Rum Cocktails: Dark Rum
Jungle Bird Cocktail
Jungle Bird Cocktail Ingredients
1 oz. Cruzan Black Strap Rum
0.5 oz. Smith and Cross Traditional Jamaican Rum
0.5 oz. Campari
1.25 oz. Fresh pineapple juice
0.5 oz. Fresh lime juice
0.5 oz. Simple syrup
Garnish
Tropical fruit
Tropical flowers
Jungle Bird Cocktail Preparation
Fill a Louis bag with ice and crush with a mallet. Combine all ingredients in a Hurricane, tall Collins, or footed glass and add crushed ice. Swizzle, add more crushed ice, and swizzle again. Top with crushed ice. Garnish with a refreshing combination of pineapple leaves, a pineapple wedge, an orange wheel, a lime wheel, a brandied cherry, orchids and a paper umbrella.
Jungle Bird Cocktail Story
Created around 1978 at the Aviary Bar in Kuala Lumpur, the appropriately named Jungle Bird was a throwback to the mid-century tiki craze of decades prior. The Jungle Bird calls for a hefty amount of the Italian bitter Campari, an ingredient seldom seen in tropical drinks, which acts as a sturdy foil to the excessive amount of pineapple juice. Though the recipe Jeff "Beachbum" Berry discovered calls for dark Jamaican rum, New York City bartender Giuseppe Gonzalez has popularized Cruzan Blackstrap rum as the base spirit. By tweaking the recipe to downplay the pineapple juice and harness the molasses and coffee notes of the Black Strap, Gonzalez has pushed the flavor profile into more extreme territory. The Jungle Bird remains an ideal template for testing the bold flavors of the most pungent rums out there.