Sarah Katz, 21, had a heart condition and died hours after she drank Panera’s Charged Lemonade, a large cup of which contains more caffeine than Red Bull and Monster energy drinks combined.
All Panera Bread restaurants are now displaying “enhanced” disclosures about the restaurant chain’s highly caffeinated lemonade, a spokesperson said Saturday, following a lawsuit that was filed by the family of a young woman who died after drinking the beverage.
Monday’s lawsuit, which was first obtained by NBC News, alleges that Sarah Katz, an Ivy League student with a heart condition, died after she drank Panera’s Charged Lemonade last year.
A large Charged Lemonade contains 390 milligrams — nearly the 400-milligram daily maximum of caffeine that the Food and Drug Administration says healthy adults can safely consume.
To be fair, Panera has always labeled the caffeine content of its drinks. Problem is that people don’t read the god damn label on the machine, forcing Panera to make it bigger and more obvious.
The staff nationwide were instructed to tell customers that it has “About as much caffeine as our dark roast” when asked about the caffeine content though.
That is correct. If you compare the caffeine content per ml to most coffees, you’ll find that it’s essentially the same. Star bucks coffee, for example, has 410mg for their large cup which is actually more per ml than the lemonades have.
It’s actually about 2/3 the caffeine of any of the most popular coffee blends in the US. It’s also only ~2/3 of the caffeine of Panera’s own Light Roast. That’s why they explicitly compare its caffeination to their dark roast.
…which is accurate.
Because people are idiots. If they put the mg most people will have no fucking clue what it means and assume it’s a safe amount.
Ironically, this new warning is a lot smaller than the label, and less visible. It’s just CYA protections from a company it seems that for the first time in a long time, didn’t actually fuck up.