Jungle Bird Cocktail – A Beautiful Mess

The Jungle Bird cocktail was created in the 1970s in the Aviary Bar at the Kuala Lumpur Hilton hotel. Bartender Jeffrey Ong created the cocktail, often serving it in a porcelain vessel shaped like a bird. The Jungle Bird was served as the welcome drink at this Hilton. This tiki drink became very popular in Malaysia. Decades later, it has made its away around the world. The first written recipe was documented in “The New American Bartender’s Guide” by John J. Poister. Years later it was featured in Jeff Berry’s book “Intoxica” in 2002.

Made with just 5 ingredients- rum, Campari, lime juice, pineapple juice and demerara syrup this sophisticated cocktail is easy to make at home.

More Rum Drinks: Rum Runner, Mai Tai, Mojito, Piña Colada, Dark & Stormy, Cuba Libre, Blue Hawaii, Painkiller.

Ingredients in a Jungle Bird

• Rum Choose a blackstrap or dark rum.
• Campari or any Italian bitter.
• Pineapple Juice for sweetness and tropical flavor.
• Lime Juice freshly squeezed.
• Demerara Syrup a simple syrup made using demerara sugar.
• Garnish with a pineapple wedge, cherry or lime slice.

The traditional glassware choice for a Jungle Bird was bird shaped ceramic mug. I used a double old fashioned glass. If you want to be elaborate, these bird glasses are very fun as well.

Instructions

Begin by pouring the rum, Campari, pineapple juice, lime juice, and demerara syrup into a cocktail shaker filled with ice.

Shake for 10-15 seconds.

Strain over a glass with fresh ice.

Garnish with a pineapple wedge, cherry or lime slice.

Tips for Making

• Best Rum for a Jungle Bird – This recipe calls for blackstrap rum, while Berry favored Jamaican rum. The first written recipe called for generic dark rum- so we recommend sticking to a dark rum. 
• Substitutions – If you don’t have demerara syrup, you can substitute it for simple syrup. You can also substitute Campari for another Italian bitter (such as Aperol, which is slightly more sweet than Campari). 
• Garnish ideas – You can use use pineapple fronds (pineapple leaves) to top the drink. This has a cool bird-like appearance. We used a pineapple wedge and a maraschino cherry secured together with a cocktail pick.

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