“It’s a type of issues that may be a complete trash drink,” says Evan Main, bar supervisor at Brooklyn’s Gage & Tollner and Sunken Harbor Membership. “For those who order a Jungle Hen, you’re rolling the cube.” The pitfalls going through the 1978 tropical traditional aren’t that completely different from every other recipe—if one ingredient is off, it will probably throw the entire drink out of steadiness. However when two of these substances are as daring and bitter as Jamaican (or blackstrap) rum and Campari, respectively, discovering that steadiness turns into a way more tough proposition. 

“For the longest time, I didn’t like Jungle Birds as a result of I used to be getting Campari bombs,” recollects Kitty Bernardo, bar supervisor at Manhattan’s Paradise Misplaced, recounting one of the vital frequent methods the drink can fail. Bernardo, considered one of Punch’s Finest New Bartenders of 2024, was in attendance at Sunken Harbor Membership alongside Main, rum professional Austin Hartman and the Punch editorial group for a current blind tasting of 10 Jungle Hen recipes submitted by bartenders throughout the nation. The drinks have been ready to every bartender’s specs by Sunken Harbor Membership’s Tom Wolfson.

In a departure from the final time we went searching for the final Jungle Hen (in 2019), when Campari was thought-about a nonnegotiable ingredient, the submitted recipes this time round included a variety of options, reflecting the broadening market of pink bitters stateside—although Campari nonetheless dominated the entries. And the place the unique recipe requires darkish Jamaican rum, half of the entries leaned on blackstrap rum, a swap popularized in bartender Giuseppe González’s Jungle Hen, a model that has turn into canon since its debut in 2010. (González’s model additionally dials down the pineapple quotient from 4 ounces to an oz. and a half, a method selection that has likewise been broadly adopted.)

In response to Hartman, “Blackstrap is a daring selection—it doesn’t usually play properly with different rums.” On the similar time, nevertheless, the judges have been on the lookout for that pronounced molasses taste that blackstrap possesses in spades. “The molasses works properly with the bitterness,” mentioned Main. 

Appropriately, blackstrap rum featured in two of our three favorites. Taking the highest spot was the Jungle Hen of Rockwell Place. The Brooklyn bar splits the rum portion of the drink between an oz. of Appleton Property 12 Yr Previous Uncommon Casks rum and a half-ounce of Cruzan blackstrap rum; the bar group likewise splits the pink bitter between Campari and Aperol. To finish the drink, they use the requisite lime and pineapple juices, plus two teaspoons of wealthy Demerara syrup and, lastly, 5 drops of saline answer. Like all of our prime choices, it was served over a big rock moderately than crushed ice; the latter led to drinks that diluted too rapidly and didn’t show the visually interesting frothy head courtesy of the shaken pineapple juice. The judges praised the feel and physique of the drink, and the steadiness among the many three central pillars of the cocktail: rum, pink bitter and pineapple. As Punch editor-in-chief Talia Baiocchi famous, it was the “most archetypal” of the bunch. 

Second place went to the Jungle Hen of Will Pasternak of Blacktail, which is at the moment working as a pop-up in New York’s Backbar at Lodge Eventi. Blackstrap options prominently on this model, with three-quarters of an oz. complemented by a half-ounce every of Appleton 8-year rum and Smith & Cross Jamaican rum. The drink is in any other case an identical to González’s take, with the addition of 1 sprint of Angostura bitters and white sugar in lieu of straightforward syrup. The judges discovered it a pure evolution from González’s blackstrap-forward spec, and a drink that solely improves because it sits, starting in a means Baiocchi described as “difficult, however in a means that I like,” finally successful over even its preliminary skeptics. “I used to be a hater,” mentioned Punch editor Mary Anne Porto, who famous that it had a medicinal high quality at first, “however I’m transformed.” Hartman added, “It provides a lot, you possibly can relax and drink that for an hour.” 

Third place went to New York’s aptly named Jungle Hen. The bar’s home recipe eschews blackstrap altogether in favor of a mix of Don Q pineapple rum and Smith & Cross. To that’s added Campari, Giffard pineapple liqueur and the anticipated lime and pineapple juices. Juicy and refreshing with out a pronounced rummy punch, the drink was deemed “an awesome gateway Jungle Hen,” by Main, and “the pleasant Jungle Hen,” by Hartman. Regardless of agreeing earlier within the tasting that the Jungle Hen is just not a drink that most individuals would order multiple of, due to its aperitivo-like bitterness, all of the judges would make an exception for this one.