Exclusive: April Wachtel Is 'Trying to Build a Billion-Dollar' Drinks Brand With Her Company Cheeky Cocktails: 'I Love Helping People'

April Wachtel started working in restaurants when she was 13 and went on to bartend for over a decade before becoming a brand ambassador for Bacardi, then a consultant for Diageo. Since she's taught over 12,000 students how to make cocktails, it made sense for her to create Cheeky Cocktails.

However, Wachtel didn't have that aha moment that other founders may have experienced.

"It was a series of observations over many years in hospitality. Firstly, I knew people cared deeply about hosting and sharing with friends and family, and craft cocktails were intimidating and inaccessible to most. Secondly, on a personal level, while I had lots of experience planning cocktail events professionally, making every ingredient from scratch for my own cocktail parties (like they do in the top bars) felt overwhelming and exhausting, and I thought there had to be a better way to make entertaining more about fun and less about work," she exclusively tells Morning Honey.

Wachtel knew she was onto something when she was planning events for work and she couldn't find the same ingredients bartenders made from scratch sold on retail shelves.

"All shelf-stable mixers were filled with artificial flavors and preservatives, nothing like the ingredients I knew from my time behind bars. Additionally, my cocktail students always asked what ingredients to purchase to stock their home bars. It was always easy to recommend a range of spirits, but there was no shelf-stable version of the syrups and juices used behind professional bars. Very few of my students wanted to make fresh ingredients from scratch whenever they wanted a cocktail," she shares of bringing the idea to life.

Since Wachtel wanted to be an entrepreneur from an "early age," the idea finally came to her when she left her last full-time corporate spirits job in 2015.

"I decided that the next project I would work on had to solve a 'real problem' in the drinks business, and it took years of trial and error and scrappiness to get to where we are today," she admits.

Since launching Cheeky in March 2020, the feedback has been positive, with her loyal customers purchasing from them since the beginning.

"We've been featured in lots of media, from the New York Times, Bon Appétit, NY Magazine and on the Today show, and partnered with a range of celebrities, among other accolades. We tweak products, recipes and messaging based on customer feedback, and of course, some products are more popular than others, but the core concept and flavors were an immediate hit across the board," she states.

Of course, running a business has its ups and downs, but for the most part, she's enjoying taking charge.

"I love to surprise and delight our customers. I think this is related to my hospitality background, but it's so rewarding to help people create amazing food and beverage experiences with and for the people they love. Whether it's personalizing gift notes in our direct-to-consumer orders, or creating innovative products like our bar-quality Espresso Syrup and Decaf Espresso Syrup for two-ingredient Espresso Martinis, I love it all," she says, adding that it's not always "easy" to be the boss.

"Doing hard things makes doing hard things easier," she says. "It's really empowering to struggle with one problem in the business one day, and later — sometimes months or years later — you can tackle the same problem with your eyes closed."

Cheeky is here to stay, as Wachtel is "trying to build a billion-dollar drinks brand."

"It's less about a specific financial return and more about wanting to create a business that creates tremendous value for a broad swathe of people. It's hard to know how long it will take to achieve this goal, but I hope to be well on our way in the next five to ten years," she shares. "I love helping people feel better about their abilities, so if we can help democratize cocktails and host better, that would be exciting for me."

"We're launching a range of cocktail classes in the next couple of months (including mixology, batching, drinks planning and more). People can take the classes independent of our Cheeky products or purchase our products to make the drinks in the classes. Our customers have been clamoring for these, and I'm psyched to finally launch! Additionally, we're launching a TSA-friendly 2oz size of all of our flavors. These will be perfect for travel, stocking stuffers, and more," she adds. "We're 100 percent invested in making the best quality product possible. We are obsessed with our customers and meeting their needs and desires. If we're 80 percent as successful as we want to be in serving them, we'll have a great business."