Cottonwood Mall has a new vendor, and it’s a Rio Rancho business.

At 10 a.m. Sept. 2, Sourpuss Lemonade will officially open at Cottonwood Mall on a one-month trial. It will be located across from Ulta Beauty, serving up homemade, fair-style lemonade.

“We want to get in there, get our feet wet and see how it goes before we sign an extended contract,” owner Michelle Tucker said. “Without our local Rio Rancho supporters, this never would have happened. We had no idea that it would even be responded to the way it has been.”

Sourpuss Lemonade has only been around for a few months. However, it didn’t take long for it to catch the eye of Cottonwood Mall.

“One of the leasing agents at Cottonwood tried our lemonade [here in Northern Meadows],” Tucker said. “She approached us and asked if we would like to come in, and said ‘Why don’t you try it out for a month and see how you do?’”

Sourpuss Lemonade at Cottonwood Mall will offer a speciality menu, a drink of the week and, of course, classic fair-style lemonade.

“Everytime I go to a fair, I like to get a turkey leg and a fair-style of lemonade.That was kinda my thing. I wanted something like that; a fair-style of lemonade you could get year round,” Tucker said.

However, Tucker made it very clear that, despite having the shop at Cottonwood Mall, they would still be present at local events and in the community.

“Cottonwood is in Albuquerque per se…I still feel like it’s a part of Rio Rancho, and we don’t want to take away what Rio Rancho has helped us get started,” Tucker said.

Sourpuss Lemonade expects to have a trailer very soon and will use the trailer to attend events outside of Cottonwood Mall.

Sourpuss Lemonade was born in May 2023, and Tucker says the creation of the name is a funny story.

“My husband said, ‘A lemonade business suits you perfectly because most of the time you’re a sourpuss anyways,’” Tucker jokingly said. “We both looked at each other and said, ‘That has to be the name!’”

Tucker runs Sourpuss Lemonade alongside her husband and children.

If you would like to reach out to Sourpuss Lemonade, email [email protected] or call 505-394-7375.