"We're going to run a test project to see if the whey can be distilled," Halvor Heuch, master blender at Norwegian alcohol group Arcus, told Reuters.

The firm would try to distill alcohol from the watery whey left over after making cheese from the milk of 21 female reindeer at a farm in south Norway.

It may not be to everyone's taste, of course, and Heuch said that he doubted if any reindeer alcohol could win a big market even if the test were successful: "This is unlikely to be anything more than a curiosity," he said.

But reindeer herders in Norway attempt to use all parts of the animal -- the meat is eaten, skins are used as blankets and in some countries in the Far East powdered horn is considered an aphrodisiac.