Podcasts Culture How This Works Kat Hantas and Nicole Emanuel

Kat Hantas and Nicole Emanuel

Published: March 23, 2021, 10 a.m.

Today's episode features a conversation with two sisters \u2014 Kat Hantas and Nicole Emanuel \u2014 about 21Seeds, their company that makes all-natural, infused tequila.

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They talk about what they did before starting the company \u2014 film work and corporate finance, respectively \u2014 when Kat's doctor instructed her to stop drinking fermented spirits like wine, beer, and sake to drink distilled spirits like blanco tequila instead.

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And after eight years of infusing tequila in her kitchen, Kat enlisted her sister Nicole and their friend, Sarika Singh, to start 21Seeds \u2014 the name comes from two friends + one girlfriend with things that are all-natural, that grow from a seed \u2014 with a distillery in the town of Tequila in Jalisco, Mexico run and staffed by women whose hours coincide with school schedules, so the moms don\u2019t have to pay for childcare. The sisters talk about the three tiers set up by the tied-house rule, why they didn't name the company Casamigas (a play on Casamigos), chill filtration (and how it removes aldehydes), keeping the heart but leaving out the head and tail when distilling alcohol, how you can go blind from moonshine (depending on the how and who's making it), and the differences between flavored and infused liquor.

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This is an especially fun episode as both sisters keep it light while the conversation moves easily. Nicole and Kat debate which Constitutional amendment made alcohol illegal and which one repealed Prohibition, the dangers of home infusing tequila in a Brita, and how Oprah Winfrey \u2014 as a tequila fan and someone who infuses tequila herself \u2014 paid the product a high compliment in assuming it was freshly infused.

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Stay tuned after the outro music to hear Skipper trip all over over the pronunciation of Kat's last name. So you all know, Hantas is pronounced like Pocahontas or haunting.

Special Guest: Kat Hantas and Nicole Emanuel.

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