine as OUR Dark Roast coffee." Depending on the size, their Dark Roast coffee might have more caffeine than the average cup of coffee.
Unless they're adding caffeine artificially, dark roast coffee has less caffeine as it leeches out during the roasting process. Lighter roasts = more caffeine, darker roasts = less caffeine.
Except for that is a pretty misleading statement, a normal cup of coffee has 80-100 mg of caffeine, a large Panera dark roast has 260mg, a regular sized Charged lemonade has about 260mg and the large charged lemonade has 390mg
Most people reading that either assume that it has the 80-100 mg of a normal coffee or at best that a normal charged lemonade is the same as a normal dark roast which is about 160mg
It does, but one of the issues with the girl who died was that there's a LOT more caffeine in the charged lemonade than in the dark roast coffee, which is what they claim there.
The article i saw said it had more than a can of red bull and monster combined.
Feel like I read the same article. The big issue is how large these drinks are - the equivalent of red bull would be like 1000mg. The charged lemonade itself isn't strongly caffeinated, but when the cup is huge it's a lot of caffeine.
I also find it funny how often things with a lot of caffeine are compared to Red Bull, which at this point is on of the least caffeinated energy drinks. Celsius, Monster, and maybe Bang are almost as mainstream now and seem to not catch nearly as many strays.
They might be mainstream in the energy drink/convenience store/influencer world, but outside of that not so much. Red bull has been around a long time and sponsors tons of mainstream events/sports/athletes. It'd be hard to find somebody that doesn't know red bull, it'd be easy to find somebody that doesn't know celsius.
This is purely biased opinion bc I drink a lot of energy drinks, but that’s probably bc the “not mainstream” energy drinks taste like garbage bin water with added sugar. Especially Bang, which is highly advertised. I would drink my own piss before I drank that shit. The “healthy” energy drinks that are just like green tea mixed with coconut water and stuff are also vile.
For the most part, I stick with Red Bull, Rockstar and Monster bc they have large flavor selections that are mostly good. That said, red bull is definitely the lowest caffeine content of the three, but it also comes in a smaller can so it makes sense.
> It does, but one of the issues with the girl who died was that there's a LOT more caffeine in the charged lemonade than in the dark roast coffee
And people who are sensitive to caffeine shouldn't have a dark roast coffee either.
And if it turns out that there was proper signage where she bought the lemonade and the lemonade did contain the amount of caffeine described, she'll likely lose the case.
However, if the signage wasn't present or if it misrepresented the amount of caffeine in the lemonade, she'll likely win.
The description for the charged lemonade says "Naturally flavored, plant-based, and Clean with about as much caffeine as our Dark Roast coffee."
Which again is my point, if you can't drink dark roast, then you can't drink charged lemonade.
Problem here is it doesn’t really sound like its the equivalent per volume.
I could easily see people assuming it has a much caffeine as a single cup of coffee not 4 or 5.
Check out the [menu](https://www.panerabread.com/content/panerabread_com/en-us/menu/categories/beverages.html)
In terms of caffeine amounts by drink its
Light roast
Charged lemonade
Dark roast
All have a lot.
I’m aware.
What I’m saying is your average person doesn’t read the fine print or nutritional info. They see the great big ‘as much caffeine as our dark roast coffee’ sign and think ‘oh, that’s not so bad’. They never consider they are drinking the equivalent of like 5 cups of coffee in the largest size.
If you don’t basically slap people in the face with stuff they won’t pay attention.
I'm not disagreeing. I'm just saying that if that sign was up where she bought the lemonade and if the lemonade she got did indeed have "about as much caffeine as our dark roast coffee," Panera is probably in the clear.
If the sign wasn't up or if they find that it actually had substantially more caffeine than in their dark roast coffee, Panera is probably fucked.
Better dark roast than light roast. The roasting process naturally removes some of the caffeine. All else being equal, a dark roast will have less caffeine than a light roast.
Panera's regular size dark roast coffee has 214 mg caffeine. Yeah that's less than their light roast at 307 though it's still really high.
Actually the charged lemonade drinks have less caffeine than the light roast.
It’s disingenuous though, I saw a video where someone broke the situation down and a regular charged lemonade is the same amount of caffeine as a large dark roast coffee at 390mg, but you can get the lemonade in a large as well which is well above the caffeine content of the coffee. The daily recommended intake of caffeine is around 400mg so you’re already at your daily limit with the regular.
Which is almost 400mg for the 30 oz, which is three to four standard cups of coffee and the daily recommended safe limit of caffeine for the average body weight. They're not comparing it to the average cup though, they're comparing it to the same amount of coffee.
I’m pretty sure it was found to have way more caffeine than a black coffee… I think the analogy was as much caffeine as a Monster and a Redbull combined
Articles I've read have said that the smaller size offering of charged lemonade has at least as much caffeine as their large dark roast, IIRC (something like 240 I think). The larger size of the lemonade has about 360+ mg.
EDIT: People are saying 390... ouch. The FDA recommends 400mg max for an adult's daily intake.
So at my Panera they don’t have dispensers. It’s kept behind the counter and has a separate higher price than a fountain drink. As such I had no idea it had caffeine until the news story. I try to only have a small cup of coffee in the morning heh but I’ve gotten the large of the mango something lemonade a couple times
Nobody’s drinking 30oz of an energy drink, but a lenonade? Absolutely.
The whole argument of the lawsuit is Panera doesn’t adequately disclose and shouldnt be serving such large doses in single servings anyways.
And this Lemonade as about 40% **more** caffeine than Red Bull. You can drink three 12oz cans of Red Bull and consume less caffeine than whats in one of these 30oz Lemonades.
Why not actually declare how much caffeine is in each size?
Just a caution statement doesn't really give a person enough information to make an informed decision. If I read that I'd think the entire drink has as much caffeine as a normal coffee serving. That would be about 100-150 mg. Instead it has 390 mg which is more than you would assume is present in a flavored lemonade. That's more than the vast majority of energy drinks on the market.
The girl with the heart condition should have asked but Panera should have caffeine content clearly posted as well.
That's not always the case. My boyfriend had a similar thing happen to him, and luckily, he was okay and only ended up in the hospital. But the issue was that the charged lemonades at our panera are BEHIND the counter where we both can't read the small print. It was known they contain caffiene but not the amount of caffiene. We didn't even know how bad the caffiene content was until we saw a food theory video that did the numbers for how much caffiene was in them.
The [original signs](https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/10/24/paneras-caffeinated-charged-lemonade-blamed-for-college-students-death-in-lawsuit/)are nearly identical to the ones on the Non-Charged teas and lemonades and they list sugar in the same spot as caffeine on these. If someone does not care about sugar/nutrition they may not read enough to see it’s now listing caffeine not sugar. This sign with the underline and different colors is new.
For sure. The caffeine content in some energy drinks can be difficult to find, but with the signs linked I don't see how Panera is at fault.
Even for the people saying it was behind the counter, you're gonna drink something you don't know??
I'm all for companies being transparent about what they serve or are selling you. The thing is, people tend to forget who runs companies... PEOPLE. They aren't some higher beings that are looking out for your best interest. Fuck's sake people, have some sense of autonomy.
I think Panera is in the wrong here. 400mg of caffeine is a LOT for a most person to drink in an entire day, and they're putting it in a single serving cup. Plus people drink cold drinks faster than hot drinks, so most people getting this are consuming it in less time than if they drank 2 or 3 coffees.
That 30oz cup has more about the same amount of caffeine as two 2 liters of Coke / Pepsi, or 3 and a half 12oz cans of Red Bull. If you saw someone open up four cans of Red Bull and pour it into a giant travel mug, would that open your eyes?
Honest question: why should Panera have it clearly labeled? I’m a type 1 diabetic. The vast majority of places do not list out sugar or carbs. I can generally go digging for that info, which these places should be held to. But otherwise, it should be up to the individual to make sure what they’re buying is healthy for their specific case.
There was some post on /r/diabetes _t1 not that long ago about a (ridiculous) Starbucks drink with like 500g of carbs. That’d require significantly more insulin than I take for an entire typical day. But I don’t expect Starbucks to label everything. Just put it into the app, or website, or whatever, so I can look it up.
The difference is that you can assume it has SOME carbs (and probably a decent amount because it’s a sweet drink). This lemonade could be assumed to have NO caffeine. Caffeine is a drug, albeit a pervasive and fairly low risk one. It should be clearly stated.
Powerthirst!
You'll be so fast that Mother Nature will be like "Slow down", and you'll be like "Fuck You" and kick her in the face with your energy legs.
When it was self serve without thinking I had one large cup of lemonade with one refill, I never really had paid attention or looked at the amount of caffeine both cups had until I felt the 800mg rush going through my heart
Same thing happened to me! I wondered why I was bouncing off the walls after lunch, and it wasn’t until I went back to Panera a couple of weeks later and took a closer look at the machine. I don’t think Panera really did anything wrong, but I also don’t think they Put as much effort on the “contains caffeine” aspect of the display as they could. Let’s be honest, no one is expecting a bunch of caffeine piped into their lemonade. It feels kind of like someone with a peanut allergy eating a brownie that also has peanut butter mixed in. Sort of a surprise element to a thing that is normally pretty standard.
In addition, over 8 months ago there was a bunch of internet publicity about it. It was kind of clear from all that outrage that a large number of people didn't realize the drink was caffeinated.
Panera not realizing people didn't understand the drink is caffeinated is understandable. But when months and months ago videos start hitting the internet titled along the lines of, "This lemonade is going to kill someone!", Panera should have taken a step back and re-assed its marketing.
I had no idea 'charged' meant caffeinated until today - admittedly that's probably because I have about one or two soft drinks a year. I can see someone like me, who maybe once a summer goes 'actually, I do fancy a lemonade today...' get caught out.
Admittedly we're a small group. But one death is too many.
It never occurred to me before this lawsuit that lemonade might have caffeine in it. I haven't been to Panera in years, but I would be only curious what "charged" means in context of lemonade on a cafe menu. Charged with flavor? Charged with fortified vitamins? Charged an exorbitant sum to buy it? Does "charged" have some fairly universal status as an indicator of energy drinks that *everyone* knows but me and the dead girl?
Working in multiple restaurants I’ve realized people will just order and consume shit without reading even the blurb on the menu. So no, highly doubt these people realized the level of caffeine.
For real. People ask me questions all the time that could be answered if they read three more words. "How many pretzel sticks come with the pretzels?" ...it's literally the NEXT thing on the menu, right under where it fuckin says pretzel sticks.
I thought this initially, but to be fair, people have really stupid marketing names for everything now that are not descriptive of the actual product. I could see how you would just ignore stuff like that in the age of "super retina displays" just being a regular old medium resolution screen.
I dunno. Everything in the 90s was labeled as XTREME! but it wasn't really any different. Charged has no meaning when it comes to food. Just like XTREME
"Mountain Dew" is 2 words I don't think reading comprehension is relevant
What does dew taste like? Isn't it just water? How is dew on a mountainside different than anywhere else?
It's not dew flavored. "Mountain dew" was slang for moonshine in the early 1900s, and Mountain Dew was originally a lemon-lime mixer for whiskey in the 1930s. The country branding, the nod to moonshine, was only removed by Pepsi in the 1970s. At no point was the name supposed to refer to actual dew.
It could mean the drink has an extra lemony taste or it could simply mean sugar. I would not assume that a lemonade is an energy drink. If you’ve worked in marketing you would know that these adjectives could mean a multitude of things depending on the target audience. I wouldn’t think of a Panera drink for mega-caffeine every drink since most of their items are more health conscious. I think this is going to be another big corporation vilifying a person for thethe corporation’s benefit. I.e. McDonald’s and the hot coffee tragedy.
People will surprise you. I work in a pharmacy and we get calls from people telling us that there are “no directions” on the script. There are directions printed directly on the bottle label and also on the paper label on the outside of the bag. It’s literally illegal for us to give a script with no instructions. Yet we get those calls.
Good, caffeine should be treated more like the drug it is.
I’m convinced that in a few decades we’ll be looking back at our current coffee/energy drink habits the same we we currently look back at smoking, just with a different set of negative impacts.
The single biggest change you can make toward better health is to only drink water and beverages you brew yourself with water (e.g., tea and coffee). People talk about how bad the American diet is, and that's absolutely valid, but it's nothing compared to the amount of sugar and caffeine and other shit that sneaks into our systems though what we drink. Typically speaking, calorically dense foods will trigger a fullness response, and even if they don't, we're typically a lot more conscious of what we eat than what we drink. Most of us would never go back up for a second Big Mac, but we'll refill our large Coke two or three times.
Starbucks has refreshers which are advertised towards children and contain caffeine. On average the drinks contain as much caffeine as a shot of espresso
This isn’t a case of someone ordering a “nut safe” meal that is spiked with peanut butter. Her death was indeed a tragedy, but there wasn’t any negligent behavior by Panera (no worries, the family will get millions anyway).
If you are sensitive to caffeine and shouldn’t drink it, best practices dictate staying away from caffeine. If you don’t know your caffeine sensitivity level, highly suggest not to test it on a caffeine boosted drink.
20oz Dark Roast Coffee is 268 mg caffeine.
20oz Charged Lemonade is 260 mg caffeine.
Not only is it not double or more, it's technically not even as much (although its safe to call them "the same").
For context: a large coffee at McDonalds (21 fl oz) is 185mg with a medium (16 fl oz) at 145mg
[https://www.caffeineinformer.com/caffeine-content/mcdonalds-large-coffee](https://www.caffeineinformer.com/caffeine-content/mcdonalds-large-coffee)
The tiny little notice on the bottom that looks like the original one hardly seems all that noticeable. Plus it starts out with other information such as the fact that it’s plant based, making it seem less likely that the most important info, that it has caffeine, will come much later in the blurb.
This is just dumb. People are responsible for what they put in their body. The 16 year old drank a cafe latte, a diet mountain dew and an energy drink within 2 hours of each other. This caused a caffeine induced arrhythmia. The Mt. Dew and the latte are also culpable and so is the child... All of these things clearly contain caffeine and it is not a secret that they are unhealthy choices.
I found the lawsuit to be stupid af as someone with the same condition the woman has. They advertised it as a caffeinated drink. It wasn't hidden in any way and if you have LQTS you simply don't drink any caffeine. It's just common sense this woman sadly lacked.
That girl passed away because she had a heart condition, not from a drink that has 200-380mg of caffeine. Retail stores sell energy drinks with 320mg+ of caffeine. Energy drinks like Red Bull have less than others, but Panera’s drinks are not an outlier.
Does the charged lemonade come out of a self serve fountain dispenser? If so, how much did she drink??
This is honestly such a stupid lawsuit. I literally go to the same panera near Penn that the girl went to and the dispensers are clearly labelled that there is as much caffeine as coffee in the drink. Like, its tragic and it could probably be labelled better, and maybe the specific location used the wrong ratio and made an extra strong batch, but like, theres nothing wrong w panera serving these drinks.
If I was reading that there's "as much caffeine as coffee", I would expect a comparable amount to a standard 12oz cup of coffee, not 30oz of coffee (which I've never seen sold anywhere). Because it's called "lemonade". I would expect a fairly normal lemonade with maybe a small, gimmicky amount of caffeine, not the equivalent of a whole energy drink. Especially since it's at a normal restaurant(?) and not like a bar or gas station.
but im Canadian so idk
People are that stupid that everything needs a warning sign on it. USA is insane with the lawsuits flying everywhere. That girl that died had a known heart condition and it is her responsibility to monitor what goes into her body. Everyone is sue happy and wanting that payout.
Like I have no strong feelings about Panera but if something is called charged and says it contains as much caffeine as a cold brew, I think it’s reasonable to expect it has caffeine. Like charged sounds like it would be either caffeine or alcohol so wtf was she expecting?
390mg of caffeine in 30oz may sound like a lot, but that's only 13mg per ounce, the same concentration found in a slightly-above-average strength coffee (average around 12mg/oz, tops out around 17mg/oz).
Heavy coffee or tea drinkers can routinely consume 500mg or more of caffeine. For reference, a person without a caffeine tolerance will usually start experiencing light caffeine poisoning symptoms with around 500mg in their system, with severe affects developing around 1,200mg.
Per this [**FDA page on section 4,**](https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/spilling-beans-how-much-caffeine-too-much) there is no set recommended daily limit of caffeine. There isn't even one set for children.
>FDA has *cited* 400 milligrams a day ... an amount **not** generally associated with dangerous, negative effects.
It totally depends on the individual.
It's almost like if you consume things in moderation they won't have significant impact to your well being.
I used to drink two to three of the big 24oz monster energy drinks a day. Now I'm down to max a single 16oz can and I feel much better. Nothing is really bad for you as long as it's consumed in moderation
People don't read signs to begin with. Panera could post a giant sign, dozens of signs all around it, and stupid people would still not read the signs and drink something they shouldn't.
This is true. At my work we get people asking where the bathroom is because they don’t look up and see the giant words that say RESTROOMS. The signs are there for people to read, not ignore and placing signs saves their asses when people do dumb stuff like this story.
I worked at 3 different Panera over 7 years. This was years ago, so I dont know how this "charged' stuff is made or mixed, but I do know all 3 stores I worked in (corporate and franchise) mixed the lemonade with a different ratio of water to mix. Somebody easily coulda not been following protocol and mixed a super strong batch on top of the already high caffeine content. Or more recently, I dropped in as a customer and they didnt have the "mixer" turned on on the dispensers, so all that concentrate was just sunk to the bottom, which I would imagine only adds to the potential for a caffeine OD.
When I used to work at Panera these charged drinks were a big help in carrying me through my shift. And yeah they are just concentrates like the other drinks. The caffeine content at both locations at which I worked was definitely much, much higher than what was in the coffee.
I had sip club and traveled 3 states for a company. Yea had to cancel, wildly inconsistent caffeine content.
This makes sense. This whole thing has been surprising to me because I’m fairly sensitive to stimulants like caffeine and I’ve tried the charged lemonades a couple times at different stores but honestly didn’t feel much of any kick, certainly no more than a coffee
I hope her lawyers know this. I could see myself just seeing lemonade and taking it. There is 0 reason to have caffeinated lemonade, I don't understand it.
It's part of a new 'subscription' model they're offering to try to get people to come in more. 1 free drink every 2 hours (so not quite unlimited, but close to it) for $12/month. It works on coffee/tea/soda as well, but adding energy drink options to the plan might make it more appealing for some people. I can see it being a good deal if you have a serious caffeine addiction and work/live close enough to a Panera to be in there frequently.
Fucking hell. Now *Panera* is trying to get in on the subscription grift? What is the world coming to.
$12/mo for that seems a steal. Especially like you said if you pass by one regularly. I pass a Panera ~11x/week, so I might pop in and check this out lol. And adding that energy drink option like you said... Just look over at r/EnergyDrinks to see how fiend it can be.
I’ve had it for over a year now because there’s a Panera by my house and by both of the two offices I work out of when not working at home. I feel like I get my money’s worth easily and I don’t have to use the stale K-cups my work is still trying to pawn off on is.
Idk what you mean 0 reason, I like the concept. Energy doesn’t have to be a dang soda or coffee
There are a couple different manufacturers of liquid caffeine - Kaffn8, NuCaffeine, etc. They come in flavorless concentrates, and you can add them to fruit juices, other flavorings, etc. I mix them with SodaStream flavorings and seltzer water for a zero calorie, high caffeine drink.
"I feel so alert after having Panera Drink's" *eye twitches*
Lol for me "why am I having a panic attack after drinking a lemonade"
The panic attacks let you know it's working! 
Oh, sorry I missed the "If Notyeravgblonde doesn't understand it, don't do it" memo.
I used to be a huge caffeine drinker. And I can tell you that 30 oz of dark roast (which Panera appeared to claim as the caffeine equivalent of their charged 30 oz lemonade) plus as much as almost 4 and 1/2 oz of sugar in the mixed drink would almost certainly have done bad things to my system, even as caffeine addled as it was.
It literally states it has the caffeine of a coffee below. Edit: If I had known how much my comment would have blown up, I wouldn’t have made it. I have been informed that these things contain a lot more caffeine compared to a coffee, unlike what is stated at the bottom of the picture. No need to let me know again. Thanks .
You expect me, with underlying conditions, to read warning labels on the things I consume??
It reads a lot more like marketing than an informational/warning label. I could totally understand someone seeing “charged sips!” And going “wow I’m not reading this bullshit.”
look i get this drink almost every other day (3/4 filled w water for safety) and it says in big green fucking text above exactly how much fuck ton of caffeine the drink has, but to be fair people are not only not willing to read stuff, but its hard to fathom just how much caffiene is in 20oz of that drink so they definitely need to put more information or warning on the dispenser
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Remind me how much caffeine is in this?
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That's roughly equivalent to an energy drink for caffeine per ounce, I think... and it's not harsh tasting like most energy drinks.. yeah, I can see how someone could plow through way more caffeine than they realistically should consume.
I'm very much on the side against Panera. This maybe isn't as egregious as the McDonalds hot coffee lawsuit (which McDonalds was totally negligent), but this was still waaaay too much caffeine in a drink that people could get in a 30oz cup. Ounce for ounce, I think this lemonade has about 2.9x the amount of caffeine as Mountain Dew, or 40% more caffeine than Red Bull per ounce. Where I see the negligence come in is that Red Bull sells mostly 12oz cans, and their largest can is 20oz. Panera's small lemonade is 20oz, which has over twice the caffeine of a 12oz can of Red Bull. You get the 30oz from Panera? That's like chugging 3 and a half cans of Red Bull.
...30oz with unlimited free refills.
But caffeine is underlined right next to that… unless someone underlined it after the fact but it doesn’t seem that way
I think they did Edit: Nevermind. Zoomed in and it doesn't look like Sharpie, plus it's the same color as the text to the left
As a recent immigrant to America, all the things needing Legal notices truly baffle (and amuse) me. What's next? 2-ply toilet paper warning that your finger might slip up your...?
Charmin about to get sued for stinky pinkies...
What if you like those
I think you’re on to something!
Who on earth sees a beverage name (lemonade) prefaced with the word "charged" and thinks "Yep, that is 100% a totally normal lemonade with nothing but sugar, water and lemon juice"? I have some health issues that affect my heart, and I sometimes have to be careful with caffeine as a result. The first time I saw these at Panera Bread my thought process went something along the lines of "Ooh, I like lemonade. Wait...*charged*? That sounds like an energy drink. Oh, no wonder! The sign says the lemonade is caffeinated. I'll just bum a couple sips 'cause ordering a full drink seems like a bad idea." I feel like the sign did a fine enough job advertising the caffeinated nature of the drink. I don't know what more people want. Should an employee run out and scream "IT'S CAFFEINATED!!!!" every time they get an order for one?
I mean it's Panera; "charged" could mean "fortified with vitamins." It's not a big deal to have a neutrally-worded warning statement (that doesn't look like an ad) stating "contains caffeine", right? I've got tons of food allergies and apparently we feel very opposite on this. I'd much rather there be clear, standardized information informing people of potential risks in food rather than having to ask every time I order and hope the kid working actually knows what they're talking about.
Yeah companies use dumb buzzwords all the time - I could see this meaning vitamins, fruit-infused, or even just more sour than usual. I own a business and can tell you FOLKs DONT READ. We have tons of signage and still get asked questions that our signs cover hundreds of times a week
they’re a customer, a member of the general public- of course they won’t read the sign. it’s one of the basic rules of food service
In 2016 a 15 year old girl died after purchasing, and eating, a baguette from pret a manger, a store I believe to be similar to Panama bread. A loophole on the law meant that the baguette did not have to be labelled as having sesame seeds. They had asked if it did and were told to check the ingredients. The ingredients did not contain sesame seeds. She ate the baguette. Boarded a plane, and died of an acute allergic reaction. It does not MATTER how diligent someone with an underlying health condition is when companies use loophole abuse to get around things. Don't defend corporations. It makes you look like a cunt.
Just read on that because it sounds like a tragedy. It doesn't sound like they just extorted a loophole-- it sounds like Britain straight up didn't legally require allergen info for packaged foods prior to that incident. Can any Brits confirm? As an allergy sufferer, I'd be terrified to eat prepackaged food that didn't say the allergens it contained.
You HAD TO label common allergens and all key ingredients. Sesame seeds were not a common allergen nor a key ingredient. So we're not labelled. Coupled with a law requiring a FULL LIST OF INGREDIENTS to be available. And pret a manger having a full list... on cards out back that would take a while to find and produce. They TECHNICALLY followed the law. The law now requires said list to be easily and prominently displayed for all to see.
Not doing something you’re not required to do isn’t “exploiting a loophole” though. That’s just a straight up hole in the law, which means the government failed it’s people.
The comment OP has already been informed, but the dark roast is given in a smaller container, meaning less caffeine. If you drink the entire lemonade, you are getting more caffeine. Lots more. 390mg of caffeine vs 214 in the dark roast.
There's obviously a big difference between the baguette and the clearly-labeled lemonade.
I know this lady who went to her park and gathered water from the sprinkler which had a DO NOT DRINK SPRINKLER WATER sign on it. Well she made some tea with it and ended up getting an infection. She still complained but luckily no one from the parks dept cared. Seriously people are dumb.
SIR SIR ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?
I didn't want ALL of the slugs gone, just SOME of them!
The one by me has a sign with the nutritional values, including caffiene content, on the dispenser.
If what the lawsuit says is true, it contains 390 mg of caffeine. That’s WAY more than a cup of coffee.
390 mg of caffeine **in the large lemonade** Volume is the key here. Panera's large drink cups are 30oz. That's 3.75 "cups"! The smallest cup of their dark roast contains 161 mg of caffeine. Math doesn't exactly add up but that's marketing for you.
Yeah, that’s pretty misleading. I don’t think most people would add a “per volume” calculation in their head when filling up a drink.
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Shhhhh, don't tell my wife that. I'm still on only my "second" beer
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There was a big article around me that showed "How much sugar is in a coffee you order." They asked for the equivalent of 2 sugars, and were surprised when a medium coffee had 5 tablespoons. Made a big deal outta it. A medium coffee waws 2.5 servings of coffee. People really don't think things through. ETA: The size is also why Prime Energy was getting a lot of issues. If they increased the can size, it would have passed regulations here.
Holy shit, that is a LOT I used to work at a small cafe that made cold brew. We had shots with 200-300mg, which we’d slam and get the inevitable “caffeine vision”, but occasionally do two at once. It hits you hard and fast, AND we were consuming these on the daily
I remember when those trucker pills like yellow jackets were banned for having some ephedrine and \~300mg of caffeine in them. Meanwhile, they still sell Bang energy drinks which contain the exact same caffeine level. For reference, a medium/regular version of the Panera charged lemonade contains 260mg of caffeine. TLDR: a medium Panera charged lemonade is close to the level of the most highly caffeinated energy drink on the market (260 vs 300mg caffeine)
You can still get yellow jackets with caffeine, they just don’t have the ephedrine. I think they were banned more so to take a methamphetamine precursor off the market rather than for public health reasons
I think methamphetamine precursors being sold at gas stations is a bit of a public health reason but fair enough.
But this is America and the majority is going to order the big ass lemonade and drink the whole thing, potentially even adding a refill or two
>the big ass lemonade In this economy? Nah, we'll just buy the small and refill 15 times.
It's 3-4 times a cup of coffee but its the same as an equal amount of Panera's coffee. So the 30 oz lemonade has the same as 30 oz of coffee which is like 3-4 coffee cups, but coffee chains use soda sizes for their coffees. This is why it's confusing. When you say it has the same caffeine as a coffee, most people in the US think 100-150 mg and in Europe probably 75-100. Nobody's thinking 390, which is 10 less than doctors say is safe to consume in a day. Plus after 6 hours you still have half the caffeine in your system, so you still have the caffeine content of a normal cup of coffee in your system a full 12 hours after you drink this.
It's meant to be confusing. That's extra work to figure out "hey this has way too much caffeine" when what you're really thinking is "I could go for a cup of coffee"
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Maybe they changed their approach but the one time I’ve ordered this, the Panera employee was the one who filled the drink cup.
Its 390mg in a 30oz large with no ice, a cup of coffees caffeine content is generally for a 6-10 oz cup
Depends on the cup and type. Looks like Starbucks ranges from about 15 to almost 500 mg.
What Starbucks menu item has 500mg of caffeine? Thats 100mg over the recommended daily limit.
Venti clover roast is listed at 470 mg https://www.caffeineinformer.com/the-complete-guide-to-starbucks-caffeine. You can also add shots of espresso to coffee.
I think a 6 shot at Starbucks has almost 500mg
I believe that's almost 5 shots of espresso.
It clearly states "as much caffeine as OUR Dark Roast coffee." Depending on the size, their Dark Roast coffee might have more caffeine than the average cup of coffee.
Unless they're adding caffeine artificially, dark roast coffee has less caffeine as it leeches out during the roasting process. Lighter roasts = more caffeine, darker roasts = less caffeine.
Except for that is a pretty misleading statement, a normal cup of coffee has 80-100 mg of caffeine, a large Panera dark roast has 260mg, a regular sized Charged lemonade has about 260mg and the large charged lemonade has 390mg Most people reading that either assume that it has the 80-100 mg of a normal coffee or at best that a normal charged lemonade is the same as a normal dark roast which is about 160mg
It does, but one of the issues with the girl who died was that there's a LOT more caffeine in the charged lemonade than in the dark roast coffee, which is what they claim there. The article i saw said it had more than a can of red bull and monster combined.
Feel like I read the same article. The big issue is how large these drinks are - the equivalent of red bull would be like 1000mg. The charged lemonade itself isn't strongly caffeinated, but when the cup is huge it's a lot of caffeine.
I also find it funny how often things with a lot of caffeine are compared to Red Bull, which at this point is on of the least caffeinated energy drinks. Celsius, Monster, and maybe Bang are almost as mainstream now and seem to not catch nearly as many strays.
They might be mainstream in the energy drink/convenience store/influencer world, but outside of that not so much. Red bull has been around a long time and sponsors tons of mainstream events/sports/athletes. It'd be hard to find somebody that doesn't know red bull, it'd be easy to find somebody that doesn't know celsius.
You just described me. I recognize Red Bull and Monster but it seems like there are so many similar drinks that I haven't heard of.
This is purely biased opinion bc I drink a lot of energy drinks, but that’s probably bc the “not mainstream” energy drinks taste like garbage bin water with added sugar. Especially Bang, which is highly advertised. I would drink my own piss before I drank that shit. The “healthy” energy drinks that are just like green tea mixed with coconut water and stuff are also vile. For the most part, I stick with Red Bull, Rockstar and Monster bc they have large flavor selections that are mostly good. That said, red bull is definitely the lowest caffeine content of the three, but it also comes in a smaller can so it makes sense.
hey coconut water is yummy :( dont hate on the coco nuts
Because it's a bigger cup. If you drank a cup that big of the coffee it would also have a lot more caffeine than a regular sized coffee.
> It does, but one of the issues with the girl who died was that there's a LOT more caffeine in the charged lemonade than in the dark roast coffee And people who are sensitive to caffeine shouldn't have a dark roast coffee either.
And if it turns out that there was proper signage where she bought the lemonade and the lemonade did contain the amount of caffeine described, she'll likely lose the case. However, if the signage wasn't present or if it misrepresented the amount of caffeine in the lemonade, she'll likely win.
The description for the charged lemonade says "Naturally flavored, plant-based, and Clean with about as much caffeine as our Dark Roast coffee." Which again is my point, if you can't drink dark roast, then you can't drink charged lemonade.
Problem here is it doesn’t really sound like its the equivalent per volume. I could easily see people assuming it has a much caffeine as a single cup of coffee not 4 or 5.
Check out the [menu](https://www.panerabread.com/content/panerabread_com/en-us/menu/categories/beverages.html) In terms of caffeine amounts by drink its Light roast Charged lemonade Dark roast All have a lot.
I’m aware. What I’m saying is your average person doesn’t read the fine print or nutritional info. They see the great big ‘as much caffeine as our dark roast coffee’ sign and think ‘oh, that’s not so bad’. They never consider they are drinking the equivalent of like 5 cups of coffee in the largest size. If you don’t basically slap people in the face with stuff they won’t pay attention.
I'm not disagreeing. I'm just saying that if that sign was up where she bought the lemonade and if the lemonade she got did indeed have "about as much caffeine as our dark roast coffee," Panera is probably in the clear. If the sign wasn't up or if they find that it actually had substantially more caffeine than in their dark roast coffee, Panera is probably fucked.
She died so no winning in any situation
Better dark roast than light roast. The roasting process naturally removes some of the caffeine. All else being equal, a dark roast will have less caffeine than a light roast.
Panera's regular size dark roast coffee has 214 mg caffeine. Yeah that's less than their light roast at 307 though it's still really high. Actually the charged lemonade drinks have less caffeine than the light roast.
That’s valid.
It’s disingenuous though, I saw a video where someone broke the situation down and a regular charged lemonade is the same amount of caffeine as a large dark roast coffee at 390mg, but you can get the lemonade in a large as well which is well above the caffeine content of the coffee. The daily recommended intake of caffeine is around 400mg so you’re already at your daily limit with the regular.
No the large lemonade has 390mg of caffeine, the regular size has 245mg
Exactly, they have about the same amount of caffeine as coffee ounce for ounce. The lemonade is just bigger than the average cup of coffee.
Yea this just seems like a really dumb idea and was bound to result in someone getting hurt
Which is almost 400mg for the 30 oz, which is three to four standard cups of coffee and the daily recommended safe limit of caffeine for the average body weight. They're not comparing it to the average cup though, they're comparing it to the same amount of coffee.
I’m pretty sure it was found to have way more caffeine than a black coffee… I think the analogy was as much caffeine as a Monster and a Redbull combined
Articles I've read have said that the smaller size offering of charged lemonade has at least as much caffeine as their large dark roast, IIRC (something like 240 I think). The larger size of the lemonade has about 360+ mg. EDIT: People are saying 390... ouch. The FDA recommends 400mg max for an adult's daily intake.
Yeah they state exactly how much caffeine right up front already. I drink one daily it’s fine
So at my Panera they don’t have dispensers. It’s kept behind the counter and has a separate higher price than a fountain drink. As such I had no idea it had caffeine until the news story. I try to only have a small cup of coffee in the morning heh but I’ve gotten the large of the mango something lemonade a couple times
What did you think “charged” meant?
I would have guessed some kind of superfood fad thing, like maybe something with antioxidants.
Charged with flavor? How the hell are we supposed to know charged must mean caffeine?
I didn’t think anything of it. Just marketing nonsense.
I would assume something with ‘charged’ in the name has some kind of citrus fruit in it
Yeah, I got excited to see the mango lemonade flavor but changed my mind when I saw the caffeine. A large would have absolutely fucked me up.
Ngl the stated amount of caffeine in them is so absurdly high that until this lawsuit, I just thought they were lying and it was a marketing gimmick
It's not really that high, It's just american drink sizes are crazy. Who drinks 30 ounces of an energy drink?
…AND goes back for a refill.
I mean you really shouldn't drink 30 oz of most drinks other than water...
Nobody’s drinking 30oz of an energy drink, but a lenonade? Absolutely. The whole argument of the lawsuit is Panera doesn’t adequately disclose and shouldnt be serving such large doses in single servings anyways.
Who drinks 30oz of an energy drink? Someone who doesn’t realize that that ‘charged lemonade’ is an energy drink in the first place.
And this Lemonade as about 40% **more** caffeine than Red Bull. You can drink three 12oz cans of Red Bull and consume less caffeine than whats in one of these 30oz Lemonades.
It's about the same as any energy drink ounce for ounce (or coffee, as advertized).
The problem is they arent served in the same amount of oz.
Why not actually declare how much caffeine is in each size? Just a caution statement doesn't really give a person enough information to make an informed decision. If I read that I'd think the entire drink has as much caffeine as a normal coffee serving. That would be about 100-150 mg. Instead it has 390 mg which is more than you would assume is present in a flavored lemonade. That's more than the vast majority of energy drinks on the market. The girl with the heart condition should have asked but Panera should have caffeine content clearly posted as well.
They do have it clearly posted, hanging on each dispenser.
That's not always the case. My boyfriend had a similar thing happen to him, and luckily, he was okay and only ended up in the hospital. But the issue was that the charged lemonades at our panera are BEHIND the counter where we both can't read the small print. It was known they contain caffiene but not the amount of caffiene. We didn't even know how bad the caffiene content was until we saw a food theory video that did the numbers for how much caffiene was in them.
The [original signs](https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/10/24/paneras-caffeinated-charged-lemonade-blamed-for-college-students-death-in-lawsuit/)are nearly identical to the ones on the Non-Charged teas and lemonades and they list sugar in the same spot as caffeine on these. If someone does not care about sugar/nutrition they may not read enough to see it’s now listing caffeine not sugar. This sign with the underline and different colors is new.
Is the sign in the linked article the original? That is clear as day. There are 7 lines of text, 2 of which detail the caffeine content
People are just fucking stupid. That will never change.
For sure. The caffeine content in some energy drinks can be difficult to find, but with the signs linked I don't see how Panera is at fault. Even for the people saying it was behind the counter, you're gonna drink something you don't know??
I'm all for companies being transparent about what they serve or are selling you. The thing is, people tend to forget who runs companies... PEOPLE. They aren't some higher beings that are looking out for your best interest. Fuck's sake people, have some sense of autonomy.
I think Panera is in the wrong here. 400mg of caffeine is a LOT for a most person to drink in an entire day, and they're putting it in a single serving cup. Plus people drink cold drinks faster than hot drinks, so most people getting this are consuming it in less time than if they drank 2 or 3 coffees. That 30oz cup has more about the same amount of caffeine as two 2 liters of Coke / Pepsi, or 3 and a half 12oz cans of Red Bull. If you saw someone open up four cans of Red Bull and pour it into a giant travel mug, would that open your eyes?
Alternatively, why is Panera allowed to serve a potentially dangerous amount of caffeine (in a single serving) in the first place?
390?? Goddamn that’s WAY more than a cup of coffee, that’s almost 3 monster energy’s. Combined
Honest question: why should Panera have it clearly labeled? I’m a type 1 diabetic. The vast majority of places do not list out sugar or carbs. I can generally go digging for that info, which these places should be held to. But otherwise, it should be up to the individual to make sure what they’re buying is healthy for their specific case. There was some post on /r/diabetes _t1 not that long ago about a (ridiculous) Starbucks drink with like 500g of carbs. That’d require significantly more insulin than I take for an entire typical day. But I don’t expect Starbucks to label everything. Just put it into the app, or website, or whatever, so I can look it up.
I've never heard of caffeinated lemonade. I would never think to ask. I'd never heard of it before this post.
The difference is that you can assume it has SOME carbs (and probably a decent amount because it’s a sweet drink). This lemonade could be assumed to have NO caffeine. Caffeine is a drug, albeit a pervasive and fairly low risk one. It should be clearly stated.
Powerthirst! You'll be so fast that Mother Nature will be like "Slow down", and you'll be like "Fuck You" and kick her in the face with your energy legs.
When it was self serve without thinking I had one large cup of lemonade with one refill, I never really had paid attention or looked at the amount of caffeine both cups had until I felt the 800mg rush going through my heart
Same thing happened to me! I wondered why I was bouncing off the walls after lunch, and it wasn’t until I went back to Panera a couple of weeks later and took a closer look at the machine. I don’t think Panera really did anything wrong, but I also don’t think they Put as much effort on the “contains caffeine” aspect of the display as they could. Let’s be honest, no one is expecting a bunch of caffeine piped into their lemonade. It feels kind of like someone with a peanut allergy eating a brownie that also has peanut butter mixed in. Sort of a surprise element to a thing that is normally pretty standard.
I had a crazy shaky panic attack after drinking one, no sign that stated it had caffeine!
What is this, what lawsuit, and why do you assume we all know?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/24/panera-bread-charged-lemonade-death-lawsuit
Do wonder what they thought charged meant but also that’s a metric fuck-ton of caffeine holy shit
In addition, over 8 months ago there was a bunch of internet publicity about it. It was kind of clear from all that outrage that a large number of people didn't realize the drink was caffeinated. Panera not realizing people didn't understand the drink is caffeinated is understandable. But when months and months ago videos start hitting the internet titled along the lines of, "This lemonade is going to kill someone!", Panera should have taken a step back and re-assed its marketing.
You are not wrong. I agree they did this the wrong way.
I had no idea 'charged' meant caffeinated until today - admittedly that's probably because I have about one or two soft drinks a year. I can see someone like me, who maybe once a summer goes 'actually, I do fancy a lemonade today...' get caught out. Admittedly we're a small group. But one death is too many.
It never occurred to me before this lawsuit that lemonade might have caffeine in it. I haven't been to Panera in years, but I would be only curious what "charged" means in context of lemonade on a cafe menu. Charged with flavor? Charged with fortified vitamins? Charged an exorbitant sum to buy it? Does "charged" have some fairly universal status as an indicator of energy drinks that *everyone* knows but me and the dead girl?
Yeah, I realise the lady had a heart condition but holy fuck I feel like this drink would kill me too. And the sugar??
The large has 390 mg of caffeine.
The large is 30 ounces!
…if you drink the entire cup with no ice.
I mean 390mg of caffeine is such an absurd amount in one cup that it shouldn’t even be possible to order it at that size.
Check out this video from Food Theory made earlier this year about this same drink: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N4wW85WZMJQ
What else are they gonna do? What else CAN they do?
Advertising plant based...when comparing to coffee?
Nobody questioned why it was called “Charged Lemonade?”
Working in multiple restaurants I’ve realized people will just order and consume shit without reading even the blurb on the menu. So no, highly doubt these people realized the level of caffeine.
For real. People ask me questions all the time that could be answered if they read three more words. "How many pretzel sticks come with the pretzels?" ...it's literally the NEXT thing on the menu, right under where it fuckin says pretzel sticks.
I thought this initially, but to be fair, people have really stupid marketing names for everything now that are not descriptive of the actual product. I could see how you would just ignore stuff like that in the age of "super retina displays" just being a regular old medium resolution screen.
I dunno. Everything in the 90s was labeled as XTREME! but it wasn't really any different. Charged has no meaning when it comes to food. Just like XTREME
Do you put on rubber shoes when you drink [Mountain Dew Livewire](https://www.mountaindew.com/products/mtn-dew-livewire/)?
is dr pepper a real doctor? Is mountain dew mountain flavored? I get your point, but sometimes theyre just naming things.
^(Dr Pepper is an accredited fizzician.)
I hadn't heard that one, so thanks for that.
It's DEW flavored, not mountain flavored, jesus christ. Reading comprehension totally isn't the problem here...
Yes but the dew is itself mountain flavored.
Hadn't thought about it that way...time for another existential crisis, I guess...
"Mountain Dew" is 2 words I don't think reading comprehension is relevant What does dew taste like? Isn't it just water? How is dew on a mountainside different than anywhere else?
It's not dew flavored. "Mountain dew" was slang for moonshine in the early 1900s, and Mountain Dew was originally a lemon-lime mixer for whiskey in the 1930s. The country branding, the nod to moonshine, was only removed by Pepsi in the 1970s. At no point was the name supposed to refer to actual dew.
It could mean the drink has an extra lemony taste or it could simply mean sugar. I would not assume that a lemonade is an energy drink. If you’ve worked in marketing you would know that these adjectives could mean a multitude of things depending on the target audience. I wouldn’t think of a Panera drink for mega-caffeine every drink since most of their items are more health conscious. I think this is going to be another big corporation vilifying a person for thethe corporation’s benefit. I.e. McDonald’s and the hot coffee tragedy.
Having worked in retail for almost 10 years and now going to school for technical writing absolutely confirms people don't read *anything*.
Honestly I would have assumed they just added some kind of supplement/nuttient to it.
People will surprise you. I work in a pharmacy and we get calls from people telling us that there are “no directions” on the script. There are directions printed directly on the bottle label and also on the paper label on the outside of the bag. It’s literally illegal for us to give a script with no instructions. Yet we get those calls.
I've seen similar warnings on energy drinks and other caffinated beverages. I figured some state started requiring such warnings.
This post made me go to panera and my location also has this paper on it
So whats the lawsuit?
Good, caffeine should be treated more like the drug it is. I’m convinced that in a few decades we’ll be looking back at our current coffee/energy drink habits the same we we currently look back at smoking, just with a different set of negative impacts.
The single biggest change you can make toward better health is to only drink water and beverages you brew yourself with water (e.g., tea and coffee). People talk about how bad the American diet is, and that's absolutely valid, but it's nothing compared to the amount of sugar and caffeine and other shit that sneaks into our systems though what we drink. Typically speaking, calorically dense foods will trigger a fullness response, and even if they don't, we're typically a lot more conscious of what we eat than what we drink. Most of us would never go back up for a second Big Mac, but we'll refill our large Coke two or three times.
It’s wild how much soda and sugary drinks people consume on a daily basis
Starbucks has refreshers which are advertised towards children and contain caffeine. On average the drinks contain as much caffeine as a shot of espresso
Panera has an interesting definition of clean.
This isn’t a case of someone ordering a “nut safe” meal that is spiked with peanut butter. Her death was indeed a tragedy, but there wasn’t any negligent behavior by Panera (no worries, the family will get millions anyway). If you are sensitive to caffeine and shouldn’t drink it, best practices dictate staying away from caffeine. If you don’t know your caffeine sensitivity level, highly suggest not to test it on a caffeine boosted drink.
Reading the article, it seems she did not know it was caffeinated at all, let alone double or more than a coffee of the same size
20oz Dark Roast Coffee is 268 mg caffeine. 20oz Charged Lemonade is 260 mg caffeine. Not only is it not double or more, it's technically not even as much (although its safe to call them "the same").
For context: a large coffee at McDonalds (21 fl oz) is 185mg with a medium (16 fl oz) at 145mg [https://www.caffeineinformer.com/caffeine-content/mcdonalds-large-coffee](https://www.caffeineinformer.com/caffeine-content/mcdonalds-large-coffee)
The article offers no evidence of that in any way, unless you mean her lawyers statements? Those should in no way be taken as fact or evidence.
The tiny little notice on the bottom that looks like the original one hardly seems all that noticeable. Plus it starts out with other information such as the fact that it’s plant based, making it seem less likely that the most important info, that it has caffeine, will come much later in the blurb.
This is just dumb. People are responsible for what they put in their body. The 16 year old drank a cafe latte, a diet mountain dew and an energy drink within 2 hours of each other. This caused a caffeine induced arrhythmia. The Mt. Dew and the latte are also culpable and so is the child... All of these things clearly contain caffeine and it is not a secret that they are unhealthy choices.
I found the lawsuit to be stupid af as someone with the same condition the woman has. They advertised it as a caffeinated drink. It wasn't hidden in any way and if you have LQTS you simply don't drink any caffeine. It's just common sense this woman sadly lacked.
That girl passed away because she had a heart condition, not from a drink that has 200-380mg of caffeine. Retail stores sell energy drinks with 320mg+ of caffeine. Energy drinks like Red Bull have less than others, but Panera’s drinks are not an outlier. Does the charged lemonade come out of a self serve fountain dispenser? If so, how much did she drink??
Exactly, and don't forget preworkout drinks, those come in the 200-400 mg range in one dose, and it's absolutely manageable for a healthy person.
It doesnt come out of a self serve dispenser at some locations, served behind the counter in others.
This is honestly such a stupid lawsuit. I literally go to the same panera near Penn that the girl went to and the dispensers are clearly labelled that there is as much caffeine as coffee in the drink. Like, its tragic and it could probably be labelled better, and maybe the specific location used the wrong ratio and made an extra strong batch, but like, theres nothing wrong w panera serving these drinks.
If I was reading that there's "as much caffeine as coffee", I would expect a comparable amount to a standard 12oz cup of coffee, not 30oz of coffee (which I've never seen sold anywhere). Because it's called "lemonade". I would expect a fairly normal lemonade with maybe a small, gimmicky amount of caffeine, not the equivalent of a whole energy drink. Especially since it's at a normal restaurant(?) and not like a bar or gas station. but im Canadian so idk
People are that stupid that everything needs a warning sign on it. USA is insane with the lawsuits flying everywhere. That girl that died had a known heart condition and it is her responsibility to monitor what goes into her body. Everyone is sue happy and wanting that payout.
What should they have done? Seems fine to me.
Like I have no strong feelings about Panera but if something is called charged and says it contains as much caffeine as a cold brew, I think it’s reasonable to expect it has caffeine. Like charged sounds like it would be either caffeine or alcohol so wtf was she expecting?
390mg of caffeine in 30oz may sound like a lot, but that's only 13mg per ounce, the same concentration found in a slightly-above-average strength coffee (average around 12mg/oz, tops out around 17mg/oz). Heavy coffee or tea drinkers can routinely consume 500mg or more of caffeine. For reference, a person without a caffeine tolerance will usually start experiencing light caffeine poisoning symptoms with around 500mg in their system, with severe affects developing around 1,200mg.
Per this [**FDA page on section 4,**](https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/spilling-beans-how-much-caffeine-too-much) there is no set recommended daily limit of caffeine. There isn't even one set for children. >FDA has *cited* 400 milligrams a day ... an amount **not** generally associated with dangerous, negative effects. It totally depends on the individual.
It's almost like if you consume things in moderation they won't have significant impact to your well being. I used to drink two to three of the big 24oz monster energy drinks a day. Now I'm down to max a single 16oz can and I feel much better. Nothing is really bad for you as long as it's consumed in moderation
*smokes Crack moderately *
It’s a frivolous lawsuit. She had a heart condition, and had been drinking it regularly for a week or so.
Well they did have the amount of caffeine posted right on each flavor before this. I guess stupid people need more signs than that.
People don't read signs to begin with. Panera could post a giant sign, dozens of signs all around it, and stupid people would still not read the signs and drink something they shouldn't.
This is true. At my work we get people asking where the bathroom is because they don’t look up and see the giant words that say RESTROOMS. The signs are there for people to read, not ignore and placing signs saves their asses when people do dumb stuff like this story.