This tasty little cocktail was a feature of one of Anders Erickson’s “spooky cocktails” video series. We are always looking for ways to explore Campari without getting anywhere near a Negroni, and this one is a good option. To make it, you’ll need to infuse cacao nibs into Campari before mixing the cocktail. What you’ll end up with a mix of sweet and bitter that is pretty nice! We hope you enjoy this spooky looking cocktail!
This cocktail was a bit of a journey. At that is all due to the presence of Campari. We introduced our first campari cocktail on the summer menu 2024 with the Jungle Bird. And even that edged towards a bitter level that, for newbies, was almost too bitter. But we are determined to figure out this crazy bottle, so here it is again on our Fall 2024 menu!
The original recipe calls for equal parts Sweet Vermouth and Campari, but we throttled that down a quarter ounce on the Campari to hold off a bit of the bite. And we even stirred a bit in the lowball after straining to take even more bite off the drink. What you end up with is a pretty interesting melding of sweet and bitter and a finishing note of chocolate. Definitely a good cocktail as the season gets cooler these days.
This one can be served up (no ice) or on the rocks (ice). Again, if you are new to Campari (or sweet vermouth) you might want to stick with the dilution you get from ice cubes. Baby steps to the straight up no chaser.
Campari is a challenging bottle. It’s a divisive bottle. There are those who love it and those who hate it. It is the mother of all Aperitifs, and you will be hard-pressed to find a bottle featuring such bitterness. But in a well-built cocktail, bitter does have a place. Perhaps you’ve poked at the genre with Aperol? Or at the very least mixed your martini with a dry vermouth. That’s a start.
We went looking for an “entry level” cocktail for Campari, and discovered that you can buy a smaller bottle (which isn’t the smart choice if you’re planning to mix with it often, but not a bad idea if you might get 2 ounces out and dump the rest). The Jungle Bird is an approachable campari cocktail. Based in Rum and dominated not by the bitterness, but rather by the Pineapple. The recipe we used from Steve the Bartender calls for 1.5 oz of Pineapple Juice, but we found that to be too fruit forward, so we dropped it back to 1.0 oz. We also made a version pulling back on the Campari to 0.5oz, but again that took the drink out of balance and it was all about Pineapple again.
The recipe below is a good balance of the citrus, the sweet and the bitter. The rum didn’t seem to matter. We used Appleton 12 year, but probably most aged rums will work. Just don’t get creative with Spiced Rum or similar, as the balance is delicate with this “bird”.
Properly built, the citrus will hit first and a slight bitterness will be the finish. If you are Campari curious, this might be the cocktail for you!
