Jungle Bird Cocktail Recipe
Dark rum and pineapple cut with Campari — the tiki drink that proved bitterness belongs in the tropics.
- Category: New Era Drinks
- Glass: Old fashioned glass
- ABV: 18%
- Difficulty: Easy
- Prep time: ~3 min
Ingredients
- Dark rum45 ml (1.5 oz)
- Pineapple juice45 ml (1.5 oz)
- Campari20 ml (0.7 oz)
- Fresh lime juice15 ml (0.5 oz)
- Simple syrup10 ml (0.3 oz)
How to Make It
- Add all ingredients to a shaker with ice.
- Shake until well chilled.
- Strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice.
- Garnish with a pineapple wedge.
Garnish
Pineapple wedge
What it tastes like
It has a bitter backbone, fruit notes come forward and there is pineapple and passion fruit in it.
The technique
Shaking. Anything with juice, syrup, egg white or cream gets shaken: the shaker chills the drink and adds roughly 20% water, and that water is what takes the edge off. Twelve to fifteen seconds, until the tin frosts over. Under-shaking leaves the drink harsh because it never got enough dilution.
Glass and ice
A heavy-bottomed, wide old fashioned glass. Wide enough for one large cube, which is the point: a big cube has less surface area, so the drink gets cold without getting watery.
Ingredient notes and substitutes
- Dark rum
- Barrel-aged dark rum, with molasses, vanilla and treacle in it. Swap in white rum and the drink loses its body, so reach for gold rum instead.
- Pineapple juice
- Pineapple juice. It foams on its own when shaken — that creamy head on a tiki drink comes from the pineapple, not from egg white.
- Campari
- The red Italian bitter, with a bitterness that is unmistakable. Aperol can replace it, but Aperol is half the strength and clearly sweeter, so the drink comes out softer.
- Fresh lime juice
- Freshly squeezed lime. Bottled lime tastes cooked and flat; one lime gives about 30 ml. If you have none, half lemon and half grapefruit juice comes closest.
- Simple syrup
- One part sugar to one part water, stirred until it dissolves — no need to boil it. Keeps a month in the fridge. No syrup? Use the same amount of honey, loosened with a little water.
The Story
Made at the Kuala Lumpur Hilton in 1978 as a welcome drink, forgotten for thirty years, then rediscovered and copied everywhere.
Frequently asked questions
- How is a Jungle Bird mixed?
- It is shaken and served in an old fashioned glass.
- How strong is a Jungle Bird?
- Roughly 18% ABV as served — in fortified-wine territory — plan it as a single drink.
- Can a Jungle Bird be made without alcohol?
- Simply leaving the spirit out does not work — the body and the bitterness go with it. The 86 alcohol-free recipes in the catalogue are built to hit that balance from the start.
- Is a Jungle Bird hard to make?
- Easy. No bar kit required — a measure, ice and a jar will do.
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Alcoholic drink recipes are intended for those aged 18 and over. Please drink responsibly.