April Wachtel is a 20 year veteran in the beverage and hospitality industry. She is an entrepreneur, an experienced mixologist, a cocktail and spirits instructor, and owner of Swig + Swallow cocktail batching + delivery service.

As a mixologist, Wachtel draws inspiration from a range of sensory experiences, from her teenage years working in farm-to-table restaurants in Vermont to her time spent living abroad in Italy, Sri Lanka, and London, and most recently to her experience bartending under James Beard winning author Dave Arnold at the famed NYC cocktail bar, Booker and Dax.

Wachtel is a passionate and committed educator and spent several years studying and speaking about spirits during her time as the New York-based Brand Ambassador for Bacardi Rum and as Director of Trade Advocacy for Solbeso cacao spirit.

Additionally, April teaches at 5 culinary schools and educational centers in New York and Philadelphia and has taught over 2000 students and counting. Her classes and personal philosophy of hospitality were featured in The Wall Street Journal and on the Sundance Channel, and she recently made appearances on The Today Show, Fox & Friends, and The Speakeasy on Heritage Radio Network. Wachtel has been a tasting note writer for The Ultimate Spirits Challenge, a guest presenter at The Manhattan Cocktail Classic, The Aquavitae Institute, and The Connecticut Bartenders Academy, and regularly designs and presents curriculum for internal trainings for spirits companies.

April originally founded Swig + Swallow as a beverage consulting company for spirits brands, then identified cocktail batching and delivery as a means to revolutionize large scale event production. She transformed Swig + Swallow into a cocktail batching and delivery service in summer of 2015, and partnered with industry leader Cocktail Kingdom Logistics shortly after to provide comprehensive event solutions to meet the needs of the spirits industry. 

In her spare time you can find April cavorting around Brooklyn biking, rock climbing, practicing yoga, or dancing tango.

Additionally you may have seen April's work mentioned or featured in:
Forbes.com, Zagat.com, Cosmo Radio (Siriusxm), Redbook Magazine, Maxim.com, Chilled Magazine, COED, StupidDope, Examiner.com, The Daily Meal, NY Press, The Houston Chronicle, Eat This Drink That Go!, Liquor.com, Craveonline.com, The Massachusetts Beverage Business Journal, Boston.com, Grubstreet, The Improper Bostonian, and Stuff Magazine.