Ryan wanted to revisit Campari, so we tried two versions of the Jungle Bird.
Tasting Notes
Rory: Campari! It’s Campari made almost palatable for me. I thought the extremely-Campari flavor was gentian, but apparently I misremembered what Campari was made from, so I’m not sure what the medicinal bitter note is.
Anyway, wow, it’s bitter. Ryan took the Smuggler’s Cove version, which I’m staring at covetously. I’m not an adult enough for this much Campari at once. This is very much my version of the Ryan’s Excess of Batavia cocktail we made last week: god, just, so much Campari. Campari Campari Campari. I don’t hate it, but I wouldn’t make it for myself again. I guess I’d make it for someone who likes Campari / dislikes “sweet” drinks, but I would worry the whole time that they were only drinking it so that I wouldn’t feel bad.
Stealing a sip of the SC Jungle Bird—that one’s sweet enough to bring out flavors other than just the Campari flavor. Envy!
Halfway through it, the Campari! note is maybe starting to separate into multiple flavors? They’re all bitter in a plant-medicine way. Dirt and vines and a bitter yellow flower mashed in a mortar together.
I’d forgotten there was Jamaican rum in here, but to be fair, the Hamilton Jamaican isn’t very funky compared to the others we have, so it’s more of a background note. The pineapple, too, isn’t standing up to the Campari. Lime’s pulling its weight, though.
You know, I wonder what this would be like with a different appertif or an amaro in it? From some of the drinks I’ve had, I wonder that I just don’t like Campari and Aperol all that much. In any case, it’ll be a while before I find out, I think.
Now that it’s heavily diluted, the last few sips are okay. This is probably the first drink from Tiki that I haven’t really liked, but I knew that was going to be the case the first time I saw the recipe.
Ryan: We haven’t had jungle birds before, so I don’t have a “baseline” to compare it to. I know a lot of versions call for Jamaican rum, but it looks like the SC version is about “canonical”.
The Mustipher version is pared down, to me a bit too much. Their version has no extra sweetener, and even cuts down the pineapple. To me, it’s very bitter, although I admit that usually I find campari entirely dominates a drink and here I can at least taste the other flavors. The funky rum works nicely although to me it really does need a bit more sweetness. There’s a riff that uses pineapple liqueur instead of juice, and I wonder if Mustipher’s version would be better to my palate with just that replacement (and no other extra sweeteners).
The SC version is just straightfowardly good. It’s got a lot of bitter undertones but the overall drink is sweet. The slight prickliness/roughness we’ve noticed with pineapple juice works well here too. I think my favorite would be this but with at least a portion of the rum replaced with a Jamaican version.
Recipe
From Smuggler’s Cove:
- 2 oz pineapple juice
- 1⁄2 oz lime juice
- 1⁄2 oz Demerara syrup
- 3⁄4 oz Campari
- 1 1⁄2 oz Hamilton 86 Demerara Rum
Shake with crushed ice and open pour into a collins glass. Garnish with some pineapple fronds.
From Mustipher’s Tiki:
- 1 1⁄2 oz pineapple juice
- 1⁄2 oz lime juice
- 3⁄4 oz Campari
- 2 oz Hamilton Jamaican Pot Still Black rum
Shake with ice and open pour into a collins glass. Garnish with a scored line wheel and some pineapple fronds.
(In both cases, we skipped the garnish and just put in a cocktail umbrella.)
Source: Smuggler’s Cove and Tiki: Modern Tropical Cocktails