Jungle Bird Rum Cocktail

The Jungle Bird cocktail is one of the best summer cocktails, in my opinion!! It's a delicious Tiki-style dark rum cocktail. It uses an Italian bitter liqueur, Campari, to give it a ton of flavor and color. This is such a tasty and refreshing cocktail for Tiki lovers!

This is such a great cocktail for summer! The tropical flavors of pineapple and rum scream "drink me while relaxing by a body of water". (Just me??)

If you like the Jungle Bird, I definitely recommend the Rum & Ramazzotti! It's a similar cocktail that uses Ramazzotti amaro instead of Campari. The Pineapple Passion Fruit Rum Punch is another delicious summery rum cocktail.

For another unusual Tiki drink, try out the delicious Saturn cocktail! Or, go for a delicious classic Singapore Sling gin cocktail.

Want to mix up summer drinks with some whiskey? Try out this tropical punch recipe with whiskey, or the delicious Pineapple Whiskey Sour!

Ingredients

You'll need these ingredients to make the Jungle Bird:

• Dark rum - I used two kinds -- Planteray Barbados rum (formerly Plantation rum) and Hamilton Jamaican Pot Still Rum. The pot still rum has a very strong molasses flavor and a little goes a long way!
• Campari aperitivo liqueur
• Pineapple juice
• Lime juice
• Simple syrup
• Optional garnishes - fresh pineapple, pineapple fronds, and/or a cocktail cherry

Substitutions

Need to make some substitutions? Try these out:

• Rum - don't have any dark rum? Try using bourbon whiskey instead, or an aged brandy.
• Campari - I recommend subbing in a different Italian red bitter liqueur, like Aperol or Luxardo aperitivo. If you don't have anything like this, you can try adding in a different kind of bitter ingredient, like Angostura bitters or Elemakule Tiki bitters. If you do, also add some extra syrup since Campari has sweetness.
• Syrup - instead of simple syrup, you can use maple syrup, agave nectar or Demerara syrup.

Variations

Want to change up this recipe? Here are some ways you can tweak it to your own taste.

If this drink is too sweet for you, you can easily omit or reduce the amount of simple syrup. If it's still too sweet, cut back on either the Campari or pineapple juice.

Not sweet enough? Go ahead and add extra syrup or pineapple juice! Or, use less of the lime juice.

If you want to make a Jungle Bird Mocktail (non-alcoholic version), you'll need to use a rum substitute as well as a Campari substitute. Try out Lyre's Dark Cane Non-Alcoholic Spirit instead of rum and Lyre's Italian Orange in place of the Campari.

Equipment

You'll need to have some basic bar tools to make this cocktail. Grab a cocktail shaker, strainer, and jigger, plus a knife and cutting board to make the garnishes.

For the serving glass, I used a stemless wine glass here. A double old fashioned glass works great too, or a fun Tiki style mug!

Note: Check out A Bar Above if you need new cocktail tools! I love their bar tools and they're dishwasher safe! You can get 10% off using my discount code, LKDrinks.

Instructions

Start out by preparing any garnishes. I used a fresh pineapple wedge, as well as two pineapple fronds (the spiky leaves from the top of the pineapple).

Then, make the drink. First add in the lime juice to your cocktail shaker.

Next, add in the pineapple juice and simple syrup.

Add in the Campari, and then the pot still rum.

Finally, add the dark rum and then fill the cocktail shaker with ice.

Seal up the shaker and give everything about 15-20 hard shakes, so the liquid gets chilled, diluted and aerated.

Add ice to your serving glass, and then strain the drink into the glass.

Add on your garnishes, and serve!

Hint: You can easily store pineapple fronds in the freezer! Just pick them off of your pineapple when they're fresh, wash and dry them, and freeze them inside a plastic bag.

Top tip

It's pretty easy to make this into a pitcher drink or serve it in a large punch bowl! To make eight servings, just change the ounces in the recipe to cups. Or, you can use the calculator in the recipe below to select the number of servings you want to make.