What Sally learned from burns that made taste matter

Five grams. That is the amount of hydrolyzed marine collagen in a daily serving of Crushed Tonic, flavored to taste like banana milk from a Korean convenience store.

Five grams is a small number to carry a company. For Sally Olivia Kim, it carries the distance from a cooking accident in her early 20s to a New York City business founded in April 2017. After graduating from NYU and working in finance, Kim suffered severe burns to her arms, with blood blisters that made healing slow and visible.

Prescribed silicone patches and ointment did little for her. She began to research ingestible collagen to support skin recovery, and took pills, powders and liquid shots daily. She describes plumper, hydrated looking skin over time. Friends and family saw the same powders and refused them. They said they could not get past the first shot because of the gamey taste.

That refusal became Crushed Tonic. Kim flavored powders in her kitchen with coconut, coffee and matcha. She started the company as a weekend store and recipe blog while working in digital strategy. Publisher W. W. Norton approached her about a book, which became The Collagen Glow, sold at Barnes and Noble, Target and Amazon. She quit her job, bootstrapped, switched manufacturers to scale, and built wholesale with Sephora, Equinox and others. What others miss is how literal her provenance work is. Marine peptides made with Korean labs, traceable to the exact fish, third party tested for metals and fillers, Halal and Kosher certified. Then packed as something people will crave daily.

You started with the line, I was not trying to build a brand, I was trying to fix my skin. After the cooking accident in your early 20s, when silicone patches and ointment did little, what did daily collagen actually look like for you.

I was not trying to build a brand. I was trying to fix my skin. I discovered the power of collagen after getting severely burnt when I had to find ways to get my skin to heal and regenerate as quickly as possible. I had blood blisters. My arms looked raw. The patches felt clinical and the ointment sat on top. I needed something I could take from within, every day, without thinking about it twice.

So I took pills, powders and liquid shots daily. Some tasted awful. Some dissolved badly. I kept going because had I not been burned so badly with blood blisters and needed collagen for its medical benefits, I am not sure if I would have stuck to it daily either. That is the honest part. I began to see plumper, hydrated skin. I became obsessed with getting everyone around me to take collagen once I saw all the benefits I was seeing in my skin, hair and everything else. The brand happened because the formula worked. First it worked for me, then it had to work for people who had no burn to motivate them.

You have said your friends told you they could not get themselves to take it after the first shot. That taste problem is well known with marine powder. What did you mix in your kitchen with coconut, coffee and matcha that told you flavor was the supply chain.

When I followed up, they said they could not get themselves to take it after the first shot. That stayed with me. My parents, my friends, men and women who wanted support for skin and hair. They quit, not because they doubted the powder, but because it tasted gamey and the scoop felt like a chore. I knew then that sourcing a good peptide was only half the lot record. The other half was adherence.

Healthy should not taste bad, or be difficult. I wanted to bring more focus and attention to ingestible beauty, beauty from within. In my kitchen I started flavoring powders with coconut, coffee and matcha. I wanted something that dissolved clear and could stir into water, milk or coffee. No oversized scoops with fluff. No sucralose. No fillers. The idea was simple. Make it craveable so a household keeps it for years, not for a week. That meant our mantra is to always be the most honest and transparent about what is inside, and to refuse what does not need to be there.

Your marine line is described as hydrolyzed peptides at about 4,000 Daltons, 5g per serving, with 0 to 3g sugar, made with Korean labs and flavor scientists. Where exactly does that marine collagen start, and how do you know which fish it came from.

We use marine collagen from fish skin rather than cheaper bovine hides when we can, because we like the small peptide size and the way it dissolves. Our marine line is hydrolyzed peptides at about 4,000 Daltons, with 5g per serving and 0 to 3g sugar depending on flavor. Dalton size here means molecular weight after hydrolysis. Smaller pieces tend to dissolve more easily in liquid, which matters for a daily drink.

The chain starts with the fish processor, then drying and enzymatic hydrolysis in Korea, then blending with our flavor system, then packing. We work with Korean labs and flavor scientists on that step. Every batch is third party tested for heavy metals, purity, dissolvability and absorption, with a Certificate of Analysis available. The certificate is the document that ties a lot number to test results. The brand states the marine powder is traceable to the exact fish. What I can show today is the test paperwork by lot and our Halal and Kosher certifications. What remains less visible to a shopper is the name of each vessel or farm on the label itself.

You offer both marine and bovine options in Banana Milk and Strawberry Milk, plus a vegetarian formula. How do you decide which source goes into which product, and what does standardization mean on your label.

I would rather use marine collagen from fish skin than cheaper bovine hides for our core skincare ritual, but I also know households are mixed. A partner may avoid fish. A parent may want bovine. So Banana Milk and Strawberry Milk come in marine or bovine options. The vegetarian milk is a separate formula for people who avoid animal collagen entirely.

Standardised, in our use, means we aim for the same fill weight each time. Five grams of collagen per serving. The flavor changes. The peptide weight does not. The label shows the Supplement Facts panel, the serving size, the collagen amount, the other ingredients line, and sugar content. Low sugar versions run 0 to 3g. Sugar free versions use other sweetening systems and state them. There will always be naysayers about taste or format, and I accept that. My job is to keep the panel consistent from lot to lot, so a buyer who reads it in January sees the same numbers in June.

You pulled in 1 million dollars in revenue in 2018, then were described as worth over 1.5m in less than a year, retailing at Sephora and Anthropologie. You were still founder plus seven part time employees, with creative led by co-founding partner Edward Yeung. What broke first when you scaled, and why did you switch manufacturers.

It was not necessarily my choice to become an entrepreneur. I launched Crushed Tonic in April 2017 as a weekend store and recipe blog while working in digital strategy. Then it grew. We pulled in 1 million dollars in revenue in 2018. We were retailing at Sephora and Anthropologie, described as worth over 1.5m in less than a year. I was founder plus seven part time employees, with creative led by my co-founding partner Edward Yeung.

What broke first was production. A kitchen process does not scale to wholesale. Dissolvability changes. Flavor drifts. Fill weight drifts. So I quit my job, bootstrapped, and switched manufacturers to scale. That meant new trials with Korean labs, new tests for metals, toxins and fillers, new paperwork for each lot. Stop trying to persuade everyone that you are not going to fail. That was the best advice I received. I stopped explaining and focused on the lot record, the taste, and whether Sephora, Equinox, Erewhon, JetBlue, Anthropologie, Nordstrom and QVC as named partners received the same product twice.

Healthy should not taste bad, or be difficult.

Sally Olivia Kim

Banana Milk Collagen at 45 dollars for the bovine pouch is your signature, inspired by Korean convenience store milk. What did Korean flavor scientists change about extraction or drying to keep it low sugar and clear dissolving, and what is still opaque.

Banana milk in a Korean convenience store is nostalgic. Sweet, milky, a little vanilla. Our Banana Milk Collagen keeps that profile with 5g collagen per serving. Bovine low sugar one month pouch is 45 dollars. Marine low sugar one month pouch is 55 dollars. Sticks cost more per serving because of the single serve film and fill step. Stir into water, milk or coffee. The brand says it dissolves clear.

What the labs changed was particle handling after hydrolysis, plus the flavor carrier. Less carrier means less sugar and less cloud. That is how we hold 0 to 3g sugar while keeping the creamy note. What is traceable is the peptide lot, the flavor lot, the finished batch, and the third party results. What is still opaque to a reader is the drying curve and extract ratio at the processor, which we do not publish. I can name the country of processing and the test panel. I cannot yet show a public map from boat to pouch. To show it, we would need permission to publish processor names and vessel records by lot, which is the next step.

Strawberry Milk Collagen is also 45 dollars for the bovine pouch and is positioned as a daily skin and hair ritual with clinically backed benefits cited by the store. What study or test sits behind that phrase, and what does the label actually promise.

Our healthy twist on nostalgic strawberry milk is smooth and creamy. Mix as a creamy drink. Positioned as a daily skin and hair ritual. The store page cites clinically backed benefits for skin and hair. I want to be precise about what that means and what it does not mean.

The phrase refers to studies on collagen peptides cited by suppliers and to our own third party checks for purity and dissolvability. It does not mean our flavored powder was tested as a drug. Supplement labels carry the FDA disclaimer that the product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Our label shows Supplement Facts, the collagen amount, sugar, and other ingredients. I would rather be honest about results than overpromise. Some customers keep it because they like the ritual. Some keep it because they see the appearance of more hydrated looking skin over time. Taste is what keeps the ritual daily, which is why we say it tastes as good as it works.

Your refuses list is clear. No fillers, no heavy metals, no sucralose, no oversized scoops with fluff. How is no heavy metals verified lot by lot, and what happens to a batch that fails.

Our mantra is to always be the most honest and transparent. Our promise is clinically tested collagen that tastes amazing, with no fillers, no metals, just results. No fillers means we do not add bulking powders to make the scoop look large. No sucralose means we choose other sweetening systems and list them. No oversized scoops with fluff means we set the serving around the 5g collagen dose, not around a large tub.

No heavy metals is verified by third party testing of every batch for heavy metals, purity, dissolvability and absorption, with a Certificate of Analysis available. The lab tests a retained sample from the lot. If lead, cadmium, arsenic or mercury exceed our specification, the lot does not ship. That is the rule. The failed lot is held, investigated, and rejected if it cannot meet spec. Encapsulation is not our format for these milks. Pouch and stick filling is checked by weight. That paperwork is the part of provenance a careful buyer can ask for by lot number.

You wrote The Collagen Glow after W. W. Norton approached you, and it is found at Barnes and Noble, Target and Amazon. How did writing recipes change your view of dose, and what do you tell a household buying for a parent or partner.

I wrote the collagen based cookbook called The Collagen Glow after the publisher approached me. It is available at Barnes and Noble, Target and Amazon. Writing recipes forced me to think in servings, not scoops. A creamer for coffee and matcha. A banana or strawberry milk for water or milk. A broth for cooking. Each recipe holds the 5g serving, so the household shares the same dose without extra measuring.

For a parent or partner, I say read the panel first. Choose marine or bovine based on diet. Choose pouch for value or sticks for travel. Choose low sugar or sugar free based on taste. Store it where you make your morning drink, because the best powder is the one you finish. I would rather make collagen craveable than make people choke it down. I would rather refuse to make wellness gender prescriptive. Men and women, aging parents, friends. If it tastes good and the paperwork is clean, the ritual holds. That is the whole provenance chain, from field to capsule, or in our case from fish skin to cup.

Closing note from the desk

What stays with us is the bluntness about adherence. Kim does not argue that a higher dose matters if the cup is left half finished. She argues that flavor, clear dissolving and a small honest serving keep a household taking the same lot for a month. That is a provenance claim of a different kind, measured in repeat pouches.

Crushed Tonic set out to make ingestible skincare that people keep. Marine or bovine at 5g, tested by lot, flavored like banana or strawberry milk, with no fillers and no sucralose. The boat name is not yet on the label. The test record by lot is. We note both, plainly.

Product spotlight

Banana Milk Collagen, 45 dollars for the bovine low sugar one month pouch, 55 dollars for marine, with 28 drink sticks at 55 dollars bovine and 65 dollars marine. Sweet banana with milky vanilla notes, 5g hydrolyzed collagen per serving. Stir into water, milk or coffee until clear. Keep daily for a month to judge taste and ritual fit.

Strawberry Milk Collagen, 45 dollars for the bovine low sugar one month pouch, 55 dollars for marine, with a 10 drink stick trial at 29.99 dollars. Creamy strawberry milk profile, 5g collagen per serving. Mix as a creamy drink once daily. Read the Supplement Facts and other ingredients line before choosing marine, bovine or vegetarian.