Lori's Original Lemonade

06/06/2026

🌿 Saturday in Santa Barbara 🌿

Nothing says Saturday quite like a visit to the Carrillo Farmers Market and a stop at South Coast Deli.

Today I’m enjoying a delicious sandwich paired with our Organic Lavender Lemonade. 💜🍋 The fresh flavors of a South Coast Deli sandwich and a refreshing lemonade is a perfect local combination.

We’re grateful that South Coast Deli carries both our Lemonades and supports local businesses throughout our community.

If you’re enjoying the beautiful Santa Barbara sunshine today, stop by, grab lunch, and enjoy a taste of local.

Thank you, South Coast Deli, for being such a wonderful partner and customer!



🍋💜🥪 What are your favorite sandwich and lemonade pairings? Let us know below!

05/24/2026

Woohoo! 🎉 it’s lemonade time!!

05/13/2026

May 13, 2026
Journal

May already.

As I write this, I noticed the last entry in this note app was over a year ago. Truthfully, I’ve gone a bit MIA on social media while trying to navigate the realities of running a small beverage company right now.

The rising costs of sugar, lemons, glass, freight, bottling — it can all feel overwhelming at times. Just when it seems like we gain a little ground, another fee, increase, or unexpected expense appears and takes the win away.

But even with all of that, there is still so much to be grateful for.

We’re still getting orders. Sales are stronger with a smaller group of amazing customers than they were when we had three times as many accounts. We are completely debt-free. We have money in the bank to pay for our next bottling run ahead of time.

In fact, for the first time since 2019, we have enough set aside to cover one and a half bottling runs. That is something I’m incredibly proud of and absolutely consider a win.

Today I had a short meeting with someone I consider a true guru in the beverage industry, and it sparked something in me again — the excitement of possibility. We talked about sprucing things up a bit: returning to social media, refreshing the website, exploring a label update, and finding new ways to keep growing thoughtfully.

As I write this, a truckload of glass is making its way across the country after our broker managed to locate inventory during yet another glass shortage. We’re paying more than double our usual freight costs to get it here from the East Coast, and now we’re simply hoping and praying it arrives at the plant in time for next week’s production run.

I’ve been out of our Original Lemonade for far too long, and customers are definitely getting antsy.

Still, things are humming along in LOL land. Despite my burnout, this little company patiently waits for me to find my way back to the energy and excitement that built it in the first place.

Tomorrow I’ll be back on the road visiting some of our customers in Santa Barbara. It’s always hard to pull myself away from the office, but I’m almost always happier when I do.

In the meantime, wishing you health, wealth, and happiness as we all navigate these changing times.

We’re here to create the most delicious lemonades for you to sip and share.

— Lori Volk

Chief Believer, Lori's Original Lemonade

Est. 2011

05/13/2026

Now pouring at Santa Barbara Roasting Company ☕🍓
You can now find our ever-so-popular, mouthwatering Wild Strawberry Lemonade at in the heart of Santa Barbara. Pair your favorite small-batch coffee with a refreshing organic lemonade made with real strawberries, organic lemons, and served in our signature glass bottle.
If you’re strolling through the Funk Zone or heading downtown, stop by and grab one before they’re gone! 🍋✨

03/19/2026

Fresh delivery today to Santa Barbara Roasting Company 🍓☀️
Our best-selling Organic Wild Strawberry Lemonade just arrived — and for the first time, their customers get to enjoy this favorite alongside the other Lori’s Original Lemonade flavors they already carry.
With temperatures rising and a heat wave settling in, this feels like the perfect week for an ice-cold bottle made with organic lemons, organic strawberries, and simple clean ingredients.
We have a feeling this flavor is going to be a hit ❤️
If you’re in Santa Barbara, stop in, cool down, and let us know what you think.

Photo credit Kappen Photography

03/02/2026

Hello LOL Believers! 🥰 🍋

Endurance in sport. Endurance in business.

02/20/2026

Weekly newsletter up (on a monthly schedule;)

It’s Friday. I was at the gym just after sunrise.

01/26/2026

📓 JOURNAL ENTRY — “Stepping Off the Dock Without Leaving the Sea”
January 26, 2026
Today we gave up our live-aboard permit after 12 years. It’s strange how one signature, one written notice, can close a chapter that was never just about mooring rights. For more than a decade, the boat was our home, our harbor, our viewing deck for seals and storms, and the quiet witness to so many versions of ourselves. It was the place we drank coffee at sunrise and watched red tide glow under the dock at night. Our kids visited. Friends came aboard. We weathered financial stress, small victories, and a thousand tiny domestic rituals built into the rhythm of tide and wind.
When we first moved aboard, it was for adventure. Somewhere along the way, it also became a strategy — a way to redirect money toward building Lori’s Lemonade, battling debt, and eventually buying a home. It supported our dreams even as it sometimes constrained them.
The new marina owners just raised the slip fees yet again, and now the live-aboard permit has climbed to $550/month. It would almost certainly go up another 5–10% every year with total fees doubling since we moved on to our boat. Old versions of us would have fought to stay, made the math work, and justified the cost as “just part of boat life.” But this time, we chose a different kind of courage. We kept the boat — of course we kept the boat — but we released the permit. It’s a small but symbolic pivot: the boat will no longer be our apartment on the water; it will go back to being what it originally was meant to be — a vessel.
And that’s the part that feels exciting. Without the obligation to live aboard, we’re suddenly free to think about the sea in a bigger way. There is talk of sailing offshore this year, of longer passages, of islands again. The boat was once our harbor; now we want it to be our horizon.
We did this partly for adventure, and partly for financial clarity. This allows us to accelerate clearing debt, and moving into a new season of life with more freedom and less drag. Letting go of the permit feels bittersweet — a closing of a chapter we once fought so fiercely to keep open. But chapters are meant to end. Boats are meant to move. And we are meant to keep evolving.
Someday I’ll look back and see today as the hinge — the moment we stepped off the dock with intention, not resignation, and aimed the bow back toward open water.
— L.

01/01/2026

What 14 Years in Beverages Taught Me About Focus, Margins, and Belief

1/1/26 · Thursday · 11:39 AM

I haven’t written in a long time—at least not here in this space.

I have been writing every day, though. Alone at my desk or tucked into a coffee shop, trying to process everything and continue working on my book about the adventures, lessons, and long road of building Lori’s Original Lemonade.

First, I want to thank you for being here.

We officially closed our 14th year of LOL in October and are now well into the second quarter of our 15th year. I’m always grateful for the familiar names that pop up in my feed and for the deep sense of connection I feel with those who believe in what we’re building. We are still here, still standing—and still very much “in the game.”

Just yesterday, we received another very large order from our distributor, a strong way to start the new month and the new year. In 2025, I’ve taken a hard look at how to maintain margins while supplier costs continue to rise at an alarming rate. Some of those decisions haven’t been easy.

We’ve had to scale back direct distribution in certain areas we could no longer afford to service ourselves. Simply put, we are in the manufacturing business—not the distribution business—a lesson that took me 14 years to fully understand.

Letting go of what no longer serves the business can be just as important as chasing growth.

I refuse to compromise on quality. We continue to value being certified organic, even as the certification process grows more expensive, redundant, and at times illogical. Some things are non-negotiable.

It’s been a stormy few days, both literally and figuratively. But as I sit on land, in a warm house, next to a glowing Christmas tree, the sun is shining again. The clouds have cleared, and I can feel my mind doing the same.

I was gifted a new, larger backpack for Christmas—along with a compass, a map, and fresh field notebooks. I feel the pull of a new adventure this year.

We’ve just bottled 5,000 more cases, and sales are already up—unusual for this time of year. I’m actively working with ChatGPT to explore ideas for expanding our distribution in 2026, while continuing the search for the right distributor to help fill the gaps in both Southern and Northern California.

I’m looking forward to the new year and all of its possibilities.

In the meantime… we’re here to serve you the most delicious lemonades to sip, share, and enjoy.

Wishing you all the best of success in 2026.

Lori Volk Chief Believer Lori’s Original Lemonade Est. 2011

09/05/2025

Chapter 9: The Lemon Tree That Taught Me Everything
My windows were rolled up, the air conditioning humming in my Suburban, parked near Ventura Harbor Cove. I was angry.
Coffee in hand, lavender latte with a strawberry sourdough croissant already gone, I had tried to write at the café this morning, but all the tables were full. Forced to leave, I ended up here, staring out at the lot where a yellow-vested attendant now patrolled. Paid parking. At the harbor. The place that had always been home to locals, now policed and monetized. Families confused at the machines, visitors turning away. Streets jammed while the lots sat empty. No sea lions, no seagulls, only the steady stream of homeless men and women wandering by like shadows.
I was fuming.
So I did what I always do when I’m angry: I wrote.
Anger, I’ve learned, can be fuel.
Just like today, when the harbor I love feels taken from us, there were times when my business left me angry. Times when people told me I wasn’t good enough, or that Lori’s Lemonade was just a hobby. Times when the system felt rigged, unfair, impossible to fight. Every time, I used that frustration as fuel. I got busy. I got to work. I proved them wrong. And little by little, we won—small wins, but wins nonetheless.
It’s the same lesson I learned from the lemon tree.
It arrived as nothing more than a stick in a pot—something my husband had rescued from being thrown away. We planted it in the front yard of our Ojai home. We didn’t expect much, but we gave it a little water, a little care. Somehow, it survived. And then it thrived. Year after year, that little tree gave us more Meyer lemons than we could ever use. We shared them with neighbors. We made lemonade. And that’s where it all began.
That lemon tree taught me about resilience. Its roots dug deep, holding it steady no matter the weather. It grew strong, quietly building the foundation that would one day sustain us. Lori’s Original Lemonade is grounded in the same way—roots growing deep, holding fast, weathering storms we never saw coming.
From the outside, people often think they know better. Local government officials move into small towns and change them against the will of the community. Big distributors and executives try to alter the trajectory of Lori’s Lemonade without ever having stood in our shoes. But like the lemon tree, we remain authentic, organic, local, and true to our roots.
It’s not always easy. Everything swirls around us and often nothing feels fair. Yet here I am—still writing, still showing up. Even today, despite parking fees, a crowded café, and melted chocolate on my hands. Even with frustration bubbling under my skin, I remember:
I am alive.
I am healthy.
LOL is flourishing.
My kids and grandbaby are thriving.
And like the lemon tree, I have persisted.

Lori, Chief Believer
Lori's Original Lemonade
est 2011