When I first started thinking about drinks seriously, I was most interested in how cocktails and spirits have the ability to transcend the circumstances under which they were made, how they symbolize so much more than simply what is in the glass. One can sip a drink and be transported elsewhere, historically, geographically, psychically. And as Daegan Miller writes in connection with the California Book Club May selections, Gary Snyder’s Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems and The Practice of the Wild, the poet’s words become passageways to other times and worlds and lives. The peripatetic nature of Snyder’s work evokes the yuzu gin and tonic, the ultimate vehicle to eclipse time and place.
The gin and tonic is a classic drink, one you can safely order in dive bars and high-end cocktail destinations alike, all over the world. You can customize the gin, the tonic, the additions—like lime—and the amount of alcohol that is used. It can take you from the dead of winter to a warm, sunny beach or lakeside deck. This iteration, the yuzu G&T, is the perfect companion to Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems.
When I read “Above Pate Valley” for this first time, I pictured slow, intentional walks through the mountainsides that surround the San Francisco Bay. It reminded me of Lance Winters, master distiller and owner of St. George Spirits in Alameda, California, who drew inspiration for his Terroir Gin from hikes he would take around the bay. For a while, he would forage locally for bay laurel to use in the gin, conjuring a sense of place in each bottle.
“Thin Ice” made me think of longing for those short dark days of winter to give way to the magical light of spring, the days gradually growing longer. Each year, when spring finally arrives, I just want to be outside sipping something bright and refreshing to celebrate the seasonal shift. The yuzu, a fruit that originated in East Asia, is reminiscent of Snyder’s time spent on the continent. Yuzu now grows in California, connecting two places that are so significant for him. The fruit’s flesh is tart and aromatic, helping balance the Terroir Gin’s earthiness and hints of Douglas fir.
The tonic, which has a long and storied history itself, rounds the cocktail out with its sweetness. It also allows for moderation (want less alcohol? just add more tonic!), so the drink is not too much of one thing, alluding to Snyder’s practice of Zen Buddhism.
And the ice! Oh, the ice. It is integral to this drink. Ice is also integral to some of Snyder’s poems, like “The Late Snow & Lumber Strike of the Summer of Fifty-Four.” It also makes the flavor of the drink change constantly as the cold solid cools and morphs into a liquid, representing the Zen idea that everything constantly changes; nothing is finished.•
Join us on May 16 at 5 p.m. Pacific time, when an array of panelists and CBC host John Freeman, with an appearance by Snyder, will gather to discuss Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems and The Practice of the Wild. Register for the Zoom conversation here.
Shanna Farrell is the author of A Good Drink: In Pursuit of Sustainable Spirits and Bay Area Cocktails: A History of Culture, Community and Craft. She is an interviewer at UC Berkeley’s Oral History Center.
