TikToker Claims Panera's Lemonade Has 260mg Of Caffeine
Most people have their daily routine for getting a caffeine fix. Three-quarters of Americans hit up coffee for that boost, per YouGovAmerica, but plenty of others turn to soda, dark chocolate, tea, energy drinks, guarana, supplements, and other options, says the Harvard School of Public Health.
Caffeine in moderation isn't a big deal, even though it is classified as an actual "mild, psychoactive drug," Kuakini Health System explains. Also known as trimethylxanthine, caffeine works against a chemical called adenosine, which helps people feel sleepy. By getting in adenosine's way, caffeine typically causes extra energy, serving as "a mild stimulant of the central nervous system."
The FDA says that the average, healthy adult can safely consume around 4 to 5 cups of coffee per day, or about 400 milligrams of caffeine. Too much more than that, however, and you run the risk of some pretty scary side effects, like insomnia, fast heart rate, anxiety, nausea, and dysphoria. Although most people can "eyeball" their caffeine intake when it comes to soda or coffee, it's tougher to do so if you're consuming some sneakier caffeine sources. Enter the mango yuzu citrus lemonade from Panera, which caught at least one social media user totally unawares.
One Panera customer found out they'd been way overdoing the caffeine
TikTok user @sarahebaus is going viral since she posted a frenetic video of her shock at finding out that her daily caffeine jolt packed far more than she bargained for. She explained that she often works her remote job at her local Panera, where she routinely enjoys free refills of the chain's mango yuzu citrus lemonade, a "craft agave lemonade" that contains caffeine, coffee extract, and guarana extract in addition to its fruity flavors.
The customer noted that she was aware that the drink contains caffeine, and she typically drinks four or five of them throughout her workday. She did not know, however, that each regular-sized guarana lemonade contains a whopping 260 milligrams of caffeine (compared to a cup of coffee at 95 milligrams). She was stunned when she finally looked up the nutritional information, saying in the video, "I have learned something that should be illegal."
Her post has made the rounds on Twitter and TikTok, where users replied things like, "The first time I had one of these, I had heart palpitations," and "yeah i drank 3 of those and actually thought it was my last day on earth." Another compared the drink to "cocaine in a cup," and others were "shook" by the 82 grams of sugar in the recipe. While some joked about heading to Panera to get on @sarahebaus' energy level, others worried she might experience "withdrawals" when weaning off the drink. To Panera's credit, the nutritional information is clearly displayed in stores and online, though some users think the caffeine warning should be kicked up a notch.