Sarah Katz, 21, had a heart condition and was not aware of the drink’s caffeine content, which exceeded that of cans of Red Bull and Monster energy drinks combined, according to a legal filing

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[–] 273 points 2 years ago (16 children)

I hope this lawsuit forces them to remove this. I'm sorry this young girl died. This isn't the first issue they had with this drink. My husband and I were discussing it months ago. He thought it was just lemonade - sugar, water, lemons. We didn't figure out why he was up all night. Later someone old him how much caffeine it has. We had no idea. It's dangerous to those with high bp.

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  • [–] [S] 134 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    I'm not going to lie when I first read the headline I thought this was probably a frivolous lawsuit but after reading the article I thought that stuff should get pulled.

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  • [–] 138 points 2 years ago (9 children)

    It's like that McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit. Poor lady was made a mockery of for ordering hot coffee because it sounds ridiculous at first but she had 2nd degree burns. It was recklessly hot, as was this drink recklessly produced and marketed.

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  • [–] 123 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    3rd degree groin burns that required grafts.

    She initially asked for just 20k to cover her medical bills, and they instead offered like $800.

    Also of note, that huge 2.7mil fine the jury found? Just the profits from 2 days of McDonald's coffee sales. The judge reduced it to $650k, but even that likely wasent paid as they settled out of court at that point.

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  • [–] 66 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    It was also discovered that McDonald's was aware of the danger of serving their coffee that hot, yet they continued to do so because it meant they had to give fewer free refills. If you have to wait 20 minutes for your coffee to cool down before you drink it, you're going to get less refills overall

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  • [–] 20 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    The McDonald's lady's case blew up because the jury slapped McDonald's with huge punitive damages. If she would have gotten the 10-30k she asked for initially or even just the 125k for actual damages no one would care about the case. But the 2.7 million in punitive damages just make this lawsuit seem frivolous. But she had no control over that.

    And IIRC one big reason why she won was because the cups weren't suited for holding such hot liquid. The temperature of coffee didn't decrease in McDonald's after the lawsuit.

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  • [–] 20 points 2 years ago

    Yeah, I also wasn’t aware. I imagine there were signs, but who looks for the caffeine content of lemonade? In my case I just had a dash t flavor soda, so I didn’t notice until my kid pointed it out

    Similarly, when my kids were little, I kept them away from stimulants, but who expects to have to prohibit lemonade for the caffeine hit?

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    [–] 121 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (10 children)

    8 months ago Food Theroy did agreat video on this. It's very appropriately titled given the unfortunate circumstances. To say this drink was caffeineted is a major understatement, it was basically four and a half monsters in one cup.

    Franky, it was reckless for Panera to make and sell this drink and they absolutely earned this lawsuit. There was pently of forewarning that the abnormally high caffeine content in this was dangerous for certain groups. Hope the family wins big, nothing will bring back their loved one but this could've been avoided with more clear nutrientional warnings.

    f u panera

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  • [–] 66 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Why is quadruple Monster even on the menu of a restaurant that is mostly famous for soup?

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  • [–] 30 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Because they feel the need to pivot and try to extract more money and bring in other types of people by offering more options for everything. To bad it's all garbage, and very overpriced.

    Maybe I am wrong, but there is no way this place can sustain itself with the prices they charge and the drop in quality they now offer compared to early 2000's.

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    [–] 97 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    All caffinated beverages should be required to disclose their caffeine content on the packaging.

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  • [–] 58 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    You mean like how Panera Bread does?
    https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-560w,f_auto,q_auto:eco,dpr_2.0/rockcms/2023-10/231017-panera-bread-charged-lemonade-al-1019-f1a04a.jpg

    The Charged Lemonade was “offered side-by-side with all of Panera’s non-caffeinated and/or less caffeinated drinks” and was advertised as a “plant-based and clean” beverage that contained as much caffeine as the restaurant’s dark roast coffee, according to photos of both the menu and beverage dispensers in the store, which were included in the wrongful death lawsuit. https://www.panerabread.com/en-us/app/product/57f9b1aa54df4bd2c2eacca55efa1c96.html

    Not to disagree with you, you're right, but I think they should also indicate how much is normal consumption. It's quite surprising this isn't something that's required on the nutritional label.

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    [–] 74 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Welp, this post might have just saved my life. I had no idea, and a heart condition.

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    [–] 52 points 2 years ago (18 children)

    Reporting in after having just come from Panera due to this article. Didn't read article, and it might be click bait or might not. I do know that the drink in question is slapped right beside all the typical juices and sodas, and the label says "contains as much as our dark roast coffee" then below that, even less obvious it gives serving sizes & caffeine amounts. Call me crazy, but I doubt your average consumer is going to consider just how much caffeine might be in LEMONADE.

    Panera is definitely losing this one. It could even be argued that they chose a product with that much caffeine and to not really advertise it based on the amounts of caffeine of the 30oz literally being a hair's width away from the potential danger threshold.

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    [–] 51 points 2 years ago (26 children)

    I drank a monster energy once (well, to be precise, about half of one.),back when energy drinks were still relatively new and there wasnt as much common knowledge about them as there is today.

    Just that half of a can was enough to make me feel like I was going to die.

    My resting heart rate was over 150bpm, was shaking with tremors, and cold sweating. I genuinely thought I was gonna die.

    And I have never so much as touched another one, and will never touch another one, for the rest of my life.

    They are incredibly dangerous and shouldnt be something any kid or idiot can walk into a store and buy with couple bucks.

    and I have absolutely no idea how there are people that exist out there that can drink 6-10 of them a day without spontaneously combusting from tremor induced cellular friction.

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  • [–] 22 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    I'm guessing that every person is different when it comes to energy drink tolerance, or there might be some underlying conditions. Back when I used to drink energy drinks, I wouldn't really feel anything except for maybe feeling a bit more "energetic" but I'm not sure how much of that is placebo. Granted, I wouldn't drink 6-10 cans a day because I don't think they taste that good, and would only drink a can occasionally.

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    [–] 46 points 2 years ago (13 children)

    Just looking at the photo in the article, it looks clear to me how much caffeine is in it:

    Unclear if that's a "before" or "after" photo though.

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  • [–] 66 points 2 years ago (9 children)

    If I saw that, I wouldn't really have any idea how much 260mg of caffeine is, compared to your average espresso shot. IMHO there probably should be some kind of upper limit to the amount of caffeine you can put in a drink (or at least be forced to call it something other than 'lemonade').

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    [–] 38 points 2 years ago (24 children)

    This new trend of soda that's made of cane sugar and natural coloring is pretty stupid. It's still a ton of calories and acid on your teeth. At Chipotle, cava, Panera, I'll get sparkling water out of the Sprite tap and then flavor with a dash of whatever nu soda they have.

    Panera, I feel, is 100% at fault here for trying to make soda and apparently ENERGY DRINKS seem innocuous and healthy.

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  • [–] 38 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Isn't all soda essentially just sugar and food coloring?

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    [–] 29 points 2 years ago (37 children)

    That's insane. I hope not only that they win the lawsuit, but that companies understand stimulants can be harder (even dangerous) on some people.

    The way caffeine affects me does not risk my life, but it can get ugly as I have a mental health condition that gets triggered by stimulants. It is so common to rely on caffeine nowadays, and it's present in many beverages and snacks. People forget it is still a drug.

    There should be labels and there should be less of a presence of caffeine (and other legal drugs) in unrelated products. I mean, it's normal if coffee has caffeine, it shouldn't be normal that a lemonade has caffeine.

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    [+] 27 points 2 years ago (8 children)
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    [–] 23 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    There used to be a product called Redline: White Heat from VPX (same people that make bang with the unhinged CEO). It had to be taken off the market because it had an amphetamine analogue in it called AMP Citrate or DMBA.

    One scoop of that stuff made me feel like I was going to die. My friend who took Ritalin at the time told me it was more powerful than any other stimulant he had before.

    It’s crazy to think this was openly available at health supplement stores for years before the FDA caught wind.

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    [–] 19 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    The 30 oz has 390mg of caffeine! That's four regular cups of coffee. I'm a big guy, and that would mess me up.

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    [–] 18 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    They way I learned Dr. Pepper has caffeine is a friend in high school with a similar undiagnosed condition dying after drinking one.

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    [–] 18 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

    This is so saddening, I can't imagine what her loved ones must be going through. ☹️

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