I woke up Wednesday morning with a mission. “Ana,” I told myself, still in my Rutgers-themed jammies, “I am going to drink a large Panera Charged Lemonade today. And then I am going to report on it for work, even if it kills me.”
That, dear reader, is exactly what happened—special thanks to our managing editor Dan Van Winkle, who approved this story’s pitch with a quickness. And no, despite the title of this headline, I’m not dead from drinking the “lemonade that kills you.” Although there’s an important reason why, as two deaths are reportedly connected to the Charged Lemonade.
First, a Charged disclaimer
For those of you who have been living under a glorious, caffeine-free rock, the Panera Charged Lemonade is a drink that gained viral social media attention this fall due to its high caffeine content. Initially, the various Charged Lemonade drinks contained an extreme amount of caffeine, as I reported for The Mary Sue in mid-December. A large size of the Mango Yuzu Citrus Charged Lemonade once contained 390 mg of caffeine, down now to just 235 mg per the official Panera website. For context, you’d need to drink one-and-a-half Monster Energy drinks to meet the same level of caffeine in the large lemonade.
I decided to order a large Strawberry Lemon Mint Charged Lemonade, which has 237 mg of caffeine, according to the Panera website. It’s hard to know for sure if my drink actually contained this much caffeine or not. And for context, I usually only have two cups of coffee at home per day at most. Most days, it’s just one. So my daily caffeine intake is closer to 100 to 200 mg of caffeine per day, give or take a bit. At the bare minimum, I basically drank my entire day’s worth of caffeine in one sitting. It’s possible I had even more than that.
Also, and this point I can’t stress enough, I ordered Panera’s Charged Lemonade because I knew I could handle a high amount of caffeine. I do NOT recommend buying one of these if you are deeply sensitive to caffeine—doubly so for medical reasons, such as a disability. There is still an intense amount of caffeine in this drink. If you’re unsure whether you should drink one, I recommend consulting with your doctor first.
So, what was it like drinking a Charged Lemonade?
You know that Futurama episode where Fry spends $300 by buying 100 cups of coffee? Yeah, for the first time in my life, I understood what that must have felt like for him. By the time I was two-thirds through my Strawberry Lemon Mint Charged Lemonade, I started to feel like Fry around the 31st cup.
In all seriousness, I felt ridiculously wired by the time I finished most of the drink, though not necessarily sick or ill. My heart was definitely beating faster than usual despite sitting in my chair, but I didn’t feel anything close to the symptoms associated with drinking 400 mg of caffeine—muscle tremors, headaches, bladder issues, things like that. I just felt up, ready to go, and full of way too much energy. Like I was about to burst out of my chair and do something extravagant, like run a marathon or file my taxes.
I honestly hadn’t felt that much energy since I started Lexapro. On my first night taking the anti-anxiety medication, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling so restless that I thought my heart was going to explode. I was admittedly afraid I was about to die. Granted, the Charged Lemonade didn’t leave me feeling as extremely wired and uncomfortable as that night, but it wasn’t far off. And believe me, it was a relief when I started coming down from the caffeine high.
So, do I recommend the Charged Lemonade? Uh, LOL, nope. I didn’t feel any more productive or focused than drinking my standard one-to-two cups of coffee per day. The whole ordeal just felt painful. Maybe if I was used to drinking this much caffeine, I’d appreciate it. Instead, I felt like I pumped too much energy into my body for me to handle, and I had to write out this entire article just to get it out of my system.
But hey, I survived the Panera Charged Lemonade! Although I certainly didn’t have that “100th cup of coffee” moment like Fry did, much to my disappointment. Maybe that would have happened if I had ordered a second Charged Lemonade.
(featured image: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images)
