Tuesday Happy Hour — Put Coffee In Your Jungle Bird

Remember weekday happy hours? Maybe it’s time to bring them back.

In last week’s subscriber-only newsletter, I wrote about the Jungle Bird, a five-part cocktail consisting of black rum, Campari, pineapple juice, lime juice, and sugar. You’ll find a variety of recipes and structures for this bitter tiki delight online, but I think there’s really only one structure that works — the version workshopped into perfection by Giuseppe González. 

But just because there’s only one true Jungle Bird doesn’t mean that there aren’t some excellent variations. As I have written before, one of the marks of a great cocktail is that it’s a template for building other drinks. And the Jungle Bird has certainly spawned plenty of riffs.  

My personal favorite involves a somewhat unusual cocktail ingredient: coffee. The Jungle Bird already has some coffee-esque notes thanks to the use of blackstrap rum, which has an almost burnt-coffee-bean charcoal-roasted flavor to it. Coffee, of course, is also bitter, which means it can act as a partial substitute for the bittersweet Campari. And it turns out that coffee goes incredibly well with fresh pineapple juice. 

In this variation, I use cold coffee as a replacement for both rum and Campari, reducing the portion of each ingredient by a half ounce, then substituting a full ounce of cold coffee. Fundamentally, it’s the same structure. But because the coffee takes up space previously used by two different ingredients, it might not look like a straightforward ingredient swap on paper. 

The result is a richer, more bitter drink, but also one that is slightly lighter-bodied. It’s foamy and creamy, with an almost latte-like frothy top. It’s also somewhat lower proof than a traditional Jungle Bird, since the coffee is replacing alcohol. It’s a good happy hour drink.

The coffee doesn’t need to be cold brew or cold brew concentrate. Nor does it need to be a special brand. I’m a big fan of Counter Culture, Stumptown, and Intelligentsia, but any decent unflavored coffee will do as long as it’s been chilled down to room temperature (or below) first. If you make coffee in the morning, just set aside a half cup in the fridge to use when you make the cocktail in the evening. Or if you want to make fresh coffee in the evening, just make it stronger than usual and ice it down before mixing.

Coffee Bird

• ½ ounce demerara gum syrup

• ½ ounce fresh squeezed lime juice

• 1 ½ ounce fresh pineapple juice

• 1 ounce cold black coffee

• ¼ ounce Campari

• 1 ounce Cruzan blackstrap rum 

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Combine all ingredients in a shaking tin.

2. Add ice, then shake until thoroughly chilled.

3. Strain into a highball glass over ice. 

4. Garnish with a pineapple frond. You might want a straw.