How Much Caffeine Is In Panera Bread Coffee: Cold Brew, Dark Roast, And More

Panera Bread was founded in 1987 in St. Louis, Missouri, with a completely different original name. It has since expanded to the over 2,200 locations known today. The menu has grown, too, and the chain has developed a signature café ambiance that's perfect for a morning coffee, a work lunch, or a pick-up meal on the way home after a long day. The coffee menu at Panera is substantial, offering a range of drinks from regular drip coffee to espresso to iced tea, and more. The coffee is delicious. So delicious, in fact, that you may want to have more than one cup. Still, it's important to be mindful of how much caffeine you're consuming. For starters, the maximum amount of caffeine that the average adult can safely consume per day is 400 milligrams.

Since the average cup of coffee contains about 100 milligrams of caffeine, that means four cups a day would bring you right to that daily max. But how does Panera's coffee compare to the average cup? According to the nutritional info Panera publishes to its website, the drip coffees served at the bread company skew on the higher side of caffeine content. The most potent is the Café Blend Light Roast, which packs 230 milligrams of caffeine into just a 12-ounce cup. A 12-ounce Café Blend Dark Roast comes in at 161 milligrams of caffeine, and the flavored Hazelnut Coffee has 209 milligrams. All of these are well above that 100 milligram average, so it may be time to taper your Panera coffee drinking just a tad if you're concerned about overconsumption of caffeine.

Besides the plain drip coffee, Panera bread also serves a full range of café drinks, including cappuccinos, lattes, cold brew, and more. Similar to the coffee, these drinks all boast an average to above-average caffeine content. The Cold Brew, for example, contains 162 milligrams of caffeine in a 16-ounce serving. As for the espresso drinks, Panera lists an additional shot of espresso as having 73 milligrams of caffeine. That's also higher than the USDA-reported average of 63 milligrams per shot. A 16-ounce Caffé Latte from Panera has 145 milligrams of caffeine, meaning it's likely made with a standard double-shot of espresso.

When you think of caffeinated Panera drinks, coffee is probably not the first thing to come to mind. Instead, your brain may conjure up images of headlines concerning the now-discontinued and controversial Panera Charged Lemonades. Tragically, two people died after consuming several servings of Panera's highly-caffeinated lemonades. This serves as a reminder that, although it seems like an unassuming and harmless ingredient, caffeine can be dangerous in large quantities and to those with pre-existing conditions. It's a good idea to remain informed of ingredients and serving sizes and utilize public nutritional information whenever possible to mitigate adverse reactions to otherwise safe foods and drinks, like a delicious cup of coffee.