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.
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?
It’s what people don’t know that is causing these deaths. Charged lemonade has insane levels of caffeine. Right up to the FDAs safe daily intake limit in a single cup. People think a charged lemonade is roughly equivalent to a red bull. It is not. It is more like 4 red bulls in a large drink. And the company’s advertising itself compares the drink to a dark roast coffee, and slots the drink among their non-caffeine drinks.
The problem is that they are not making informed decisions. If you picked this stuff up randomly one day, you’re not gonna think that it has an insane amount of caffeine in it.
And they encourage people to have more by offering free refills. Remember that one cup goes right up against the FDAs safe intake limit, and that’s assuming you had no other caffeine that day. So they get a refill. Now they’re operating with twice as much caffeine in their system in that instance than the FDA considers safe for daily intake.
Charged lemonade has insane levels of caffeine
Quit your bullshit. Your lying by omission because you have some agenda to push. You report like Fox News does.
The amount of caffeine per fluid ounce, is on par with coffee. Same goes for red bull, be it on the higher side, but still. A redbull is a 12oz. drink, you can’t blindly compare that to a 30oz drink and pretend they’re the same. I can walk into Starbucks right now, get a 20oz drink that has 475mg of caffeine it’s just a venti Featured Blonde Roast… which per ounce, is twice the caffeine than RedBull.
There’s plenty of signs and verbiage, both in store and online, this stuff has caffeine.
Surely you realize it’s easier to down lemonade than coffee?
It’s like cannabis potency in edibles. When the drug is presented in an easy to consume form, people consume way more of it.
Basically the lemonade tastes too good lol
Found the libertarian.
😂 I don’t know anything about libertarians. I don’t even know the definition of this word.
Edit: fucking grown ass people can’t hold themselves from a drink. Get the fuck outta here with this braindead bullshit. Cry me a fucking river.
I think they assumed you were libertarian because you were giving off irrationally angry vibes while sucking up to a corporation.
Many fake libertarians behave that way. It truly was an honest mistake the other person made.
Probably. But I clearly stated that I’m not a fan of corporations, how was I sucking up to a corporation. I just stated what made sense to me. People choose to drink that shit. Grown ups do it, they believed whatever bullshit that corporation told them like idiots and got themselves in trouble then started bitching about it and sued the corporation. I mean sue them to the ground, I could really care less, but do it over something right, not your own idiocy (not you, them).
Yep the dude totally killed himself to get that sweet Panera payout. 🤦♂️
Ever heard of the Darwin award?
Now? It’s been going on forever. It’s why all those really dumb warnings you see on everything are on said things.
True. Look at me getting downvoted by the charged lemonade drinkers 😂
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.
“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
They’ve put warning labels on the lemonade now (there were none before), and have also removed it from their unlimited refills club.
They’ve also lowered the amount of caffeine to a somewhat safer dose.
and he knowingly endangers his own life by consuming substances - in excess - which would endanger him further.
Ahh but knowingly is the key word here. See, the company put the drink right next to their regular non caffeinated drinks such a regular lemonade, had no warning labels, and offered free refills on the drinks.
So how could they reasonably have known?
390mg is pushing right up against the FDAs safety limit for daily total intake.
Now, if you saw a drink called charged lemonade next to their regular lemonade, what would you think it was? Lemonade with some extra fruits perhaps?
You certainly wouldn’t think that it contains such a ridiculous level of caffeine that rides right up to the FDA safety line in a single cup, especially if they offer free refills.
Ahh but knowingly is the key word here. See, the company put the drink right next to their regular non caffeinated drinks such a regular lemonade, had no warning labels, and offered free refills on the drinks.
but it had a label, didn’t it? one listing its contents? how is Panera Bread responsible for a person’s lack of self-control?
So how could they reasonably have known?
He already knew he had high blood pressure and to avoid highly-caffeinated foods/beverages. he purchased and consumed something three times without reading the label which would have informed him of the amount of caffeine it contained. How is it Panera Bread’s fault that he neglected to do that and consumed the beverage anyway?
but it had a label, didn’t it? one listing its contents? how is Panera Bread responsible for a person’s lack of self-control?
And how many labels do you check for contents that a given food just plain does not contain? Because lemonades typically don’t have any caffeine in them.
Would you check the labels of a coffee in case it has alcohol? Would you check the labels of a fruit salad incase it has meat? Would you check the label of a lemonade for dangerous levels of caffeine?
You obviously wouldn’t, and as a result this could have easily fucked you up. Two cups of this, and you’d be having heart palpitations.
He already knew he had high blood pressure and to avoid highly-caffeinated foods/beverages. he purchased and consumed something three times without reading the label which would have informed him of the amount of caffeine it contained.
Because it is unreasonable to expect a lemonade to contain any caffeine, especially when the company failed to give notice of the fact.
What are you expecting him to do, read every label of literally every thing they consume, incase their packet of rice somehow contains caffeine?
How is it Panera Bread’s fault that he neglected to do that and consumed the beverage anyway?
Because they called it a lemonade, not a fucking energy drink, and gave no advanced notices that the item even has caffeine, let alone a borderline dangerous amount. And no, a tiny ass listing on the back of the retail cups is not enough.
How is any of that the fault of Panera bread? And why can’t you answer that simple question?
The amount in the lemonade was approved by the FDA, and it is every person‘s responsibility to check what they consume before they do so. The person had a pre-existing health condition, and that is not Panera bread‘s fault, either. 
You can’t just go around blaming everyone else for your own mistakes.
How is any of that the fault of Panera bread? And why can’t you answer that simple question?
I did answer the question. Let me repeat incase you have trouble reading.
They called it lemonade, put it in a lineup among non caffeinated drinks, put zero warning labels on and offered free refills on a drink that rode so close to the line of safe daily intakes that having two would cause serious problems even in healthy people.
They basically did everything they possibly could to hide this information. A single line in an ingredients is not sufficient warning because no reasonable consumer would check the ingredients of a lemonade for dangerous levels of caffeine.
The amount in the lemonade was approved by the FDA
Nope! FDA doesn’t actually regulate restaurants, and Charged Lemonade isn’t something that can be bought in store, only at Panera restaurants. FDA officially has no jurisdiction here:
https://www.fda.gov/food/food-industry/how-start-food-business
Examples of Food businesses NOT regulated by FDA:
Retail food establishments (i.e. grocery stores, restaurants, cafeterias, and food trucks), which are regulated by state and local governments.
Farmers markets
What you’ve done is mix fact with opinion to massively misrepresent the situation. You’re welcome to try that in a civil lawsuit, but if I’m on the jury, I would vote to dismiss the case. 
What did I mix, exactly? The only bit that is opinion was me stating they did everything they could to hide the information.
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.
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 could vividly hear the florescent lights of a gas station once. “Jangly eyeballs” checks out
If you’ve ever had a large coffee, it’s like that. If you’ve ever had 3 large coffees and a heart condition, the same principle applies.
Panera should go ahead and put prominent warning labels on it. Call it The lemonade so charged it killed [name of latest victim]. It might double sales of the product.
Panera’s MURDER lemonade. So good it’ll kill you!! Buy one, get one on Mondays!
Dennis Brown, of Fleming Island, Florida, drank three Charged Lemonades…
Brown, 46, had an unspecified chromosomal deficiency disorder, a developmental delay and a mild intellectual disability.
Because he had high blood pressure, he did not consume energy drinks, it adds.
Can someone explain why this is Panera Bread’s fault?
Because they sell what looks and tastes like normal lemonade, without any safeguards to make sure you don’t accidentally drink four times the daily recommended limit in one sitting. The signs display the caffeine content in small text next to the calories, which you and I both know that nobody who doesn’t count their calories reads. It’s called “charged” lemonade, in small yellow text on the green sign. It’s perfectly reasonable to assume that the lemonade in that lemonade dispenser is normal lemonade.
But why hold them accountable? Starbucks wouldn’t be in trouble if you drank 90 oz of coffee!
Coffee obviously has caffeine, it’s the kind of inseparable from the concept of it. Same goes to a lesser extent with many sodas–anyone who has to watch their caffeine likely knows that coke and doctor pepper have caffeine. But lemonade? Who sells caffeinated lemonade? I guess G-Fuel does, but someone with a heart condition probably knows not to order G-Fuel.
Lemonade is the safe choice when you don’t want caffeine, because to my knowledge nobody (besides Panera bread) has ever sold caffeinated lemonade out of self-service dispensers.
They never disclosed how much caffeine/sugar was in the drink till after the first death. Too much caffeine can kill you.
I don’t think that’s true. In an article on Today published before the first death, they mention that “Though Panera declined to comment to TODAY.com, it posts nutritional content on signage and at drink dispenser stations in-store and at its drive-thru menu. Online and in-app, nutritional facts are posted on each of Panera’s menu items, and note when an item contains caffeine as well.”
The FDA also notes that 400mg is totally safe, and in fact, most regular coffee drinkers consume more than that on a daily basis.
The issue is that someone with a known health condition (both deaths), consumed a product they shouldn’t have been consuming in large quantities. And they had previously consumed the same drink on multiple occasions prior, so it’s hard to claim ignorance.
gd at least limit 1 per customer wtf
That charged lemonade is going to be a big hit in 2024, I tell 'ya.
Was just there, they recently moved them behind the counter, this time they were completely gone.
Why is a bread and soup restaurant selling energy drinks so caffeinated it will kill you if you drink it?
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.
