Bettina Malle, along with husband and co-author Helge Schmickl, graduated from the Vienna University of Technology in 1991 with masters of science in chemical engineering and received doctorates in technical sciences in 1993. They have published books and conduct workshops on the production of vinegar, distilled spirits, and essential oils, emphasizing the use of fruits and herbs right from the garden. Bettina and Helge have been married since 2002. That same year they moved to Klagenfurt, Carinthia (Austria), where they host their seminars and conduct research and developments in fermenting and distilling. They have two children.

Helge Schmickl, along with wife and co-author Bettina Malle, graduated from the Vienna University of Technology in 1991 with masters of science in chemical engineering and received doctorates in technical sciences in 1993. They have published books and conduct workshops on the production of vinegar, distilled spirits, and essential oils, emphasizing the use of fruits and herbs right from the garden. Bettina and Helge have been married since 2002. That same year they moved to Klagenfurt, Carinthia (Austria), where they host their seminars and conduct research and developments in fermenting and distilling. They have two children.

Reginald Smith is the founder and president of Supreme Vinegar, a specialty vinegar manufacturer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has studied vinegar around the world from Europe to East Asia to Africa. He has also authored more than twenty published papers on topics besides the history of vinegar in fields as diverse as physics, business, and genetics. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and two children.

J. Natalie Winch lives in southern New Jersey, not far from where she grew up, with her husband, two children, and dogs. When she isn't mothering, teaching, grading, or making lesson plans, Natalie runs the Hebrew School at her synagogue, coaches soccer, teaches lacto-fermentation classes, writes the occasional entry for her blog Food Empowerment (tradsnotfads.com), and fights the dust bunnies that threaten to take over her family room.