I'd never even heard of Panera's "Charged Lemonade" before this.
An Ivy League student with a heart condition died after she drank Panera Bread's Charged Lemonade, a large cup of which contains more caffeine than cans of Red Bull and Monster energy drinks combined, according to a lawsuit.
The suit calls the beverage a "dangerous energy drink" The deceased, 21-year-old Sarah Katz, reportedly purchased one of the drinks in September of last year, drank it, and went into cardiac arrest several hours later.
The restaurant chain reportedly touted the drink as "plant-based and clean," whatever all of that means. But "at 390 milligrams, the large Charged Lemonade has more caffeine than any size of Panera's dark roast coffee," according to the lawsuit.
Uh, yeah, 390 milligrams is a good bit of caffeine. Here, for example, is a handy chart showing standard caffeine amounts in normal drinks:
So it's got 50% more caffeine than a normal 12 oz cup of coffee. That's a hearty dose of the drug — and in a lemonade drink, no less, which you're almost guaranteed to drink more quickly.
Whether the suit has any legal merit remains to be seen. It claims that Panera's drinks "include no warning of any potentially dangerous effects" in spite of their high caffeine content and that the young woman, Sarah Katz, was careful of her caffeine intake because of her condition.
Panera said it is investigating the incident.
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