Factory Tours
Cheeky Cocktails
In a Bed Stuy production space lined with stainless steel tables, citrus peelers, and neatly stacked glass bottles, April Wachtel is rethinking what cocktail culture looks like at scale. As the founder and CEO of Cheeky Cocktails, she has built a line of “badass cocktail mixers for the home and bar that make labor-intensive cocktails” without the labor.
“I grew up in the bar world,” April says. “I started working in bars and restaurants when I was 13.” After years behind the bar in Boston and New York, and later working as a brand ambassador and consultant for major spirits brands, she noticed a pattern: people wanted top-quality craft cocktails—but not the prep work. “If you’re a professional bartender with incredibly high standards, but you can’t—or simply don’t want to—make it yourself, our products give you the exact same result.”
That philosophy—bar-spec precision without compromise—sits at the heart of Cheeky Cocktails.
In a crowded mixer category, April chose restraint over noise. “Overwhelmingly, the mixer space is really cluttered,” she explains. “A lot of CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) businesses kind of fall into this trap of trying to say everything on the label.” Cheeky’s bottles are minimalist and color-forward, designed intentionally “to occupy the same space as a piece of fresh fruit does, like on a bar cart or on a back bar.”
Inside the bottle, the focus is just as disciplined. Cheeky clearly labels ratios—like its 1:1 simple syrup—and avoids artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives. The brand also names its ingredient partners. Its espresso syrup, the company’s bestseller, is made with coffee from two local specialty roasters, Partners and Cafe Integral, and comes in both regular and decaf.
“As far as we know, there’s not another [decaf espresso syrup] on the market,” April says. For a drink like the espresso martini—wildly popular with her age group—the decaf option opens up new possibilities for those who caffeine hits harder. Beyond cocktails, both syrups are versatile: drizzled over ice cream, added to milk, oat milk, or baked goods.
Another standout is Cheeky’s Hot Honey, tested across multiple pepper varieties before landing on Habanero and Jalapeños, mixed in a 2:1 ratio—two parts honey, one part water. That dilution ensures it shakes smoothly over ice rather than clumping. Precision, again, meets practicality.
Cheeky is currently about 25% direct-to-consumer (including Amazon), with the remaining 75% sold through roughly 1,300 brick-and-mortar retailers nationwide. A small segment includes hotels and restaurants, with national accounts as a key growth focus this year.
The team remains intentionally lean. April is the only full-time “employee” working on the business. Around her is a rotating ecosystem of part-time specialists: a CFO/COO, national sales reps, production staff, outsourced bookkeeping, and PR. In any given month, 10 to 15 people may “touch” the business.
“In particular, having very qualified people part-time versus more junior people full-time,” she notes, has made a difference. “A very experienced person, even if they’re spending one day a month with you, delivers exponentially different returns.”
Manufacturing has always been central to the brand. “My dad is a carpenter, so I grew up building things,” she says. “I’ve always loved knowing how things work and then taking pride in making the thing.”
She strongly encourages early-stage founders to manufacture themselves, at least initially. Beyond necessity (many co-manufacturers won’t work with tiny brands), there are strategic advantages: tighter quality control, greater adaptability, better cash flow management, and a deep understanding of how and why a product might fail.
“Most of us who start these things might have a product background, but no idea how to run a business, no idea what the financial documents are like,” she says. Learning production, supply chain, and the cash inflows and outflows firsthand, she argues, builds resilience.
Get your own Cheeky Cocktail mixes at their website!