The end of my 8 months of Sip Club subscription
Last September, I got 3 free months of Panera Bread Sip Club subscription. What is Sip Club you ask? It’s a monthly subscription that gives you unlimited free drinks of coffee, tea and lemonade. And yes, that includes the heavy caffeine infused Charged Lemonades that are causing various health scares for some.
Unlimited
To clarify, the unlimited drinks have a small limit. You can get one every 2 hours for the hours each location is open. Where I have been living here in Riverton, UT there is one about 10 mins away. And while I don’t just hang out there all day getting unlimited drinks, I have had a few days where I make a couple of visits in the day to get another drink.
Most of the drinks I have gotten are the agave lemonade, which is really good. There are coffees if I go in the morning or the papaya iced tea in the afternoon. And there have been a few times I’ve gotten the Strawberry Mint Charged Lemonade, which has a large amount of caffeine.
While I have not experienced any issues with drinking these charged lemonades, as I mentioned above, some have and now Panera has announced they are discontinuing the Charged Lemonades. When the first scares happened, they removed the self-serve option for the Charged Lemonades, which meant they made the drink for you in the kitchen area.
Stopping The Sip Club
How much did I spend on the Sip Club? Counting the free 3 months, then I paid for one month at $11.99, which was the regular price. Then I cancelled that, and took the offer of $3.50 a month for 4 months. Adding that up, I spent less that $30 for 8 months of unlimited drinks.
I cancelled and refused the offer of $9.99 a month for 3 months when my Sip Club subscription came due. Mostly cause I won’t be living near the Riverton, UT location anymore as I will be moving in June. And aside from the location inside the Salt Lake City Airport, there are no other Panera Bread locations in Utah. I did use it in Las Vegas this year. And with the cost going up to $14.99 a month, which is more than I wanted to spend even if I had a location near my new place, that was another reason to end it.
If I end up traveling more often, or if they offer me another 3 free months, I might re-subscribe. But for now, I felt I got my money’s worth.