Callen Johnson: “Sour Lemon Makes Healthy Taste Exceptional!”

For Mary Poppins, a spoonful of sugar encouraged her young charges to take their medicine and accomplish their tasks. But for Callen Johnson, it is a spoonful of vinegar that does the trick for her family and thousands of other Kansas Citians who call upon her Sour Lemon apple cider vinegar to improve their health.

“Sour Lemon breaks the gap between the world of functional beverages that are healthy but really don’t taste so good. I grew up drinking Kool-Aid® and maybe others had Diet Coke®. But the more I got into a healthier world, I paid closer attention to the ingredients in the drinks and food that I served my family,” recalled the Stilwell, Kansas, wife and mother of four. “I wanted things to taste good and that’s when I began experimenting with ways to make apple cider vinegar a tastier product to drink.”

Why would someone want to drink apple cider vinegar? Well, it’s been the darling of social media for many years as influencers have touted its benefits. But who can forget the look on their faces contorting into wrinkled masses of disgust? However, Callen points to the many benefits of this superfood. She says consuming it reduces sugar cravings; balances blood sugar levels; offers a good source of prebiotics, probiotics and enzymes; boosts immune functions; helps with cholesterol balance; enhances the body’s natural detoxification process; improves the body’s ability to absorb nutrients; boosts stomach acid for proper digestion; and much more.

“Our belief that apple cider vinegar should be as delicious as it is good for you led us to the creation of our sweet, handcrafted drinks and concentrates. An organic, crisp and energizing beverage will leave you wondering how apple cider vinegar could taste so good,” said Callen. “Sour Lemon is the number one place on planet Earth to get your favorite apple cider vinegar drink.”

BUT THAT TASTE!
Vinegar has a lot of positives but it has to pass the taste buds, mouth and throat to get into the system. That task seems too enormous for even Mary Poppins to handle. Then again, there is Callen.
“In May 2018, I was trying to drink shots of apple cider vinegar and absolutely hated it because it burned my throat. My kids, Reece, Caden, Graeson and Lochlan, were like, ‘No way.’ But they loved pink lemonade so I thought that maybe there’s a way I can mix them together. I spent three months figuring out the best recipe for pink lemonade with apple cider vinegar,” noted Callen. “My husband, Kirk, had a supplement company that we just shut down, and I added superfoods to the different flavors of lemonades that I was making. Finally, I hit the right combination and the kids loved it. Then I served it to friends or family and they asked how to get it. So, I sold Sour Lemon out of my house.”

For two years, Callen ran Sour Lemon from her home, but its growth required too much space. She and Kirk decided to move her production to the back section of his chiropractic and acupuncture office at 16104 Foster, Overland Park, Kansas. Business was booming; she was selling Sour Lemon products in doctor’s offices and gyms but mostly from her website or to walk-in customers at the office. Callen worked 80 hours a week at the peak of her business, but she knew there must be a better way. “During the first two years out of house, I had incredible opportunities. I spent a couple of years doing trade shows but I wore myself out because I was working nonstop,” she shared. “Over time, I tripled in sales, but then I also started homeschooling my kids. The business continued to grow but it couldn’t grow as fast as I wanted because of the home schooling.”

She needed to reset the business and her life. She cut back on some of the company commitments, but Callen continuously searched for new and different ways to make Sour Lemon work better for her and her family. In August 2020, Callen installed a manufacturing line at the office to speed up the process of creating Sour Lemon. The bottling line creates 400 concentrates each cycle and she runs the line once a week. “It’s one hour, once a week. It would have taken me months to get to those levels of product. Now it’s 10 hours a week instead of 80 hours.”

CONCENTRATING ON THE ENVIRONMENT
Turning to concentrates was another way for Callen to work smarter and not harder. Instead of bottling the final output, she hit upon a formula to make a product that could be diluted to the customer’s preference.

“I was mixing all those ingredients and adding it to water, essentially. When I had people wanting to pick it up, I didn’t have enough storage to keep the inventory. I realized at that point that if I made it into a concentrate, I could make a whole lot more. Also, we’re saving the environment because we won’t have so much waste and the customers can use their own water,” stated Callen. “So that’s how I sell all of my drinks as a concentrate. Customers can add as much or as little as they want to flavor their own water.”

Each bottle of concentrate provides up to 16 servings depending on the preferences of the consumer. Callen recommends using one ounce of the apple cider vinegar concentrate and adding it to seven to ten ounces of water. She tends to make hers a bit stronger to fully reap the benefits of apple cider vinegar and added superfoods. For children, she recommends starting with a splash and going from there depending on their feedback.

Ingredients are organic and feature stevia or fruit juice as the sweetener. Customers choose from a plethora of flavors such as Activated (charcoal) Orange; Beach Please, a pineapple and turmeric flavor; Blue Rain, superfood blue spirulina and electrolytes from coconut water powder; Cherry Limeade Taste and Blueberry Lemonade, both favorites for the younger palates in a family; and many more varieties. The concentrates can be used with tap, bottled or carbonated water. Callen reports that some use the concentrates as a mixer with their favorite spirit. The 16-ounce bottles glow with vibrant colors, lots of goodness and, of course, apple cider vinegar. You can purchase them as individual flavors or in multi-packs.

The success of Sour Lemon is quite a family affair. Callen partners with her husband but she also credits her 18-year-old daughter, Reece, for creating incredible social media postings and product photographs to help tell the story for Sour Lemon. In the past year, her mom started working with her by covering events and helping out at the manufacturing office. Her support has been constant even though she is battling Stage Four breast cancer.

MAKING IT BIG
Callen’s success has had Hollywood calling even in the beginning. At two different times, the entrepreneurial show Shark Tank reached out to determine if she had an interest in being featured. Callen remembers that it was just six weeks into opening Sour Lemon when she got that first call, but the producers went with another apple cider vinegar company. “Then in February 2020, we went to an open casting call for Shark Tank for women and minority business owners. We got called back two days later and met with the producers. I was putting a video together on the business, and then the world shut down due to COVID-19. The producers contacted us and because of the pandemic, they were moving the show into a completely different direction. They went with sanitizing product companies,” she remarked. “But it was a blessing that it didn’t work out. I’m okay with sitting on the sidelines and not being inundated with orders. I get to decide how much time and effort I want to put into my business.”

After six years, Sour Lemon and Callen are going strong and on a path that she is writing to fit her life and her family. She offers these words of advice. “When I first started, I felt like I was waiting for someone to rescue me and get this thing going. I had a great idea but no idea how to put it into place. I couldn’t even picture how things would work out and how I would be able to manufacture it myself. That seemed like such a world away from where I was. I needed to concentrate on making that goal happen,” she said. “So focus on the product that you’re making and the projects that you need to grow and then problem solve along the way. Six years later, I have a completely different company than when I started. But you also have to have grit to stay in business and be determined too. I know that my company will continue to grow. So I’m grateful for the opportunities that I was given. I love sharing Sour Lemon with my community and the city.”

Not only is she keen on ensuring that the company is a success, but she is also focused on building a positive experience for her mental health, especially dealing with the enormous pressure running a business can put on the owner. “It’s really okay to not be in a business-hurried state. When I first started, I felt like I needed to be constantly stressed or I wasn’t growing enough. There are pressures on all people, but as women and mothers we have these additional pressures and we get in a state of hurry. You should realize that while you encourage your business to grow you should also get to watch your family grow or enjoy other hobbies. You don’t need to be in a state of constant dominance.”

Now six years later and many gallons of experiments that didn’t meet her children’s picky palates, she has landed on a product that promotes good health and tastes much better than vinegar. Let’s just say the thousands of customers who enjoy the healthy concentrates from Sour Lemon think it’s simply supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

“Gut health is for everyone. A healthy gut is good for so many things, even mental health, so it’s important to remember that what we’re putting into our bodies is benefiting us in positive ways,” noted Callen. “Sour Lemon is definitely a drink that the whole family can enjoy and realize so many benefits in many positive ways.”

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