That's the Spirit
Andy Valentine | Eugene Weekly (2017 Swizzle), Eugene OR
...Farther west in the Whiteaker neighborhood, farm-to-flask liquor startup Thinking Tree Spirits has just opened for business. The place is smaller and more DIY, but no less inviting.
With a focus on sustainability, founder Emily Jensen — along with her husband, Bryan Jensen, and their partner Kaylon McAlister — aims to celebrate locally sourced ingredients and create a taste experience unique to the region. Everything down to the molasses in the rum is locally sourced. With this in mind, the resulting cocktails are bound to be amazing.
“Our cocktails are really special,” Jensen says. “We squeeze all super-fresh juice and add all sorts of wonderful herbaceous tenacious herbs.”
She says their vodka is a top seller, but the Jensens have a passion for whiskeys and rums, of which Thinking Tree will soon have a profusion. The product is created in a high-quality still and refined through mostly repurposed machinery — much of it comes from old dairy equipment — even the bar in the tasting room is made of repurposed wood from the building’s original 1927 siding.
For Jensen, who is also a member of well-known local music act Eleven Eyes, our region’s bounty is always at the forefront. In a way, Thinking Tree is an extension of Jensen herself. She says the name is derived from images of Pacific Northwest freedom — singing under trees, the music, the abundance of the Willamette Valley.
The air in the distillery smells authentically yeasty, rustic and evocative of Northwest ideals. If you want to smell it yourself, Thinking Tree is already open; a formal grand opening is slated for mid-March, depending on the availability of product.
Jensen says the whiskey will decide the timing of the grand opening — a fitting quip for someone whose mission is focused on the valley’s voice and allowing the territory to speak for itself.