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.

  • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    25
    ·
    edit-2
    6 months ago

    You 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!

    • mean_bean279@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      6 months ago

      This 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).

      • Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        6 months ago

        I did the math, a gallon of coke doesn’t have this much caffeine. It’s more than just filling the cup with redbull without ice. You can knock back 2 16oz monsters and get less. It’s more caffeine than two original recipe Four Loko.

        This stuff would have still been irresponsible if served in shot glasses, let alone a 30oz.

        • tal@lemmy.today
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          6 months ago

          Coke doesn’t have all that much caffine compared to something like coffee.

          • Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            6 months ago

            85mg for 12oz can to 105mg to 8oz cup to be specific. I went with coke because it’s less variable and most people have had a can of coke.

      • catloaf@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        6 months ago

        No, I looked it up when this first came out. The caffeine content in Panera’s stuff was about the same as an equivalent amount of coffee.

        • mean_bean279@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          6 months ago

          It’s only equivalent to something like a pour over. Most people can’t properly brew something even remotely close to the straight caffeine content of the charged lemonade. Not to mention that to most people a lemonade is refreshing and they’re drinking 24+ ounces of it at a time.

          You’re looking at it from the perspective of caffeine per ml (which still, is not close since they’re artificially loading this with straight caffeine), but it’s really more about how this guises the caffeine behind something refreshing and easy to drink in large quantities. It’s why fruity alcohol cocktails are so much more dangerous to drink since they cover how much actual alcohol you’re consuming.

          • Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            6 months ago

            It’s still well below caffeine by volume of actual energy drinks (2-300mg in a 16oz can is fairly standard beyond monster and red bull)