Is the right way to drink gin. To wit,  an (obvious) martini variant I made up the other week:

The Brandon

2 oz Gin
1 oz Cranberry Schnapps
4 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
2 dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters

Pour the schnapps into a chilled cocktail glass, coat the insides
Pour out the cocktail glass into the mixing glass.
Add Gin, Bitters, stir, double strain.
Garnish with a large orange slice or cherry.

Nothing brilliant here – other than the taste – it just restores the bitters from the classic Martini recipe, replaces sweet vermouth with cranberry schnapps, and uses the Peychaud’s to add contrast in the finish. Some things to note – since quality kosher vermouth is hard to find (Stock, Cinzano, and Martini & Rossi only have hechshers in Israel, the US Kedem vermouth it not good enough to burn, let alone drink) – this allows a nice kosher alternative to the traditional Sweet Martini.

Since neither Peychaud nor Regan carry hechshers, they do need to be substituted.  I added the (considerable amount of) Peychaud’s to give the drink an anise flavor, so perhaps a teaspoon or less of such that flavor in a  red or clear liqour might stand in – arak or ouzo should work; Sambuca is probably too sweet.  As for the Regan’s,  one or two dashes of Angostura mixed with orange oil or zest could stand in.  If you grate rather than twisting the oil from the zest, double strain with a mesh strainer.  Hell, do that anyway.  Ice fragments ruin this drink.

Don’t use more than 3 oz Gin or the drink will lose its particular charm.  If the cocktail is poured to the lip of the glass, the in and out (coating) is pointless.

Finally, since it seems I’m posting odd news stories today:
Man shoots and wounds his daughter after she pours out his gin

Whatever.
I shot a man in Reno, cause he spilled my rye.

Ok, every Jewish kid has heard the story of some high school couple who manage to “accidentally” do the nissuin thing and end up needing a get.  Maybe it’s happened before (and maybe it will happen again*), maybe not.  But now, in this Brave New Intarweb, you can point to a Google search to show that it has:

14-year-old girl becomes Israel’s youngest-ever divorcee – Haaretz

I picked the Haaretz coverage because it covered the best detail – not the consummation of the marriage – but the 10,000 NIS payoff by the groom’s family to get the girl to go away.

* Good bye, BSG.  You were the show I would have made.