The best lemon inspired food? A rocket engineer turned lemonade pro? Here are the stories from Chula Vista’s Lemon Fest

Inside a small tent at Chula Vista’s Lemon Festival, there are the inner workings of a certifiable lemonade-making assembly line.

At different prep stations, workers in lemon-printed shirts and dresses juice lemons and mix it in with other fruits. Another worker coats the rim of restaurant deli cups with chamoy and Tajín, or drops hunks of pineapple into a split pineapple rind filled with lemonade.

The efficiency of this lemonade stand is no mistake, as the woman behind it, Marissa Miranda, is a former rocket engineer.

Miranda opened her lemonade business, Dream Drinks, after getting laid off from her “dream job” at NASA’s fabled Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena.

Dreaming up business ideas in order to keep supporting her family after her layoff, Miranda’s young son pitched the first classic business concept many children do — a lemonade stand.

“I said I love it, let’s do it,” Miranda said.

After research and tinkering with taste testing, Miranda launched the business last June.

“I’m very picky and I don’t sell anything that doesn’t taste good,” Miranda said, noting that lemonade is by far her preferred lemon-infused drink or food. “It’s very hydrating, that’s what I love.”

Dream Drinks’ presence at the Lemon Festival — Chula Vista’s mainstay community festival now 28 years running — is a first.

There was some dissent at the festival about crowning lemonade the king.

Some at the festival lining Chula Vista’s Third Avenue on Saturday preferred lemon-flavored ice cream. Others shouted out glazed lemon bars and lemon poppy muffins.

Opinions on citrus aside, the festival offered just as many fond memories and stories about the community event, from the lighthearted to the tragic.

Couple Monica and Nick Deslauriers sported their own lemon-printed shirt and dress during the festival. Their Chihuahua, Coffee, was not left out of wearing a lemon outfit either.

In past years, they competed in the festival’s costume contest, though never could win the applause-based event. Still, the couple continues turning out for the Lemon Festival, seeing it as a way to experience their community and support the enterprises of their neighbors.

“There isn’t a lot of town things that happen in this day and age, so it’s tradition,” Monica said. “There’s small businesses and tiny shops here that people might not know about.”

As some community members used the festival to get their projects off the ground, others used it to solicit community support during trying times.

At the OnStage Playhouse, a decades-old community theater on Third Avenue, board member Ray-Anna Ranae handed out free lemon snow cones to raise awareness about the cherished theater’s future.

With its rent going up and grant opportunities scarce, the theater has said on social media that it might not be able to make it through the season. Ranae had a tip jar alongside the snow cone machine in case festivalgoers wanted to offer a few dollars to support.

“We try to have stories that can appeal to anybody, any audience, and have theater worth talking about,” Ranae said. “I think anyone can identify with this type of theater we’re doing here, where they can learn about different cultures and different backgrounds.”

Others have a presence at the Lemon Festival in order to honor the memory of loved ones.

Sean Ruiz’s wife, Chelsea, had her business, The Little Lemon Stand, at the festival for two years, selling hand-painted greeting cards with designs of lemons, flowers and more.

During that time, Chelsea battled advanced liver and colon cancer. She died in January 2024.

But in the two lemon festivals since, her stand remains on Third Avenue, selling reprinted copies of the greetings cards Sean said his late wife painted to “destress” during her illness.

Last year, the stand had 30 different pieces of her artwork for sale, and nearly sold out. This year, the stand sold 120 pieces Chelsea completed during her life.

“That’s what I’m thankful for, is that traction has passed her story on to so many people and keeps impacting people in a positive way,” Sean said. “It lets people know they’re not alone on their journey.”