Panera Bread to Discontinue One of their Most Popular Items in WA, OR, CA

Panera Bread is known for their amazing soups, sandwiches, and even their amazing cookies and bakery items.
There's something else at Panera that, unfortunate, will be a thing of the past.

Their famous Charged Sips like their lemonade is going bye-bye.

NPR reports that, after two wrongful deaths due to their high caffeine content, these would be discontinued.

Panera didn't specifically say that was the reason they were being discontinued.

These charged sips are not recommended for children. They have three to choose from.

How much caffeine is in a charged sip from Panera?

From the Panera website:

Blood Orange Charged Splash CONTAINS CAFFEINE (178-302mg)
Strawberry Lemon Mint Charged Lemonade CONTAINS CAFFEINE (155-233mg)
Mango Yuzu Citrus Charged Lemonade CONTAINS CAFFEINE (158-237mg)

These are based on a regular 20oz serving.

To give you a comparison, the 8.4oz can of Red Bull has 80mg of caffeine.
A 16oz can of Monster Energy Drink has 160mg of caffeine.

And when you consider these Charged Sips, at some locations, are self-refillable, you can see how dangerous it could be.

NPR goes on to mention the two deaths. One, a 21-year-old college student with a prior heart condition.
There was also a 46-year-old man who suffered a cardiac arrest after drinking three Charged Sips in a row. According to his family, he didn't drink energy drinks and it wasn't well advertised that this lemonade was an energy drink of sorts.

In the meantime, there is more warning that these do contain a power dose of caffeine to consume in moderation. There's no date on when these will be officially discontinued.

They are planning on adding new low-sugar and low-caffeine drinks in the near future.