Panera Bread’s highly caffeinated Charged Lemonade is now blamed for a second death, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.
Dennis Brown, of Fleming Island, Florida, drank three Charged Lemonades from a local Panera on Oct. 9 and then suffered a fatal cardiac arrest on his way home, the suit says.
Brown, 46, had an unspecified chromosomal deficiency disorder, a developmental delay and a mild intellectual disability. He lived independently, frequently stopping at Panera after his shifts at a supermarket, the legal complaint says. Because he had high blood pressure, he did not consume energy drinks, it adds.
As someone who has gone to the hospital for an overdose on caffeine, I really want to try one of these. Because, I clearly haven’t learned my lesson at all.
Fucking lol
Right? I’ve never gone for an overdose, but I have had jangly eyeballs once or twice.
Sounds delicious.
“jangly eyeballs” is the perfect descriptor thanks
I’m glad I’m not the only one who keeps seeing these stories and immediately wanting to go try it.
theyre to die for ive heard
Ride the walrus.
You can see his stripes but you know he’s clean.
Why is a bread and soup restaurant selling energy drinks so caffeinated it will kill you if you drink it?
The same reason a sandwich restaurant uses only bread that is legally classified as cake
For those not in the know… it’s Subway.
It’s not so caffeinated, it’s about as much caffeine per ounce as coffee
Yeah, but nobody’s drinking 3 30 oz coffees in one sitting. Nor is coffee really marketed as a health drink.
A 30-ounce, large-size Panera Charged Lemonade has about 390 milligrams of caffeine, about four times the amount found in a cup of coffee.
If any sugar soaked beverage is allowed to be marketed as a health drink, that’s a problem that applies to the entire industry.
And drinking 90oz is the fault of the consumer, remember how much blowback there was when New York banned selling drinks above a certain volume? The people want to be able to do drink ungodly amounts of soft drink, apparently.
Only thing I really blame Panera for is not clearly labeling how much caffeine is in a cup, which I also don’t really blame them for because the last time I went to Starbucks or McDonald’s I couldn’t find out which latte had the most caffeine, so that’s standard behavior I guess.
Push for more required disclosure if you’d like, I’d probably agree, but Panera was not out of line IMO.
If it is an industry problem, then this sort of event is usually what snowballs into actual change.
The tip of this case, I believe, isn’t just the caffeine content, but the fact that it:
- Wasn’t exactly labeled as a high-caf drink.
- Was often next to, or in place of, non-caf drinks.
- Was marketed as part of an unlimited drinks program.
While the company isn’t required to cater to individuals with very specific tolerances of the simulant, they likely had data available to them that suggests that this outcome was always a possibility, yet they supposedly ran the product until people died.
To be fair, its absurdly stupid to think banning the sale of large drinks does anything positive for anyone. I never get larges of anything, but I’ll fight stupid laws like that any time.
ehh, I think it makes sense in that it eliminates perverse incentives like “give us 50 cents more and you can double your already extra large soda,” but as implemented it was certainly just a lazy band-aid solution
To be fair nobody should be drinking 3 30oz lemonades in one sitting either
You obviously haven’t ever worked in IT.
Also, a cup of coffee is about 4x smaller than a 30oz drink.
Dunkin serves their large iced coffees in 30oz cups. I also will frequently drink a whole pot of coffee throughout the day. 390mg of caffeine is really not that significant for the average person.
You may have a caffeine problem. Like, that’s objectively a LOT of caffeine, my friend.
A pot is seen as having between 643 to 857 mg of caffeine in it. You’re ostensibly drinking the equivalent of 11-14 shots of espresso daily. That’s… That’s a lot.
Idk I’m not dependent on it. I don’t drink coffee every day but sometimes I’ll drink a lot. It doesn’t really effect me much when I drink it and I can easily skip coffee for days at a time so it’s hard to call it a problem.
Regardless, the FDA says that 400mg of caffeine per day is safe for healthy adults so the 390mg lemonade is fine.
It’s not a dangerous drink for the majority of the population. Dude had known medical issues that caffeine can cause issues with, and drank an unreasonable amount of it.
It has more caffeine (390 mg) than a Monster Energy Drink (160 mg) and a Red Bull (77.4 mg) combined. It has twice the Canadian legal limit for caffeine in an energy drink.
It’s not even advertised as an energy drink, and it has 40% more caffeine than monster and red bull combined. I know you Yanks like to live on the edge and YOLO and whatnot, but that’s a dangerous drink.
It is clearly advertised. Quit your lying.
You’re comparing the caffeine content of a 30oz drink to a 16 oz and 12 oz respectively. Red bull is 111. Monster is 86. I had gotten these charged lemonades regularly before these lawsuits. Know what was on the machine when you went to get it? The exact caffeine content. The entire time. Always. It was pretty clearly marketed as having about as much caffeine as a cup of coffee if you drank a cup of coffee worth. If these specifically need to be marketed as energy drinks, then so does coffee. A standard cup of coffee has 100-150 mg of caffeine.
The first time I had a full 30 oz serving of the mango one I felt like I was vibrating. I decided from that point on to only get half and fill the rest with unsweetened tea. There absolutely should be clearly marked caffeine content in things. And we live in a litigious society. I’m pissed because now I have to ask one of the employees to get these for me instead of me just being able to serve myself…like I can their coffee.
Because caffeine is addictive, and the executives at Panera are addicted to profits.
This drink has 390 milligrams of caffeine in it… That’s equivalent to over SIX goddamn shots of espresso. That’s not a mistake… It’s just insane.
The amount of caffeine per ounce is on par with coffee. Hardly classify that as an ‘energy drink’. Or are you saying they can’t sell coffee either? You can by the same amount of caffeine per drink (30oz), from Starbucks. Why didn’t you mention Starbucks? Caffeine from one place is the same as another.
because if it’s a normal drink but you feel good and energized then there must be some magic in that drink that would make me want to buy more of it. lacking awareness one would likely just keep drinking the infinite refills.
idiots don’t consider magic not being real and drugs being the only thing that makes you feel good. in this case shittons of atp clones aka caffeine.
I don’t want to sound like a dick, but I don’t really think Panera is at fault here. Their lemonade is no more caffeinated than standard Starbucks venti drinks.
Dennis Brown, of Fleming Island, Florida, drank three Charged Lemonades from a local Panera on Oct. 9 and then suffered a fatal cardiac arrest on his way home, the suit says.
390mg of caffeine is a lot. But it’s also commonly found in large cups of coffee. And this individual had three of them. I think Florida might want to consider ensuring mentally impaired people like Dennis Brown are better equipped to navigate a world which has leaned heavily into caffeine as a stimulant. I don’t believe that Panera is some bastion of justice and good will. I’m sure their lemonade makes every attempt to “hook” members on their product with high levels of caffeine and hiding it under sugar. However, I think this lawsuit might just mean that caffeine levels should be treated like calories: we should mandate that an estimate is listed next to the beverage so those with heart problems or the health conscientious can make more informed decisions.
They failed to properly set expectations. It was self-serve and publicly available, right next to other juices and teas. The expectation of customers, right or wrong, is that those sorts of products and placements mean that you can consume them at a fairly high rate.
They know their customer base, and know that their customer base regularly refills their drinks at the self-service station. They then created a drink that is unsafe to refill, as it would cause you to breach the maximum daily recommended dose.
So, any hotel is liable if a guest drinks too much coffee from the breakfast buffet?
The drink is perfectly safe for people without health issues that make caffeine unsafe.
Coffee is very much an understood and expected quantity. It’s about expectations.
Now if a hotel spiked it’s coffee with extra caffeine, more than could reasonably be expected by the average person, then yeah, possibly liable.
They listed the caffeine content very clearly.
They’re no more responsible for someone with a known medical condition that’s exacerbated by stimulants deciding to chug an unreasonable amount than Coke would be if someone with diabetes decided to chug a 2l and went into DKA.
Not to mention that the name alone carries the expectation that there will be a high caffeine content.
Then they’ll win the law suit no problem.
No, because coffee obviously has caffeine, and lemonade obviously doesn’t have caffeine
Caffeine defense?
Username checks out.
EDIT: That being said, I agree with you for the most part, though I would charge that am exceedingly high caffeine level such as this should be clearly labeled.
The scary part for me is that, while this gentleman lived independently, I wonder if he would have been able to make the responsible choice to limit his intake or choose another drink if he was aware of the stimulant effects. Developmental disabilities can vastly alter critical thinking of things like that.
Bummer of a situation all around.
I also don’t think the law puts any responsibility on Panera here. They disclosed the amount of caffeine, even if people think it should have been disclosed more prominently. The amount of caffeine is close to, but below, the amount that’s safe for a healthy adult with no sensitivities to caffeine. The law is clear that they don’t have any duties beyond that, even if a customer comes in who has a sensitivity.
I also think they’re going to settle this out of court rather than roll the dice on this, so we’ll never see a decision.
The difference is that everyone knows that 30 oz of coffee would have a shitload of caffeine, and everyone knows that 30 oz of lemonade has approximately zero caffeine
So the signs posted on the drink that it’s caffeinated aren’t enough? So in this picture you don’t see anything about caffeine?
What about on their website listing? Where it says several times that it has caffeine? Or has a warning label too. https://www.panerabread.com/en-us/menu/products/strawberry-lemon-mint-charged-lemonade.html
Use in moderation. NOT RECOMMENDED FOR children, people sensitive to caffeine, pregnant or nursing women.
That warning has been there a while.
So the signs posted on the drink that it’s caffeinated aren’t enough?
Correct. The only reason you would think to look for the caffeine content if it you’ve already made up your mind that Panera did nothing wrong, and desperately want to defend them. That tiny low contrast text is not even close to enough.
Nobody in their right mind checks the website listing for caffeine content in lemonade. The only reason you would is if you’ve already made up your mind that Panera did nothing wrong, and you desperately want to defend them. Lemonade. Doesn’t. Have. Caffeine. If theirs does, it needs to be made abundantly clear, with large high contrast text. It should not be possible for someone to get multiple refills without noticing the warning.
You literally didn’t look at either thing I linked did you. Your not interested in the facts at all…
I literally linked to a photo that shows the drink container in a Panera bread. It has the cup sizes and amount of caffeine listed on it. In quite readable text.
And on the website there’s plenty of very obvious signs that say this is caffeinated. There’s an entire section that states a warning that it’s not meant for children or pregnant women.
What do you need for them to have like a police officer stand there and verbally warn you?
I posted that literal same exact picture like a dozen times the last time Panera killed someone with this drink, I’m quite familiar with the sign
I addressed the website point by saying that literally nobody has ever looked up what’s in the lemonade at any restaurant when they walk up to the lemonade dispenser. Have you ever walked up to an iced tea dispenser at Braums and looked up the ingredients online to make sure there’s no penicillin in it? Like, the things I expect in a Fuji Apple Cranberry lemonade are fuji apples, cranberries, and lemons. If Panera spiked it with deadly nightshade, they wouldn’t be off the hook just because they put up a warning on their website. I’m not on their website when I’m in their restaurant, I’m in their restaurant.
What do you need for them to have like a police officer stand there and verbally warn you?
Or just like, a sign that’s prominent enough that literally anyone at all who isn’t desperately looking for a reason to defend this company could notice it. Like, make it in big enough letters that when you show someone a picture of the sign and then take your phone away, they’ll have noticed that there was caffeine.
I wonder if something else is in the drink is causing these complications (maybe chemical reactions increase bioavailibility or the rate of caffeine absorption), or if the caffeine “settles” or something. You don’t really hear about Starbuck’s causing many deaths.
That’s because people with heart conditions are aware that 30 oz of coffee is too much coffee, and 30 oz of lemonade is a normal amount of lemonade
Granted this guy had as much as 90 oz of lemonade, which by my calculations would typically have approximately 0 mg of caffeine
Panera is absolutely not at fault.
This is just the news cycle drumming up hysteria because there’s not much else going on.
Yeah. Companies shouldn’t have any responsibility about selling a potentially lethal drug to the general public. That infringes on my freedom and I won’t stand for it!
I say that Panera should triple the caffeine and if people keep drinking it it’s their own fault.
Take some responsibility people! Companies should be able to sell products that kill people with impunity, if they can’t then the terrorists and communists have won!!!
The general public doesn’t have a caffeine sensitivity, so no, it’s not lethal to the general public.
Terrible take. But nice try.
I need to get more of that fucking lemonade.
I have tachycardia and I’m supposed to avoid caffeine. But I could easily not read the fine print and drink this. Who expects caffeine in their lemonade?
So you’d see ‘charged lemonade’ and not all any questions…
I recently went to try the charged lemonade (was really gross btw), they do a pretty good job of advertising what’s in it. You’d honestly have to go out of your way to avoid the signage telling you about the caffeine.
That and if a drink is charged it usually implies caffeine, alcohol, or vitamin stuff. Either way it is something a person should probably be curious enough to investigate before consuming. Idk why someone would just order and drink something that they don’t know anything about… That just seems weird and irresponsible
I’m usually all for knocking corps down a peg, but this charged lemonade stuff with panera feels more like a failure of personal responsibility of the individual.
And these two comments are why cases try to settle vs going to trial.
It’s worth noting they’ve since changed how they do things after the first lawsuit from what I read. It wasn’t always the way you saw. It wasn’t labeled as having caffeine and was next to other non-caffinated drinks.
Not only that but before the 1st lawsuit their large size had nearly 390g caffeine, which is right at the limit of what’s safe for a healthy adult. I don’t think a reasonable person would have expected quite that much caffeine. Though they have reduced it since that 1st lawsuit
Something tells me the fact that he was developmentally delayed and had a mental disorder with what sounds like diabetes, makes me unsurprised fam.
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“Charged” is not standard language. Have you ever heard of charged cider? Charged seltzer? It’s not a thing. To be sure, I googled “charged cider,” and found one result. It is not caffeinated cider.
Many caffeinated products use “charged” language. Coca cola makes a caffeinated product in the Maldives called, simply, “Charged.” Dunkin Donuts Let’s you “charge” any drink (add a shot of espresso), you can buy “charged” brownies on Amazon, and so on.
Panera Dead.
gd at least limit 1 per customer wtf
Why? Starbucks doesn’t limit their coffee and it has the same caffeine per ml as this drink.
Starbucks doesn’t have a tap with unlimited refills, either.
Even if they did, a normal person understands that 30 oz of coffee is too much coffee
If you get a regular cup of coffee, you absolutely can ask for a free refill. Unless they changed that, but that was a pretty common thing for college students at one point. 4 cups of coffee aren’t out of the question.
The difference is that coffee typically has caffeine, and lemonade typically has no caffeine
Damn I need to go to Panera
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I think some Panera breads still have the charged lemonade right next to the normal lemonade or something like that… making it easy to mistake the two. The lemonade also has way too much caffeine in one serving, making it extremely potent.
Yeah I see that now. Poor guy, Panera definitely needs to do better and make it clear on the menu.
While he has a developmental delay and intellectual disability, I wouldn’t blame anyone for assuming lemonade has much less caffeine than an energy drink.
Yeah that’s true, it really should be on Panera to make it clear to the average person that it’s not your regular kind of lemonade.
Since that initial big story in early october, Panera has done more to make it clear just how much caffeine is in these drinks. Prior to this, without going to their website someone might not even know they were caffeinated at all.
Very true, it really should be Panera’s responsibility to make these kinds of things crystal clear for any customer.
Article says he had mild intellectual disability.
Maybe because the article tells you he was developmentally delayed, kinda like people who don’t read the article.
Yeah that’s on me. Just read the title and reacted while at work. Panera really needs to make it clear on the menu itself at how this lemonade is very different from the regular kind. Poor guy.
Can this be the next trend on Tik Tok?
People… Dying? Tf?
Humor is dead
This is a person who already has medical issues that put him at risk of his exact cause of death, and he knowingly endangers his own life by consuming substances - in excess - which would endanger him further. While I understand and am sympathetic to his disabilities, what I don’t understand is how Panera Bread is legally responsible for this person’s death.
Should Panera Bread put a warning label on its charged lemonade? Apparently, it’s necessary. Should they consider lowering the dose of caffeine? Possibly. But if a person in precarious physical health due to having high blood pressure - one who know not to consume highly-caffeinated beverages - does so anyway, and in excess, to the point that it causes a heart attack, I simply cannot see how the one who sold them the caffeinated drink are to blame.
A large cup is 390mg of caffeine brother… no labels, and sometimes is right next to the normal lemonade.
270mg is the norm in a potent energy drink.
A single cup of that shit would throw you into palpitations and panic, no doubt.
A large cup is 390mg of caffeine brother… no labels, and sometimes is right next to the normal lemonade.
Want to take a guess at how much caffeine is in a large coffee?
~270mg is the usual.
As a certified grad student loser, I would totally know. Adding a shot of espresso is around 65mg of caffeine per shot.
Most I’ve done is an americano with 4 extra shots of espresso. This is reserved for being an idiot and needing a way to maximize sleep schedules.
The difference is that the normal people know that 30 oz of coffee is too much coffee, and that 30 oz of lemonade is a normal amount of lemonade
There’s labels everywhere at Panera. In person and on their website.
https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/b510c87d-d4cb-45e5-8f4a-47acac526a4c.jpeg
That photo clearly shows the mg of caffeine per size of drink. What more labeling do you want?
I’m dumbfounded that they’re allowed to sell those drinks in Canada. If it’s an energy drink from a store, there is a set limit of up to 180mg per container. (200mg for the little energy shot bottles.) We recall these things all the damn time for not having enough/adequate labelling.
Apparently though, caffeine can just magically tell if it comes from a restaurant or from a can, and it decides to be less harmful if you get it from doordash instead of from a convenience store. /s
Can anyone tell me how this makes sense? They cared enough to add new caffeine mandates and limits back in August of this year, but the buck apparently stops when it’s a chain restaurant in question. Thanks, I hate it.
If you’re curious about this sort of thing, look up “eggshell plaintiff” - a widely accepted legal precedent addressing your argument https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggshell_skull
“Knowingly” is a stretch. These self serve dispensers do not make the caffeine content obvious unless you’re desperately trying to defend Panera and already know that they have caffeine
So people are choosing to drink that shit then sue the company? I’m no fan of big corporations, but this is some bullshit right there. Grown ups making their own decisions warrants a lawsuit now?
