Gin distillery in the heart of Jerusalem and wonderful Venice

from the latest on Caribbean cruises to kosher safaris pilgrimages to Jewish Eastern Europe and award-winning wines and international cuisine in sundrenched Tel Aviv sit back and enjoy the trip with the travel edition of the Jerusalem Post podcast hello good evening I'm going to say this up front I hope that our listeners enjoy this podcast as much as we're going to enjoy making it David had this idea he wanted to talk about some of the great sites of Jerusalem and I said David forget that let's go to a Distillery I don't have a problem with that whatsoever so David and I have come to The Thinker distillery in Mahan Yehuda in Jerusalem it has only been running for a couple of years they make some of the best Jin vodka and bourbon that you can find in Israel this is is the Jerusalem Post podcast travel Edition but we're not moving very far so anyway we're now actually being photograph not only by our friends who are in the background but by other people here as well they're wondering what on Earth is going on um what's on the show today David so we'll be going to thinker distillery in Jerusalem and then are we going to own up about what's happening in as well talking about holy water we will go to a City full of water and lots and lots and lots of churches Venice let's go to the questions question number one where does the name Jin come from and question number two how many canals are there in Venice to the nearest 10 I'm going to get David a very strong cup of coffee and we will join you after the break the anwers at the end of the PO Israel is the startup Nation the scaleup nation the Unicorn country join me Mayan Hoffman Jerusalem Post Deputy CEO strategy and innov and me zachie Hennessy the jpost business and Tech and Innovation correspondent for our analysis of the most critical Israel Tech Innovations today in each episode of inside Israeli Innovation we'll highlight a new tech Trend discuss the latest Innovation news and interview at least one of Israel's most promising companies so if You' like to know what's on The Cutting Edge then this Jerusalem Post show is for you listen to inside Israeli Innovation on Apple Spotify Google podcast or wherever you get your podcast [Music] in the introduction we promised you alcohol and unfortunately of course unless you're opening a bottle yourself as you're listening to this you will just have to listen to Mark and I talking about alcohol and hopefully maybe tasting a little bit of alcohol in the company of our hosts we are joined by the founder of this fabulous Distillery he goes by the name of Bennett Kaplan but he's asked me to call him sir thank you very much I appreciate the obedience this is going to be one of those interviews isn't it yes I think I need another gym before we carry on tell us where we are and what it is that you do you're sitting in thinker Distillery Visitor Center The Visitor Center is on this side of the glass walls and the other side of the glass wall is the actual distillery that's the operating Distillery 100% of our products are manufactured there and here this Visitor Center is designed to give uh people an understanding of what it is that we do distilling is something that's quite new in Israel there're only a handful of Distillery so people are quite curious about what goes on in distilleries which by the way is true everywhere in the world distilleries are very well visited we receive about a th000 guests here a month why did you choose to open a Distillery next to Mahan Yehuda Market in the center of Jerusalem the distilling business has gone absolutely crazy in the last 25 years since 1999 it's one of the fastest growing Industries in the world in the super premium level it's had growth of close to 15% a year people always say to me oh you must be an alcoholic and that's why you started Distillery no I started The Distillery because I'm a pragmatic businessman and I felt that this was an industry that I wanted to get into the reason it's in Israel is because that's where I live and the reason it's next to shuk Yuda is because it's the second most touristed location in Jerusalem and we wanted to basically have people from all over the world come to see us Jerusalem has become once again kind of like a center of the world and people come through here all the time and come to our Distillery the Bible the Torah talks about the seven species on top of that we can add in oranges and the other citrus fruits those are sort of the well-known products that you would associate with Israel maybe with Jerusalem but whiskey and Jin and vodka they ain't really things that you would associate with this city that's correct here's your Jin and tonic thank you very much indeed but before you answer the question can you tell us what what we have in front of us I don't know you're having right now A genon with the dry gin the Jerusalem dry you're having a VOD catonic because you didn't answer me and I'm guessing you like the VOD catonic you're also getting the VOD katonic thank you anat back to the question this idea that the biblical Association of the seven species how do you get from that to these three Spirits the same way we get to Ai and ship manufacturing which also isn't part of of you know the the the Shivam minum the seven species uh it has nothing whatsoever to do with that I looked at industries that I felt would be a good IND indry that I had the talent to go into and to break into and Distilling was one of the primary ones and basically everything that every all the distillers anywhere are importing everything anyway you know the other distillers in Israel are importing all of their grain from overseas because we don't produce you know a good grain for distilling so and and and the whole world has gone that way the whole world has become you know internationalized to the point where everything is shipped all over the place I always tell people yeah you want to buy a German car don't buy a Porsche it's made all over the place and and everything is aggregated historically all of the distilleries were located next to Farms cuz that's where the raw material was and it was cheap and the and the massive distillers with themselves were farmers and they were just looking for ways to preserve their grain rather than just putting it a Sil and waiting for somebody to come and that is how the whole thing got started but that's not how you make the best product anymore they're not growing the best grains next to your farm they're not they don't have the best Botanicals next to your farm so everybody who's in the Super premium level you know what we call the furthered level which is our way of explaining what we do everybody is sourcing materials from all over the world the great distilleries in Scotland are buying their barley who they used to buy from the Ukraine I don't know where they're getting from now but everybody's importing everybody's finding the best products they can and bringing it together and an urban Distillery is basically saying that where does the name thinkers come from oh that's a great question thank you most of the existing distilleries in the world were built by farmers and they were and they were buying what was close and cheap and most of them were all started in the late 1800s the people who wrote those recipes in the late 1800s really didn't understand chemistry the periodical table of the elements was kind of new and it certainly wasn't full the science of taste and smell it's only 15 years old right so all of the things that you need to be a really fabulous high-end distiller is information that's current so those people over there you know back then in the late 1800s they would have given their right arm to have access to the information that the average person has today the average school kids but we're not average we're Israelis we always try to do things better what is everybody else doing and how do we make it better that's why we call it furthered because that's what israelies do they further things and that is what we we did here in the spirit of being an Israeli company is we just took what everybody else did and we furthered it shall we I think we should cheers what do you stay in the States you really want to know the the official American toast Damn the Torpedoes Mark I'm going to have a sip so I think you've already had a I'm halfway through mine you're always ahead of me I didn't wait to be asked so you can explain while I'm tasting that means I have to put mine down okay I've had quite a few sips of my gin and tonic this is the dry gin o it's very nice well since we've got the staff and the owners around us we have to say it's very nice but I'm I'll be honest I'm not a gin person you you like gin more than I I do I do to me it seems very smooth very nice very palatable potable I like flavored gin a lot but when you strip it back to proper basic gin sometimes it can be a little harsh and the tonic and the the Gin don't mix here it's a really good blend really smooth you can taste the Gin but doesn't overwhelm and you can taste the tonic and again I think they make a fabulous combination while we've been chatting your colleague has brought out four bottles can you explain what we're looking at this tall one here in the middle is our vodka bottle the vodka bottle was the first product that we created not the vodka bottle the Vodka itself the bottle design itself which won quite literally like the most important Design Awards in the world is a celebration of all of the furthering that we felt deserve to be on a bottle so it starts with the celebration of life which is creation love peace Ben Franklin discovering electricity and it goes on and on and on music the solar system all the way down to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle which is the Cornerstone of quantum mechanics and on the front the sphere out of cabala the 10 the attributes attributes of cabala that's good that comprise the world and basically what we've got on here is all the things that have happened in the world that have elevated the world from what it was to something much better and that is the thinker's motif that's what we try to follow next to this we have a bottle of bourbon and this bourbon was originally distilled by us my team we rented a distillery in Columbus Ohio and we aged it there and then we put it on a ship for 6 months we took a long trip to Israel and then we put it on the shores of kifa outdoors and after about four and a half years it had reached what we considered to be Perfection as you mentioned there's a visitor center here that's the showroom of the business this is how you promote the business in Jerusalem how do people come and visit The Distillery and and enjoy an hour a couple of hours in your company or in the company of guides here and not who served us as our primary guide we have three full-time people who do uh give tours because there are a lot of Tours here one way is you can come for an hour tour which is B basic tour in that you get a cocktail and a tasting of all of our products then we have what we call a deep dive tour which goes more into detail into what we do differently in the history of alcohol it's a kind of like a tour of NASA you know you leave an expert and you get a second cocktail at the end we also rent The Distillery to groups we probably have about 15 groups a month of 40 50 people that come through you know everything from like Birthright kind of Tours to companies and they also had a tour and a tasting uh We've we've also done weddings and bar mitzvas in here but that's just because people love the environment so when you come here you leave an expert what about ordering from wherever anybody happens to be listening to this podcast well we have a website and we do deliver uh directly to the consumer but we also are distributed by uh one of the largest and the finest distributor in Israel ham they've been in business for over 100 years it's a family-owned business they're the one of the four largest in the country and they've got us in 600 locations throughout the country so it's pretty easy to find us overseas we distributed in America through Royal Wine in New York New Jersey and Illinois we distributed by Total Wine okay the largest in the rest of America we have a distributor in Canada we have a distributor in the UK we have a distributor in Morocco believe it or not we're expanding by the way we only came on the market last September and the website is thinkers distillery.com Bennett thank you for the Gin mainly but also for your time you're welcome for the Jin and my time it was my [Music] pleasure Jerusalem fact file L flies to benorian airport from most major European cities plus New York Boston Miami Los Angeles and Johannesburg a Canada ba ca Delta United and virgin all fly direct to Tel Aviv Turkish and Emirates offer excellent connections to benorian there's an excellent inexpensive train service from just outside arrivals at benorian with buses and taxes also available for the 35-minute journey to Jerusalem there are hotels and hostels to suit most budgets but be aware Jerusalem is an expensive city our hotel recommendations include the brand new tatron opposite the Jerusalem theater the colonial King David overlooking the old city walls and for Budget Travelers the Abraham hostel is very popular there's little to no chance of rain from May to September with July and August hot in the day but cool at night there can be heavy downpours in the winter months even occasional snow but the days can often be warm the currency is the Israeli shekele $100 will buy you 373 shekels as of the end of May 2023 outside of Mahan Yuda Jerusalem offers many food Styles if you don't keep kosher it's well worth dining in the Arab quarter of the Old City kosher options include piccalino eucalyptus and the old favorite [Music] IMA and now the latest news with the Jerusalem Post podcast travel Edition Hyer Port has engaged the leading cruise port designer Bello aimil and partners to design Israel's first purpose-built cruise terminal the company has designed ports in Miami galston Singapore amongst many others the new terminal will enable hia to cope with the rapid expansion of cruising in Israel with hia now acting as HomePort to 10 different cruise lines and handling 380,000 outgoing and 250,000 incoming passengers Russia shanai traditionally the time Jewish Pilgrims make the trip to uman in Ukraine to visit the gravide of famed Rabbi nahman mlav with the Jewish New Year holiday just around the corner Ukrainian President Vladimir zalinski threatened to deny access to Israeli visitors if Israel fails to renew benefits for Ukrainian refugees living in Israel e and P ryzen a German ski holiday company allegedly told two author Ox Jewish families they would not be allowed to stay in their properties Swiss newspaper Blick spoke with EMP ryzen who reportedly confirmed the company would not rent toim the company says damage is often so great that repairs cannot be carried out in time for the following reservations benorian airport is breaking all records this summer with more than 2.5 million passengers in July causing significant overcrowding benorian capacity is around 30 million passengers per year meaning Israel will either need to build a new airport or block the expansion of new routes talking of new routs how about Vietnam and Sri Lanka from October 2023 vietjet air will be operating twice weekly flights between Israel and Hanoi Aria will be operating weekly direct flights to the popular island of Sri Lanka loved by Israeli Surfers Bluebird Airlines launched a new Tel Aviv Barcelona route after to wiiz a announced it is stopping flights you're listening to the Jerusalem Post podcast travel Edition with Mark Gordon and David Harris mate you keep posting pictures on the internet I'm not there it's nice I tell you what you know you've been away a couple of times without me I've been away a couple of times without you and I miss the banter the good chat the here I miss getting drunk because my uh current travel partner is not much of a drinker but yeah it's fun it's fun also to do something that's not pressured because I don't have a tape recorder with me and I'm just having vacation and decided to get on the blower with you and give her a report from a destination so where have you gone not that far I'm sort of in the Mediterranean area actually the Adriatic actually a lagoon actually Venice it's too romantic for you and me I don't want tongues wagging yet again my wife wouldn't be able to cope so Debbie and I that's my wife have come away for her 25th wedding anniversary when's your 25th wedding anniversary oh I don't do such things I've been trying to find out where you've been going for ages you wouldn't tell me it's the first time I think you've kept a secret ever I am terrible at keeping secrets and I decided when I book these tickets about two months ago three months ago that if I was keeping it as a surprise from my good lady I was going to keep it a surprise from absolutely everybody and you weren't the only one to be a little bit angry with me when I wouldn't say and everybody said I'm not going to tell her it was a challenge and I also decided if my wife doesn't know why should anybody else know before her so there you go that's why it's fine I will take my Revenge by not telling you that I'm going to Edinburgh later in the year so why have you pick Venice well the first reason to be perfectly honest and remember you and I live in Israel was that of all the potential destinations that I would want to go to the flights were the cheapest originally I was going to book with wiiz which is a lowcost airline in both directions and then I noticed that LL was flying out earlier in the morning departure day from Tel Aviv it was about $50 more expensive but it gave me a full day extra so I got a really good price paid a little bit more just to get that extra time so we're sort of here for five days instead of four you skimped and saved on your romantic silver wedding anniversary trip with your wife have you at least spent some money while you've been there on her so that's something that you and I have discussed on the Pod before is do you want to travel business class when I got to the LL check-in desk very nice lady said to me would you like to spend another $400 and you can go business and the answer immediately is no because if I did have $400 spare I would be spending it on higher level entertainment maybe a better Hotel etc etc and again as you and I have talked about in the past I opted to go for Airbnb partly because of keeping kosher and so on it allows us to do our own thing but also I was able to bring the cost of this stay down significantly so the Airbnb that we've got is very modest it's very nice but I think that if we had a hotel room of a similar standard it would be significantly more so you've spent nothing on flights you've spent nothing and you staying in a shoe box are you at least lavishing money on things to do in Venice and is it expensive absolutely we are lavishing it the great thing about my wife during the year she's fairly sort of tight with money so if if I say Debbie I've ordered another Manchester City Football shirt she she sort of rolls her eyes and thinks oh my gosh this is terrible but when we go away she says look let's have fun let's not skimp and save and enjoy ourselves so is Venice an expensive place yes it is if you're going to stay in a five-star hotel on the Grand Canal eating the fanciest Michelin starred restaurants etc etc but there are ways of doing things here that do cost but also help you to save where you don't want to spend and then you can invest Elsewhere for example yesterday or the day before we were doing lots of uh Journeys and remember around Venice and its 100 and odd Islands you're going on water buses so we bought the day pass for €25 rather than spending €9 on each Journey so that saved money and I think you'll correct me if I'm wrong but a Euro and a dollar are roughly uh the same the same can be said for a variety of other things that we did getting a museum package when we went to the does Palace which is the main Royal Palace in St Mark Square which is magnificent we also bought entry to another 3 museums at the same time also in the square and so you're seeing lots and lots but you're just able to save that little bit here and there by sort of thinking wisely anything Jewish to see yes but probably many of our listeners will know that ghetto the first ghetto was indeed in Venice and that the word ghetto and there was talk about an iron Foundry that was a Giotto but the word ghetto is Italian and and this was the first place so currently there are three or four synagogues here plus a museum however and this is the butt anybody listening to this should know that until at least 20124 the museum is closed for a major refit they say maybe 2025 that it will reopen and also we had The Misfortune on the day that we booked the visit that there was a wedding in one of the synagogues so we couldn't go in and by the way a couple of the synagogues are part of the museum so the problem is we only actually got to see two synagogues on the tour and we still paid full whack but so bear that in mind that it will cost I think it was €1 per person which is not a huge amount but you're only going to see two synagogues one of those synagogues is absolutely fascinating um in a safic style the other one is called the lato synagogue which is in the ashkanazi style and if anyone is familiar with the name of Kim lato he's a rabbi who was I think a famous cist who ended up being buried in AO or AKO in Israel this is where he came from can you get a good kosher lunch there not in the museum itself but yes this is one of the Fantastic things about coming to Venice if you are should we say observant and something that is really interesting and unusual and I'll get to the food in a second is that in many places you go in Europe in in tourism areas you don't see people mainly wearing uh kot and headgear you certainly tend not to see Ultra Orthodox Jews in in kidish gar walking around the streets in the ghetto area here you do see that it seems to be a very open place for visitors there are four potential places to eat if you keep kosher one of which is gam gam it's a meat restaurant and I would say from my perspective is the best value it's considerably cheaper than the other restaurant service was fine food was good I definitely recommend the fried artichoke which is fried in in beer batter and topped with Sesame the second option which is more expensive and you can eat in a garden or indoors is a place called get this B ghetto in the ghetto which I assumed meant they were going to serve baguettes but they don't it's a fancy meat place but it is pricey there are also two bakeries one of which is just a straight Bakery the other one offers Falafel and pizza and in both of the dairy places you can also pick up matah cheese is and so on so if you're making a picnic they're a good place to start sadly as our listeners know you're a vegetarian can you get by as a vegetarian there so first of all when I talk vegetarian I tend to talk about places that are strictly either vegetarian or vegan because generally by and large in the world today there is hardly a restaurant that you would go in where you can't find something whether it's a side salad Etc you might not get the protein you want but there's always going to be something but when we're looking at vegetarian places so I've been to one because it's very close to where we're staying it's also in the Cana Regio area which is the area where the ghetto is it's called saluna it's an Italian kids bookstore C vegetarian Cafe I think it would be unfair to call it a restaurant but if you want something nice for breakfast at lunch or dinner it's great salads they have what they call croutons which are basically open sandwiches with a variety of cheeses the cheeses are topped with honey with eggplants a variety of really really delicious options and for those who are vegan there are also plenty of uh vegan uh takes too on the main island of Venice as far as I know there are only two vegetarian vegan places I didn't try the second one any culture for you to partake in music concerts that sort of thing the big treat that I gave my lady wife last night was a concert it was absolutely Fab it was in one of the squala a musical School in the middle of this just a couple of minutes from the Rialto Bridge in fact about 60 seconds in this particular theater I think it operates six nights a week three nights a week they performed vales Four Seasons but I particularly wanted to go the other time when it's an evening of Opera they're not performing full operas they're performing Aras and other famous pieces and the concert lasts for about 90 minutes it was top top class the nine-piece orchestra were wonderful the performers are not only singing they're also acting so you get the feel of a real Opera the prices start from €0 which is incredibly cheap for anybody who's interested in going to Opera and knows what the cost of tickets are it was a really lovely evening out you done a gondola so now you're going to say David doesn't spend any money I decided that when it's €80 for about 20 minutes and then you have to pay more for a gondola to sing at you then a much better way of using the money is to Simply use the water buses Etc you see the same views and then you walk and you walk and you walk and you walk and that's the best way to see this city with the $80 you haven't spent I expect to see you in a new Manchester City shirt very soon then so we have set our hearts and our eyes on some of the famous Morano glass and we need a very thorough debate at home as to what our budget is but there are certain pieces that are out of this world that we adore that we love debb is a big glass fan one of the things that we did we went to the island of Morano which is famous for its glass we watched a glass blowing uh demonstration we went to a place called OMG which is the original Morano glass just know that they will charge you and we felt that it was a little bit of a ripoff there many of the other places you just go and watch a free glass blowing demonstration and then the expectation is that you go into the shop and maybe pick up a few trinkets but Morano is highly recommended and also Burano which is a 40-minute water bus ride away which is a very colorful place it's the only place where you will see lots and lots of different colored houses lace and so on also a fabulous place to buy some gifts so when are you taking me away well given when we're recording this I believe in about four days time you and I will be hopping to the Baltic oh exciting can't wait looking forward I'll start packing see you then bye [Music] bye-bye Venice fact file Venice Marco Polo Airport Services the city and is the main airport for the surrounding region Delta flies in from New York elal from Tel Aviv and American Airlines and United offer seasonal flights from the US there are also direct flights with Turkish Emirates British Airways Lanza Air France and numerous other airlines including lowcost companies there are several ways to get from the airport to the historic center of the city it takes 20 minutes on express bus 35 but the most exciting route is to travel by water bus it's a 10-minute walk from arrivals to the boat terminal with three rots on offer taking you to most of the tourist areas once in town the best way to get around is by boat with dozens of services on offer taking you through the city or between the various Islands there are a variety of discounted tickets available and If you are making more than three Journeys in a day the day pass helps lower costs do not rent a car if you are not planning on venturing out of the city be prepared to walk Lots there are hotels around every corner along with rental homes many of which Overlook canals top hotels as recommended by visitors include Moresco antie figuer Palazo veneziano and Olympia Venice from the BW Signature Collection Venice has a humid subtropical climate with hot summers and cool Winters July and August are hot and sticky the summer average high temperature is 28° C or 82 F Winters can be chilly windy damp and foggy with temperatures falling to an average 7 C or 45 F the current is the Euro $100 will buy you 92 as of August 2023 local specialities include sard in sa which is fried sardines dipped in fried onion raisins and pine nuts spices and vinegar if you feel the need to eat pizza we won't judge try out the local chain Pizzeria i o the best food markets in town are at the Realto an absolute must for fruit vegetables cheese and seafood kosher options include BTO and gam gam both meat restaurants in the ghetto there are a couple of kosher snack and bakery places also in the ghetto for vegetarians Sula Luna is a fabulous canalside beastro and kids [Music] bookstore this is the Jerusalem Post podcast travel Edition find find us on Facebook Instagram and Twitter at Mark davidp pod or mail us at Mark davidp pod gmail.com well it sounds like you had fun in Venice I had an amazing time in Venice and I'm sorry you weren't there I'm not I think your wife is definitely not sorry that I didn't come on your holiday she likes you I know but romantic holiday and I'm sort of sat there at the end of the bed going can we go out David we weren't Threes Company there but we're about to be three company here we're still in thinker Distillery it will be a hard job to get us out of here really we've spent while you've been listening to Venice we've spent time talking getting to know the team here a bit more and now it's time for us to do a tasting and by talking Davey means drinking let me introduce you to Michael who will take us through the range of thinkers Distillery and educate us into what we're about to partake and what's his last name it's ginar and we have to not call him ginar even though there's lots of Jin here cuz he's probably so tired of that now I mean we've done it three times while we've been here so we've got four products that we're going to sample we're going to start off with one of our Gins called the Israeli Sunset Jin now what the Israeli Sunset gin is basically a new world gin New World gin are kind of new to the spirits scene last 20 years or so usually it would take a classic gin and kind of give it a Twist so this gin distilled with Roose petals and strawberries those are going to be your main Botanical that are you're going to feel and you're going to go right into your taste buds you're going to really feel a really aromatic kind of floral gin full of flavor full of uh kind of sweetness that's coming from the rose petals and from the strawberries a very elegant gin and you're going to go taste it right now smells very sweet and maybe strawberri is a good a good word as we know my nose buds don't work very well it's amazing for such a big nose it just does not work saying that so I got a question here I've had a quick taste I tend to drink Jin with tonic or with orange or with a mixer of some description do people drink Jin without something with it well there's two people one of them is Bennett the owner of the The Distillery and the other one was Winston Churchill most people do not really drink Jin straight up it's really a mixer so you're going to find it a lot of cocktails you're going to find mixed drinks you're going to find it with tonic you find it with soda water you find different options of mixing it because all of the Botanicals the the flavors are really kind of erupting while you add a mixture to it plus it's a very harsh drink the Citrus on one hand the Juniper that's the Ming tanal you're can to find in each and every gin is a very kind of harsh flavor so a lot of people it's kind of intimidating for them they really want to mix it up with something kind of ease it uh to be more drinkable I of course cough my way through that because I'm I'm the wuss but then Bennett put in the tonic water and it made a big difference and it immediately became very drinkable what we're going to do now is what those of you who are regular listeners will know that we do once we want to get drunk we're going to turn off the microphones we're going to try another couple of drinks and when we get to the final taste we'll come back to you and tell you how we're doing or maybe not if we're horizontal Have you listened to the Jerusalem Post podcast travel Edition I'm David Harris and together with my co-host Mark Gordon we bring you the best from the world of travel and tourism we have people who literally fly to Park City just to do the ski minion and it has their Heavenly taste that you don't really find nowadays in the market when was the last time you went to a restaurant and they bought you a picnic basket about eight courses in the Dracula tour that's a very unusual honeymoon option really the Jerusalem Post podcast travel Edition brings you the joys of travel and tourism so why not subscribe today wherever you get your podcasts cheers mark cheers David oh oh David that's my line oh Mark oh well we're at the we're at the last tasting we have done two Gins and an environmentally friendly vodka where the water is taken from the air so it's time to find out about the last of our alcoholes Michael what have we got to finish off with what we're going to taste now is our fourth and last product which is the do of badak bourbon whiskey and we can actually legally call it a bourbon as we had our team distill it in the United States in Ohio it's what's called a weeded bourbon so Bourbons are usually going to be made of at least 51% corn this one has wheat inside and it's specifically done that so that we get a really full flavored bourbon a lot of taste a lot of Aroma you're going to smell it first of all you're going to get a lot of hints of vanilla a lot of hints of toffee it's high proof so it's 47.3% alcohol we wanted to leave a lot of that flavor in the tasting I enjoy it neat but a lot of people like to add a cube of ice to it but you're really getting a very very elegant full flavored bourbon David should we record the finish before we drink this cuz I think after [Laughter] 47% I'm just going to take you back and folks if you want to listen to a great podcast go back to when we were in wood or Lodge in Poland where we would trying 60% or 7 70% schitz remember that I don't remember much about that I was in a hospital afterwards he was but we want you to know it was absolutely nothing to do with what we did in Wood I remember Napoli where we had that 70% lemon cello oh that was also rather good oh cheers Bottoms Up I'm the Vodka man and I really enjoyed the vodka but then again I also thought that the second gin was vodka so what do I know about call so so I'll go back to you because Mark you're the resident alcoholic what do you think thank you so much for that title Katherine Mark's wife if you're listening this is purely theater we don't mean it no we've just been drinking water this last one is colored water but as a thespian I doing my best to pretend that this is alcohol so what' you reckon H that's good I'm English so I like my malt whiskey I've got one bourbon on my shelf but I don't go mad for bourbon but this is very very very drinkable fair enough what more can one say I fully endorse what Michael said it is a very very good bourbon so what we have to do while you're sniffing sniffing the microphone why don't you drink the microphone what we have to do is to say thank you to our hosts at thinkers Distillery the website again thinkers distillery.com and we want to say thank you so much indeed to our hosts both Michael for the tasting and my head's gone I can't oh thank you I want to say Ben and Bennett for Ben for explaining everything about this place so thank you both you're very welcome thank you very much for having you it was an honor how did you enjoy that David oh it was terrible what an awful evening or do you mean Venice I've forgotten about Venice all I can think about is Jin and bourbon and vodka vodka vodka vodka we are very Lu to have been given a tour of this wonderful facility the thinkers distillery in Mahan Huda on a grippa street we highly recommend coming here and a very big thank you to both Bennett and to Michael for making us drunk to be honest one of the things we love about doing this podcast other than drinking is people's passion about where they live what they do and Michael and Bennett are just so invested in this place the Vodka was outstanding the Gins were brilliant bourbon you've run out of adjectives I don't drink bourbon but I was able to enjoy it and it's from America so it's bourbon apparently the kosher certification I believe it's star k HHA for those of you who care about such things I also want to say thank you to Debbie my other half for allowing me to spend a few minutes with Mark during our trip to Venice to talk about such a beautiful city and I'd like to thank my wife Katherine for going to London and allowing me to play out with my friends while she's way being very serious we are actually going to be going in a few minutes from here to a couple of the Indian food places that exist in Jerusalem which will be lots of fun so we're off to do that but before we do so couple of quiz questions for you question number one was where does the name Jin come from apparently it comes from the French name for the juniper berry which is obviously the main ingredient in Jin and the French word is genev and it's been altered by the Dutch to and then shortened by the English to Jin and if you want to correct Mark's pronunciation the way to do so is at Mark davidp pod or Mark davidp pod gmail.com question number two how many canals to the nearest 10 are there in Venice and the answer around about 150 does that include the dentists there who do root canals oh my Lord if you've enjoyed this podcast please give us a f star rating you can find us on Google podcast Apple podcast spreer podbean did you say Spotify Spotify big one big one yeah Spotify It's Time to Say Goodbye I really apologize for David it's like bring out with a three-year-old oh goodbye you can find us on social media on Facebook Instagram threads and now what's Twitter called it's called X now x x you can find us on X this podcast is xrated oh God goodbye goodbye [Music]