Salty Bird

The SALTY BIRD is a nice transition drink into fall, or a last hurrah for summer, depending on your point of view. It’s a tropical-style drink that with black rum, or preferably a black-strap rum, has more of a smokey overtone than the white rum drinks. It’s a variation of a 1978 recipe for the Jungle Bird out of Hilton Hotel’s Aviary Bar in Kuala Lampur. This one is a creation of Lauren Schell of NYC’s Little Branch bar and Theo Lieberman of NYC’s Milk & Honey. A pinch of salt is added to the top of the drink as an interesting offset to the sweet and bitter. Hence the “salty.” This is the third in my week-long celebration of Campari drinks.

Requirements: Cruzan Black Strap Rum (or black rum), Campari, pineapple juice, lime juice, lime wedge, simple syrup, salt.

• 1.5 oz. (1 jigger) black rum
• .75 oz. (1 pony) Campari
• .5 oz. lime juice
• .5 oz. simple syrup
• 1.5 oz. pineapple juice
• large pinch of salt
• lime wedge or dehydrated pineapple slice

Combine all liquid ingredients in an ice-filled shaker. Shake and strain over a glass with ice. Add a large pinch of salt to the top and garnish with a lime wedge or dehydrated pineapple.

Comments: Cruzan Black Strap Rum is the recommended rum for this drink. I used Gosling’s Black Seal Rum in my mix. It was still delicious and gave it a more complex edge over the more common white rum tropical drinks — with the help of Campari. Though with pineapple juice in the mix, you still feel just a few steps away from the pool, beach or anyplace outdoors. But as there are just as many Salty Bird recipes which call for white rum, you can try the mix with white rum if that’s what you have handy. The salt topper is a nice offset to the bitterness of Campari and sweet pineapple juice.