Panera Charged Lemonades have more caffeine and sugar than Monster energy drinks

A TikTok (below) from a woman who drank several Panera Charged Lemonades is going viral. User Sarahebaus explains, very rapidly, that she’s been drinking Panera Charged Lemonades with free refills as she works out of her local Panera. (She doesn’t work there behind the counter, she just likes to be around people so she does her work there.) Sarah doesn’t drink coffee regularly and when her husband wanted one, he looked up the nutritional information because he’s a type 1 diabetic. It turns out that a 20 ounce serving has between 280 to 350 calories depending on the flavor, 260 mg of caffeine and between 62 and 85 grams of sugar. In comparison, a 12 ounce can of Coke has 140 calories, 34 mg of caffeine and 39 grams of sugar. A 16 ounce Monster energy drink has 210 calories, 160 mg of caffeine and 54 grams of sugar. I think did the math right and the Panera charged lemonade has more sugar and caffeine than a Monster energy drink! An eight ounce cup of coffee has about 100 mg of caffeine. So you’re getting 2.5 cups of coffee in one Charged Lemonade at Panera. The Daily Dot has more:

TikTok user Sarah (@sarahebaus) claims that she started drinking the specialty lemonade while doing work at a Panera Bread location. It was only later when she was ordering the drink again with her husband, who is a Type 1 diabetic, that she realized just how much sugar and caffeine is in the drink.

“@Panera Bread this drink should come with a warning because it’s delicious and will lead to my cardiac arrest,” she writes in the video’s caption.

In this video, Sarah says, while she knew the drink had caffeine, she consumed four or five of them over the course of a given workday as the location has free refills.

Four or five cups of coffee is within the recommendations of caffeine limits from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which suggest that a person should not consume more than 400 milligrams of caffeine per day.

Many users in comments expressed their shock at the drink’s contents.

“260??????…Are you kidding, my pre workout rn doesn’t even have that much,” shared a commenter. “I thought it was going to be less then coffee!”

“Giiiiiirl that is SO MUCH SUGAR and I RARELY say that,” noted a second.

Some claimed they’ve already had negative experiences with the drink.

“these drinks gave me heart attack symptoms and i thought it was over,” alleged a commenter.

“I work there and warn so many mothers when their 7 yr old will fill up a 30 ounce cup,” stated another. “the caffeine sign needs to be way bigger.”

[From Daily Dot]

I actually ordered a lemonade at Panera that I filled myself and then saw the sign for charged lemonades. I was horrified that I was drinking an energy lemonade (I only drink 2-3 coffees in the mornings) so I asked another customer about it. She said that they fill the charged lemonades at the counter so I didn’t need to worry that I got the wrong kind. At least that’s a start, but I agree that the caffeine sign needs to be be bigger for this! They’re selling energy drinks at Panera disguised as lemonade. Gross. I mean I get that there’s a call for that, but it should be clearer to the consumer. Plus they have the “sip club” where you get free refills! Panera also shouldn’t be allowed to sell charged lemonades to kids.

Here’s that TikTok thanks to user Sarahebaus

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmcHFmboZ0e8%2BapZ6qkZSwqa3RoJydl5yaurC6wJ2crJeYlsOmq8yoqZ6Xk5azp7HIp5yYmZ6ZrLTBxpqpmKyYlruguc6nqq2dopSyr7HRoLCYnKKeu6y%2Fjg%3D%3D