The cocktails at Fallen Oak Distilling’s speakeasy typically range from $14 to $16, but one new addition to the menu stands apart. Meet the Zeitgeist, an $86 cocktail created to tell the story of the farm’s iconic 250-year-old Lone Oak tree, with nearly every element of the drink tied to its history. A video of the cocktail can be seen below.
According to Fallen Oak Distilling, the centerpiece of the cocktail is a one-of-a-kind spirit distilled from wild-fermented beer made with native yeast captured on the farm before the Lone Oak tree fell. The beers were individually barrel-aged for three to six years, allowing them to slowly ferment and mature before being blended and distilled through two runs. The finished spirit was then rested for an additional six months on toasted oak staves to develop its final character.
The cocktail itself is intentionally simple, combining the spirit with a splash of simple syrup, expressed orange, and cocoa nibs, allowing the rare spirit to remain the focus.
The presentation is just as much a part of the experience as the drink itself. It is served on a board carved from the original Lone Oak tree. Dried orange slices symbolize the fruit the tree produced during its lifetime, roasted nuts represent its bark, chocolate represents the rich soil that nourished it, and the cocktail is finished with smoke from wood chips taken from the fallen tree, tying the entire experience back to the farm’s history.
Fallen Oak describes the drink as “250 years in every sip,” with tasting notes that include dry toasted lemon cracker, rye-like spice, a subtle chocolate finish, and aromas created by the wild fermentation process.
Taste MoCo recently stopped by to try the cocktail, admitting that curiosity got the best of us. While we splurged on the Zeitgeist, it’s worth noting that the rest of the cocktail menu remains in the much more approachable $14 to $16 range.
Whether the Zeitgeist is worth $86 will likely depend on what you’re looking for. It’s less about ordering a cocktail and more about experiencing a piece of Fallen Oak Distilling’s story, history, and craftsmanship in a single glass.
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