Nicholas Bennett is the beverage director of Union Square Hospitality Group’s Porchlight in New York. He applies his 18 years of craft cocktail skills to developing inventive cocktail menus for some of New York City’s most celebrated bars. With Bennett at the helm, Porchlight earned a spot on Esquire’s ‘Best Bars in America’ list and a regional Top 10 nod from Tales of the Cocktail’s annual Spirited Awards.

Tiffanie Barriere is a bartender, influencer, and educator who has been awarded some of the beverage industry’s highest honors. She spent seven years as the beverage director of One Flew South. As an independent bartender, she is known for creative and innovative cocktail menus for bar consultancy clients. Hosting mixology classes around the nation, she brings culinary and farm culture together with spirits.

Tanner Agar is the owner and creative director of Rye, which offers seasonal food, creative small plates, and cocktails in Dallas and McKinney, Texas. He is also in charge of the avant-garde cocktail lounge Apothecary Bar and the gastrovan Barley By Rye.

Dr. Jacopo Mazzeo is a freelance wine and drinks journalist and consultant.
He regularly contributes to leading trade and consumer publications including Wine Enthusiast, Whisky Magazine, Decanter, Meininger, Club Oenologique, Harper's, Pix Wine, and Good Beer Hunting. He consults on consumer trends and marketing strategy and offers copywriting services to drinks firms and agencies. Jacopo is a former sommelier, he judges international wine, beer, and spirits competitions, and sat twice on the board of directors of the British Guild of Beer Writers. Before he embraced full-time journalism, he studied musicology at the University of Bologna and took a PhD at the University of Southampton.