Rum and Ramazzotti (Riff on a Jungle Bird Cocktail)

Changing up the Jungle Bird

The Jungle Bird rum cocktail is a classic Tiki drink from the 1970's made with rum, Campari, pineapple, lime juice and simple syrup. The sweetness of the pineapple and syrup, the bitterness of the Campari and the sourness of the lime juice all blend together beautifully!

Ramazzotti liqueur has a completely different flavor profile than Campari. It's not as bitter, and is overall sweeter with notes of molasses, anise and cola.

Because there's less bitterness, I left out the simple syrup from the original. The lime and pineapple add sour and sweet notes, and dark rum brings it all together.

Garnish Prep

Since this is a tiki cocktail, it's all about the garnish! Prep a wedge of fresh pineapple to sit on the side of the glass. Then slice a thin wheel of lime and thread a cocktail pick through one side of the lime.

Add a maraschino cherry to the pick, then thread it through the lime again and add it to the top of the pineapple wedge.

(Side note: this is the same garnish I use in the Singapore Sling cocktail, another delicious drink with tropical flavors!)

Making the Drink and Serving

Start by adding the freshly squeezed lime juice to a cocktail shaker. Add the rum, Ramazzotti and pineapple juice to the shaker, and fill it with ice.

Fill your serving glass with fresh ice. Shake the cocktail vigorously to dilute and chill it, and strain it into the serving glass.

Last, add your prepared garnish to the glass. Serve and enjoy!

Top Tip

This drink is great when served over nugget ice or crushed ice. I love these little nugget ice trays! They make such cute ice. There are also nugget ice makers like the GE Opal nugget ice maker. It's like having Sonic ice in your house every day!

For an easy (and, honestly, pretty fun) way to make crushed ice, you can just take regular freezer ice and crush it in a Lewis bag with a mallet. Just note that the crushed ice will melt a little faster than the nugget ice.