Panera says it's phasing out its controversial Charged Lemonade nationwide
Panera says it's phasing out its controversial Charged Lemonade nationwide
Lawsuits have blamed the highly caffeinated drink for at least two deaths.
Lawsuits have blamed the highly caffeinated drink for at least two deaths.
A Panera Bread spokesperson says the restaurant chain is phasing out its Charged Lemonade, a highly caffeinated beverage that has been blamed for at least two deaths in lawsuits.
The beverages prompted controversy in October following a lawsuit filed by the family of 21-year-old Sarah Katz, a University of Pennsylvania student with a heart condition who died after consuming Charged Lemonade. A second lawsuit was filed in December by the family of Dennis Brown, a Florida man with a chromosomal deficiency disorder and a developmental delay who also died after drinking a Charged Lemonade.
A third lawsuit was filed in January by Lauren Skerritt, a 28-year-old Rhode Island woman, which claimed the beverage left her with “permanent cardiac injuries.”
…
Panera previously advertised its Charged Lemonade as “Plant-based and Clean with as much caffeine as our Dark Roast coffee.” But the lawsuits said that at 390 milligrams, a large, 30-fluid-ounce Charged Lemonade has more caffeine in total than any size of Panera’s dark roast coffee, referring to the amount of caffeine that is in the drink with no ice. Panera has since updated its nutrition information to reflect how much caffeine is in the Charged Lemonade with ice, listing the large size of the blood orange Charged Lemonade, for example, as having 302 milligrams.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, healthy adults can generally safely consume 400 milligrams of caffeine a day.
It was a bizarre thing. Energy drinks are at least marketed as having extreme amounts of caffeine, but this has more, is sold at a bread store, and the caffeine is intentionally downplayed.
88Aye, that's the weirdest part. Panera is like the basic mom place, coffee and bagels and sandwiches. Seems like a demographic mismatch, and not being blatent about the caffeine intake literally got people killed.
Point is, shouldn't have been a thing and should have gone away sooner.
38Right? Like I feel like it's already run its entire promotional campaign course and they're announcing this just because they're "done with it" (for now at least. Who knows about next year).
Like it's been the 4-6 months or however long they originally planned it for and are just finishing up the cycle.
11panera turned multiple accidental deaths into a marketing stunt to sell more lemonade. They should burn.
3And how many basic moms go on about their coffee?
3It's because caffeine is mote addictive than nicotine. You drink the chatged lemonade at Panera during your lunch break and think "wow! I felt great after my working kunch at Panera! I'm going back there more!" But that's just because you are caffeinated up to your gills without realizing it. It's the exact same as the story of a Chinese restaurant putting opium in the noodles to get people addicted to the shop.
-12
Cowards. Bring back the heart attack juice
50You could always drink a Gin Panic.
Recipe:
- Pour an amount of Gin into a large lager glass
- Add a tablespoon of instant coffee to the Gin and stir vigorously
- Fill the rest of the glass up with a Monster (What flavor? It doesn't matter, your not drinking this for flavor. This whole recipe went sideways the moment you picked up that coffee)
Voila, Cheers!
25This puts into context how truly dangerous Panera’s lemonade was: combining instant coffee and monster energy drink together would only net you maybe 200mg of caffeine (160mg from a 500ml monster, and most instant coffee is incredibly weak with 25-40mg of caffeine being in them). You’re combining two known stimulants together and still cannot approach 1 charged lemonade. It was incredibly stupid of Panera to make this, and then defend it (although I get why they defended it in court).
17Would be healthier to just do meth
14
I used to have the drink plan thing, because a year of it came as a perk/promo on a credit card we have. I called it "artisanal red bull" and I had to be careful with how fast I drank it. I've only got the uncontrollable jitters twice. Once when I didn't realize that a coffee shop doing big-assed iced coffees was just sugaring their coffee and adding a couple ounces of cream, not adding any particularly large amount of milk.
Then with the charged lemonade. I knew it had caffeine, a lot even, but I didn't do the math and assumed it was like a little more than mountain dew or something.
I was mistaken. I saw my ancestors in the vibrations of the universe strings.
I went back the next day.
5It isn't so bad if you don't drink it all at once
3Right, I just tried one for the first time the other day. Just put a bigger warning on it.
1
What this article doesn't say is that it's being replaced with an endless refill Four Loko original recipe fountain.
47Why do they keep bringing out these drinks that are so over caffeinated? They never learn their lesson until people start dying.
19It wasn't any more caffeinated than their coffee, but they make them because people buy them. Caffeine addiction is a real thing, and other stimulants are heavily regulated.
-2Panera previously advertised its Charged Lemonade as “Plant-based and Clean with as much caffeine as our Dark Roast coffee.” But the lawsuits said that at 390 milligrams, a large, 30-fluid-ounce Charged Lemonade has more caffeine in total than any size of Panera’s dark roast coffee, referring to the amount of caffeine that is in the drink with no ice.
5A large charged lemonade has 4 times the caffeine content than a cup of coffee according to wapo which I won't bother linking because it's paywalled. It's about twice the size of coffee and twice the concentration of caffeine.
1
because people buy them. especially kids.
look at death water. it's like $5 a bottle and it's super popular.
-8
this is why we can't have nice bad things.
12The stuff was a good product imo, just horribly displayed/advertised. Now the brand for it is rightfully tarnished.
5I mean, based on the image, it does say the caffine content prominently up front. Just doesn't run around saying "EXTREME" or the like on it, and I dunno how many people have a feel for how many milligrams does what, because other stuff doesn't normally indicate caffine content like that.
I'd never bothered trying it at my Panera's, as I prefer zero-calorie drinks, but I didn't think of it as being an energy drink.
4I mean, based on the image, it does say the caffine content prominently up front.
It wasn't always labeled so prominently.
4
It sucks I love that stuff for mornings when I'm tired I just pour some into my ice tea in my Stanley
1
I once tried an energy drink that had 300mg of caffeine, and I deeply regretted it. Apparently one of the people who died from Charged Lemonade drank three of them. Just imagining having that much caffeine is giving me heart palpitations
4Just have the same lemonade with no caffeine added. It was delicious
3Killer.
3Charged Lemonade tasted like crap anyway. Good riddance.
Panera's regular Lemonade and regular sweetened Green Tea tastes great. So I'm still overall happy with their drink options. But whoever the chef was who created this "Charged Lemonade" stuff needs to be fired.
2They should sell a canned version and call it "Killer Lemonade"
2Come play the lemonade roulette!
2People are already dieing in the store, where they can administer first ade!
1
Me and some of my buddies went to go try it. Disappointing. I was expecting to be able to say something cool like "I can hear colors" instead it was just an energy drink.
1Ughh, yet another case of the few ruining it for the rest :/
First they reduced it to <300 on the caffeine and put signs literally everywhere about it. But apparently people still can't read
-8You can just buy powdered caffeine, its cheap.
10Or just take pills if you need it that bad. But that might be a sign you need to cut back really.
2
I wouldn't call taking lemonade made from concentrated sugary syrup and filled with caffeine in a place that touts itself selling things like ciabatta sandwiches and "healthy" salads off the menu ruining it for anyone except maybe you.
4