The Caffeine In Panera’s Charged Lemonade Is A Hot Topic On TikTok

A Panera drink is the talk of TikTok and Twitter after a video about the caffeine in Panera’s Charged Lemonade went viral on Dec. 14. A very hyped up TikToker sat in their car while holding the drink in question and went on to share how much caffeine is in one of the Charged Lemonades. Although the drink is advertised as a caffeinated sip — and you can see how much is in it on the website — it seems people thought there wouldn’t be as much caffeine as there actually is.

If you haven’t seen the Panera discourse on your timeline, allow me to catch you up to speed. The viral video, which was posted on Dec. 13 by Twitter user @finegodmother, was a repost of a TikTok shared by @sarahebaus on Dec. 9. Visibly jumpy and almost comically jumbling their words, the creator starts the video by saying they just learned something about the Charged Lemonade. “This is a Mango Yuzu Citrus Charged Lemonade, and it has caffeine, and I knew that,” the TikToker says, adding, “but when I’m sitting there, I’ll drink four or five of these.” After the TikToker was getting a drink with their husband, they realized just how much caffeine is in the Charged Lemonade.

Once the TikToker looked at the publicly available ingredients list for the first time, they learned the regular-sized (20 ounce) lemonade contains 260 milligrams of caffeine, and a large (30 ounce) Charged Lemonade contains 390 milligrams of caffeine. Cue the “shocked audience” sound effect.

While this amount of caffeine is pretty standard in a cup of coffee — a large (20 ounce) hot Columbian roast coffee at Panera has 268 milligrams of caffeine — it seems the TikToker and some other Panera stans weren’t expecting that in a caffeinated lemonade. It does say on the Panera website that the Charged Lemonades are “plant-based and clean with as much caffeine as our dark roast coffee,” but every Panera customer might not be checking the website before they order. Without looking at Panera’s description of the drink, it does sound like a lot of caffeine for a lemonade, and that doesn’t even count the free refills.

In the video, the TikToker said they had maybe four or five refills, and added, “I feel great! I feel awesome — I get so much done!” With that amount, their caffeine intake was at about 1,040 milligrams, which is definitely over the FDA’s recommended daily intake of 400 milligrams of caffeine. They also said in the video that they do not regularly drink coffee, so yeah, it’s not hard to believe that was a shock to the system.

If you’re a latte fan, the Charged Lemonade might also have you buzzing. A regular (16 ounce) caffe latte at Panera has 145 milligrams of caffeine, more than 100 milligrams less than the Charged Lemonade.

To put the Charged Lemonade into perspective, you can look at what caffeine counts are at other popular coffee spots. A Venti Cold Brew from Starbucks has 310 milligrams of caffeine, and a trenta will get 360 milligrams pumping through your body. Meanwhile, a Venti Iced Coffee has 235 milligrams of caffeine.

This isn’t the first time the caffeine in Charged Lemonades has taken over the FYP. Fans caught on to the sip’s caffeine content not long after the drink made its debut in April 2022.

Everything’s a remake nowadays, and the Panera Charged Lemonade discourse is no different.

So, if someone is not a coffee drinker and doesn’t know how much caffeine is in the Charged Lemonade, they (and their nervous system) will be in for a surprise.