Jungle Bird cocktail recipe

The Jungle Bird was conceived in Kuala Lumpur’s Hilton Hotel in 1973. Beverage manager Jeffrey Ong created it as the welcome drink for the Malaysian hotel’s grand opening event, and it was an instant hit.

The Hilton’s cocktail bar was called The Aviary, hence the aptly named Jungle Bird cocktail. The bar’s decorations were just as fitting, with an array of live exotic birds on show for guests to marvel at as they sipped and mingled.

The birds were eventually freed by the hotel’s general manager, and the hotel was demolished in 2013. The Jungle Bird almost faded into cocktail history oblivion, but, thankfully, like so many wonderful tropical drinks, it survived. This is largely due to historian Jeff “Beach Bum” Berry and his influential 2003 book, Intoxica. The Jungle Bird now has a place as the (unofficial) cocktail of Malaysia.

After the Jungle Bird’s creator Jeffrey Ong passed away in 2019, the national newspaper of Malaysia heralded him as “the creator of Malaysia’s only internationally recognised cocktail.” An excellent legacy, if you ask us.

Tiki cocktails are personal, and you can easily adjust the balance to suit you. The rum is the hero, and its measurement should be your anchor point. That being said, feel free to play with the ratios of your sweet juice and Italian bitter flavours.

The best way to perfect the Jungle Bird is through the garnishes that help to make this look like the most exotic crest of a bird you can manage. The original method involved spearing a pineapple wedge, cherry and edible flower on a skewer, and fanning out a few pineapple leaves behind to mimic tail feathers.

Jeffrey Ong even went so far as to serve the drink inside a porcelain bird-shaped vessel in a very tiki move, but you can stick with a tumbler or classic hurricane glass if you don’t have any of those handy.