Jungle Bird
Bitter Campari, dark rum and sweet-tart pineapple meet in this tiki classic with a sharp, tropical twist.
Ingredients
- Dark rum, Jamaican or blackstrap, ideally, for funk and depth45 ml
- Campari22.5 ml
- Lime juice, freshly squeezed15 ml
- Pineapple juice, fresh, and strained if you can45 ml
- Simple syrup, demerara syrup, one to one (1 part Sugar, 1 part Water)15 ml
- Salt, saline, to round out the flavour (optional)2 drops
- Pineapple, to garnish (optional)1 wedge
- Pineapple, pineapple leaves, to garnish (optional)2 leaves
- Cocktail cherry, optional, to garnish (optional)1 whole
Method
- Fill a shaker with ice.
- Add the dark rum, Campari, pineapple juice, lime juice and demerara syrup.
- Add a couple of drops of saline, if you like, for extra depth.
- Shake hard for 10–15 seconds, until the shaker is ice-cold and the pineapple juice foams lightly.
- Double-strain (Hawthorne and fine-mesh strainer) over fresh ice in a rocks glass.
- Garnish with a pineapple wedge, a couple of pineapple leaves and, if you like, a cocktail cherry.
About this drink
The Jungle Bird was born in the late 1970s at the Aviary Bar of the Kuala Lumpur Hilton, where it was reportedly served as a welcome drink to guests. It is unusual in the tiki world for leaning on Italian bitterness rather than pure sweetness, and the Campari gives it an edge that sets it apart from most rum-based tropical drinks. Today it is counted as a modern classic and appears on cocktail menus around the world.
Questions and answers
What makes the Jungle Bird different from other tiki drinks?
Campari. The bitter red aperitif is unusual in the tiki world, where sweetness usually dominates, and it gives the drink a sharp contrast to the tropical sweetness of the pineapple.
Which rum belongs in a Jungle Bird?
A blackstrap or molasses-rich dark rum gives the most authentic depth, but any dark rum with a little character works. Just avoid a very light, neutral rum.
