An evening at the Panera Bread in the George Washington University's University Student Center.
By Francisco “A.J.” Camacho
Originally Published by WRGW District Radio on 15 February 2023.
Panera Bread’s “Charged” Lemonades, sold at the George Washington University (GW) University Student Center (USC) store, contain caffeine levels that are considered dangerous by the standards of the Kentucky Poison Control Center and other authorities.
In fact, you may have seen viral videos about the high caffeine content of the lemonades on more than one occasion, with one customer saying she felt “like the Hulk” after allegedly consuming 4 or 5 Mango Yuzu Citrus Charged Lemonades.
One large 30 fl oz Panera Charged Lemonade contains 390 milligrams (mg) of caffeine. If that sounds like a lot, that’s probably because—at least by the standards of commercial beverages—it very much is. For reference, a cup of coffee typically contains somewhere in the ballpark of 90 mg. Consuming the same volume of Red Bull, 30 fl oz, would equal only 278 mg of caffeine.
Not only do Panera’s charged lemonades have excessive caffeine by the standards of the beverage industry, but they push the boundaries of what is considered safe for human consumption by health authorities and experts.
The Kentucky Poison Control Center’s page on Caffeine Poisoning quotes Ashley Webb, the center’s Director and a board-certified toxicologist: “Safe caffeine consumption should not exceed 200 to 400 mg in a four-hour period. Persons with heart disease or heart abnormalities, should avoid excessive caffeine.”
The FDA cites 400 milligrams a day as the high end of safe caffeine consumption “for healthy adults,” but also notes that “there is wide variation in both how sensitive people are to the effects of caffeine and how fast they metabolize it.”
The clinical level of toxic caffeine levels is 20 mg of caffeine per each kg of body weight. That means for a 115 lbs. college student, drinking 2.7 large lemonades would give them a caffeine overdose. The symptoms of a caffeine overdose can include breathing trouble, changes in alertness, and hallucinations. Concerningly, this scenario is reasonably possible, if unlikely to occur frequently.
Could the lemonades be lethal? In short, not if you are a healthy adult. 150 mg of caffeine per kg of body weight is the level where it is more likely than not that a normal person will die of a caffeine overdose. For our hypothetical 115 lbs. college student, it would take 20 charged lemonades within the space of a few hours to fatally overdose.
But part of the concern is that some Panera customers aren’t healthy adults. Their clientele includes “adolescents and young adults,” as well as “women who are pregnant” and those “who are breast-feeding”—groups that the Mayo Clinic warns are at increased risk for severe caffeine side effects.
For college students, nutritional scientists generally see 175 mg as an accepted maximum daily intake of caffeine—enough for two cups of coffee, but not even one 20 fl oz regular sized cup of Panera’s charged lemonade.
Talking to a handful of students about the beverage revealed mixed levels of awareness of the lemonades’ caffeine content. Responses to the question, “What do you think of the caffeine content of Panera’s charged lemonades?” ranged from, “Don’t those have a crazy amount of caffeine?” to “I didn’t realize they had any.” While some people understand the caffeine content, others do not.
The “Charged Lemonades” section of the USC Panera Bread menu.
The lemonade dispensers (which display in small print the caffeine quantity) are behind the counter at the USC store and not reasonably legible for a customer. The menu does not display the caffeine quantity, but does say of the lemonades: “Plant-based and clean with as much caffeine as our Dark Roast coffee,” with the word “caffeine” underlined in orange. Both the Dark Roast coffee and lemonades contain approximately 13 mg of caffeine per fl oz, though the maximum serving-size of the lemonades is 30 fl oz while the coffee’s is 20 fl oz.
The manager of the Panera Bread in the University Student Center said he could not provide comment for publications and directed us to Panera’s press office. The Panera Bread Press office did not respond to a request for comment prior to this publication. GW Dining also did not respond to a request for comment prior to this publication.
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