 YouTube channel this is Daniel Rose out here. I'm always looking for interesting things happening in Jerusalem and especially in the realm of food and drinks. So recently I was coming back from Tel Aviv and I spotted an interesting site on a grippist street which for those not familiar with Jerusalem is one of the main streets in the city center running parallel to the world-famous Shukumah Nehuda and the site of the distilling still was unmistakable because I visited a fascinating whiskey distillery in Ireland in the summer. This place is called Thinker's Distillery. They've been open for business for approximately one year. They're doing gins, they're doing vodka, they're doing whiskey and it's all being distilled as you can see in the backdrop here right here in Jerusalem. I came in today to speed firstly try out their products. I'm trying, I've just tried their gin and tonic. I've never had a gin and tonic that I didn't like but this was particularly enjoyable. Craft Gin is of course a very very rising scene but I came here to speak to Michael Genosar who's the Chief Operating Officer and ask him what they decided to set up a gin distillery and a distillery in Israel which is of course a land better known for its wine than for its spirits. So I'm here joined by Michael Genosar who is the Chief Operating Officer of the distillery. Michael thanks for joining me to talk about spirits in Israel. So firstly starting with basics how long has this distillery been in operation? So we officially got our licenses in March of 2020 but since COVID hit then we were kind of waiting for the right time to launch so we officially lost the place in January of 21 so a year ago. So I was looking at your website and you have an interesting mix of products. I tried your gin which was great. I know you guys also do a vodka and you do a whiskey so how did you decide on this and are you focused in more one spirit over the other or equally across these categories? Our thought here in thinkers is that Israel is not your typical place to set up a distillery. We don't have a lot of water we don't have a lot of grains. What we do have here is a lot of technology so that kind of that thinking and that kind of idea helped us set up that motion of let's set up a distillery that can do basically everything. You can do vodka, you can do gin, you can do whiskey and and there's a lot of science into it, there's a lot of technology into it but the basis of it is all the same for all the different spirits. So it's just a matter of how do we do the best possible spirits using all the elements and all the technology that we can have. You have here in your location which is located on Agrippa Street this massive, massive wall full of barrels which is great and I couldn't help but notice I'm a huge fan of the Hebrew calendar so you have it stamped Jerusalem Israel 2018 5778. So Michael we have here before us four different types of two different types of gin. There is a vodka and there is a bourbon whiskey. Tell me what are the differences between the gin and what are these tell us about your product line. Two types of gin. One's gonna be a London dry style gin or we call it Jerusalem dry and while the other one's gonna be a more of a New World gin and it's called Israeli Sunset. So different botanicals kind of different purposes for the gin one's gonna be better for cocktails such as more and more of your classic cocktails and the Israeli Sunset the New World gin is kind of be more of a floral aromatic kind of gin better for gin and tonics perhaps. The vodka is a one liter bottle and it's it's called 4060 and it's 4060 because it's 40% alcohol obviously and 60% water and the water is important because we produce our own water here the distillery we're using Israeli technology to make our own water and it basically helps us preserve the original flavors of the raw material and really makes a better vodka. We end up with our whiskey bourbon which is just introduced this week it's a three and a half eight three and a half years aged in in American oak barrels here in Israel everything was was aged here and barreled here and bottled here and we love it. You mentioned botanicals for a someone like me who's more a gin consumer than a gin connoisseur the only thing I know about gin is that it's made from juniper berries so I presume there's other botanicals involved and what are those. So every gin in the world has to have juniper inside in order for it to be known as gin and from there on you could use whatever botanicals you want essentially. We are from our our thought is not to go crazy in the number of botanicals we want the right number of botanicals to give you like the right taste. The Jerusalem dry is gonna be really centered on juniper citrus lemon peel grapefruit and gonna be very very right down the middle kind of stronger on alcohol content but also drier. When the and the Israeli Sunset has two major botanicals that really affect the flavor it's rose petals and strawberries. The rose petals of course plastic Middle Eastern touch. Yeah well you know it's not it's just it's a matter of using the best possible botanicals from wherever they may come. If they're the best here in Israel I'll use them we actually designed the the Israeli Sunset as kind of rose meaning kind of a really kind of light fun kind of drink and and the rose petals and strawberries really fit into it. And I mean Israel for for those who sort of think about Israel and alcohol probably think wine right. Israel is known as a wine country especially in the last few decades as a new terroir. So the whole concept of Israeli spirits I would say to people is kind of a bit more surprising. So how far do you think the spirit world in Israel is at the moment especially versus Israeli craft beer which my observation is sort of quite commonplace or really really taking off for the last number of years. Well that's exactly true. I mean you're looking at wineries you probably have more than 500 wineries in Israel and you know Israeli wine across the world is regarded and renowned and doing great job. Breweries like you said probably more more than a hundred or hundred twenty breweries and just adding up spirits distilled you know distilleries are it's in the beginning there's about 10 distilleries in Israel some of them do whiskies. Are you the only distillery here in Jerusalem? Yes in Jerusalem in the city definitely we're the only distillery and I think it's really kind of a beginning of an industry everyone's kind of still figuring out what they want to do but there's a lot of there's a lot of good vibes there's a lot of good energy and people trying to do interesting stuff but we're seeing what the wines and beer were able to achieve and for sure we could achieve the same spirits. I've been in your location for about 40 minutes and we've been trying to start shooting this and a whole plethora of people coming in we have some tourists some locals you have a lovely stock room over there with lots of pallets so it looks like a lot of this product's going out the door. Who is buying your can I use the word small batch relatively small batch? For now for now I'll give you the small batch because it's just the beginning. Right here in Agrippus we have a visitor center we do tours during the day everything is pre-ordered pre booked in advance and we've got all kinds of people coming through it's gonna can be people from the bar scene it could be people that are coming on a company outing it could be just people who want to just go out and experience something new so we sell through our visitor center and the store here but we are also selling through our distributor all over Israel and we're in stores and bars and restaurants and hotels and about 400 different retail retail places. El Al we're also selling on El Al flights and and this year we're going to start exporting for the first time it's going to be into the US market and from there on we're going to be looking for more export markets. So this visitor center is on Agrippus but once you see that kind of classic copper it's hard to miss it and you guys do a number of tours so what kind of tours do you offer? Any fun loving spirits people are invited we do all kinds of tours more beginner stuff and then more of advanced as well the idea is really to showcase what what the alcohol world looks like the spirits world what we do different how to our how does our technology come into place the stuff that we're producing here so it's a tour that's very does all of explanation explaining going on tastings of course of the different spirits that we're making different cocktails how we could use the spirits in a different ways and and we see that that is a wide range of people that are interested in this kind of experience from the Israel that could be tourists that could be really from all over the place everything goes through our website you pick the day you want to come in the time the type of tour or you know call us what I was going to be here and of course we're in Jerusalem so speaking about kosher presume all the products are certified kosher everything certified kosher the place itself is certified kosher we do we don't we we don't have a kitchen here but we do serve food here through the different restaurants for the Shook so if people want to combine food with it you know we're happy to give that option as I mentioned for those who don't know Jerusalem you guys are okay to literally one minute from the Shook so you can come here for a drink or a pre-drink and a tour and then go get some amazing food as well so you mentioned that this whiskeys you've just launched it a couple of weeks ago and you're beginning to export to the US what else are you guys expecting in 2023 so we're going to be adding a new gin so we've got two they're gonna be a third gin there's going to be another type of vodka so it's going to be actually probably an overproof vodka so higher on alcohol what what what percentage of the big question 52 52% is very very strong but extremely smooth there's something to look forward and there's where's rum in the making in the in the works actually we're really looking into rum and that's like in the next year and a half that's that's the three major thing that the nature of products are going to be working for those crazy people who are interested in the world of spirits past 52% absence any plans for stuff like that no that's not I it's not in our plans I don't know what will happen but that's like that's less of our of our you know what we're looking for Michael thanks so much for the info I mentioned you guys can be found on thinkorsdissillery.com that's where people can buy the products that's where people can book the tours anywhere else different stores all over the country just look us up on the web on the social media you'll find a lot of outlets are you are you in duty free at the airport and duty free but we are on a lot of flights if you make it to the airport you're probably going to find us thanks so much Michael thank you thanks for watching the video if you are interested in great spirits including gin and you're visiting Jerusalem I definitely recommend checking out this place it's located on 88 on a gripper street they also have a website which is thinkorsdissillery.com and tours can be arranged and you can also purchase some of their great products thanks for watching