Jungle Bird

I had my first Jungle Bird at the Chicago tiki bar, Three Dots and a Dash. I was meeting drinks writer Robert Simonson, and when he picks the place to meet for cocktails, you know you’re in good hands. Robert suggested that I order the Jungle Bird, one of the few tiki drinks to feature amaro. This rosy cocktail has an intriguing maple-like flavor from the rum, splashed with tangy brightness from fresh pineapple juice and lime. But what sets the Jungle Bird apart is the bittersweet, herbal backbone of Campari running through the drink. 

The Jungle Bird was created by the Jeffrey Ong See Teik of the Aviary Bar in the Kuala Lumpur Hilton Hotel in the mid-to-late 1970s. In its first iteration, the drink was made with dark rum, Campari, pineapple, lime, and simple syrup. A collection of tropical birds kept in a fenced-in aviary near the hotel pool is believed to have inspired the drink’s name, and it’s said that the eye-catching cocktail was even served in a bird-shaped vessel. (It’s still a good-looking drink when served in a double old-fashioned glass.)

Though the Jungle Bird was included in John J. Poister’s 1989 New American Bartender’s Guide, it wasn’t until 2002 that Jeff Berry’s Beachbum Berry’s Intoxica! made the drink a bartender (and bargoer) obsession. New York bartender Giuseppe González substituted molasses-rich blackstrap rum for the dark rum of the original, and that’s frequently what you’ll see today, though some bartenders prefer to play with the formulation.