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Israel has been known as the land of milk and honey since Biblical times — but the land of single malt whiskey?

One appropriately named distillery is trying to turn Israel into a whiskey powerhouse.

Smooth, honey-brown whiskey is not the first thing that comes to mind when most people think of Israel. But at the Milk and Honey Distillery, rows of casks proudly stamped "Tel Aviv" hold liters of the stuff.

The country's first whiskey distillery is preparing to release Israel's first single malt whiskey.

Eitan Attir, the distillery's CEOk, says the whiskey is aged for three years and two months in virgin oak and old bourbon barrels at the company's renovated former bakery in a rugged industrial area of south Tel Aviv.