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.
I get it now. You really don’t know much about caffeine or coffee, huh? Keep an open mind and read my reply carefully.
An 8oz Dark Roast coffee is approximately 100mg of caffeine. The same sized light roast coffee is closer to 150mg of caffeine. Panera’s smallest dark roast is 214mg of caffeine. ~40mg is a 4oz half-cup of lowish-caffeine coffee.
Have you ever seen or held a 30oz cup in your hand? It’s freaking massive. In US terms, it’s a QUART. In rest-of-the-world terms, it’s almost a liter. Every beverage a fast food joint sells is unhealthy at that size (probably including their local filtered water). But the ONE ingredient that isn’t unhealthy in all that is the caffeine! The sugar or sweeteners are the real villains there. 400mg of caffeine for 30oz is simply not excessive. Is it a good amount? Sure. It’s about 2/3 as strong as coffee. You shouldn’t treat it as a caffeine-free beverage. Obviously.
Per Panera’s own nutritional info, this 30oz caffeinated lemonade has about the same total caffeine as a large 20oz hot coffee (which is TINY for a large in the US, but you get free refills as Panera). You’re comparing a 30oz caffeinated lemonade to a 4oz half-cup of lower-caffeine coffee. But as I said, I think it’s ignorance and not bad faith.
So hopefully I’ve just educated you.