Lawsuits have blamed the highly caffeinated drink for at least two deaths.
A Panera Bread spokesperson says the restaurant chain is phasing out its Charged Lemonade, a highly caffeinated beverage that has been blamed for at least two deaths in lawsuits.
The beverages prompted controversy in October following a lawsuit filed by the family of 21-year-old Sarah Katz, a University of Pennsylvania student with a heart condition who died after consuming Charged Lemonade. A second lawsuit was filed in December by the family of Dennis Brown, a Florida man with a chromosomal deficiency disorder and a developmental delay who also died after drinking a Charged Lemonade.
A third lawsuit was filed in January by Lauren Skerritt, a 28-year-old Rhode Island woman, which claimed the beverage left her with “permanent cardiac injuries.”
I used to have the drink plan thing, because a year of it came as a perk/promo on a credit card we have. I called it “artisanal red bull” and I had to be careful with how fast I drank it. I’ve only got the uncontrollable jitters twice. Once when I didn’t realize that a coffee shop doing big-assed iced coffees was just sugaring their coffee and adding a couple ounces of cream, not adding any particularly large amount of milk.
Then with the charged lemonade. I knew it had caffeine, a lot even, but I didn’t do the math and assumed it was like a little more than mountain dew or something.
I was mistaken. I saw my ancestors in the vibrations of the universe strings.
I went back the next day.