Following months of debate over their line of Charged Lemonade beverages, Panera has decided to stop selling them, per Business Insider. The sandwich and coffee shop has confirmed that the very caffeinated Charged Lemonades taken off the menu are a part of a “menu transformation.”
As part of their make-over, Panera will launch several fresh drinks. Among these fresh drinks will be citrus punch, tropical green smoothie, pomegranate hibiscus tea, blueberry lavender lemonade.
Removing Charged Lemonades from restaurants comes at a time when Panera is under legal hot fire for wrongful death related to two cases involving the beverages. A student of the University of Pennsylvania who died a few hours after consuming a Charged Lemonade was the victim of a wrongful death lawsuit launched against the chain at the end of the last year.
After drinking three cups of Charged Lemonade, a man in Florida died; this resulted in the second wrongful death lawsuit being filed in the past year. After an inquiry, Panera claimed—as CNN reports—that the man’s death “was not caused by one of the company’s products.”
Additionally suing the restaurant is a competitive athlete who drank two and a half cups of Charged Lemonade and suffered “permanent cardiac injuries”. That lawsuit adds to the other ones already lodged against the eatery.
Once a hit product, Panera’s Charged Lemonades lost appeal due in great part to their notoriously high caffeine content. Each of the drinks had shockingly 260 milligrammes of caffeine in a serving. Many consumers discovered they were consuming much more than one Charged Lemonade because of the chain used to offer free refills on the highly caffeinated beverages.
Just two drinks of lemonade, with 260 milligrams of caffeine in each serving, will more than cover the 400 milligram maximum advised daily dosage from the Food and Drug Administration. You run the danger of suffering possibly dangerous symptoms including a fast heart rate, an upset stomach, and headaches at that level when you surpass that 400 mg limit.