This one came to me mid service like a lightening bolt between the eyes. One and done. No tweaks necessary. A bunch of people were at the bar and I shook this one out, tasted it with a spoon, and said to Denise, “I’m back, baby!” The people seated at the bar looked up from the depths of their phones for a minute and laughed before diving back into whatever abyss of schlock held their previous attention. Yeah, it felt good.

I’ve been in a serious imaginative slump over the last few weeks. The “feces touch” I call it, where everything I touch turns to shit. Burnout? Anxiety? Who knows? Probably a mixture of everything and the grim realization that tiki season is over until next year. But wait, you say, isn’t citrus season so awesome? Yes and no. We work with citrus all year long and although citrus season is a bit of a no brainer, it’s limiting in ways and a little boring compared to the previous months full of persimmons, guava, dragonfruit, sapote, passionfruit, and quince. We really cranked out some crazy off the wall cocktails in October and November. Most notably, I Lost on Jeopardy and, Be Somebody. Man oh man. Those two with their weird formulas and insane preparations changed our game. Cocktails so good all our new recipes taste flat.

There is one saving grace, however. We’ve been on a crazy rum kick lately. Yes, demon rum, the red headed step child of the cocktail world. The other night I said to our somm, (who was complaining that people know nothing about riesling) that the two beverages share similar viewpoints from the uneducated masses. Most people hear those words and think one thing: too sweet. Both beverages are put up on a pedestal by experts, however.

I added a sub section to the menu: Seasonal Tiki. Why the hell not? Up steps the Hummingbird, inspired by the Jungle Bird. Once again, a cocktail spawned by necessity, desperation, and overstock. Yeah, I ordered some Hamilton demerara rum and Brovo’s apertivo and both of them didn’t work well with others. The apertivo not quite as bitter as I thought, a little sweet even, and very citrusy. The rum is a little smoky with a strange burnt flavor to it.

A quick dive into both products.

Edward Hamilton is a literal modern pirate who started producing rums in the early 90s. He’s written two books (both out of print unfortuntely) on the subject: Rums of the Eastern Caribbean and The Complete Guide to Rum: An Authoritative Guide to Rums of the World. His lineup is vast and cultish. His demerara, we’re told, comes from a blend of rums aged and distilled in Guyana, where the rum is named after a river and not the type of sugar.

Brovo spirits is located up in Woodenville, WA. The founder and master distiller, Mhairi Voelgsen, makes a line of great products which use no additives, high fructose corn syrup, or other weird crap. We’ve been using their orange curaçao for years as well as their falernum and their entire line of amari.

The Jungle Bird Cocktail has some strange origins. Punch did a decent article on it recently, read it here. It’s certainly a cocktail with one of the most variations on the original recipe ever. Over the years, it’s evolved significantly, and the newer, trendy recipes barely resemble the prototype. Nowadays, the big ingredients forming a modern Jungle Bird are generally considered to be black rum, Campari, and pineapple. We don’t use pineapple often because it doesn’t fit into our seasonal, local SoCal concept. Also, fresh, not canned, is the best, and we simply don’t have the room, resources, or patience to have lots of pineapple around all the time.

The cool thing about the cocktail is that it somehow works and makes no sense. Something about the ingredients counteract and complement each other simultaneously. It was a no brainer to add some of Hamilton’s funky ass demerara rum into the mix. The extra citrusy Brovo accompanied some cara cara orange sherbet laying around and voila, The Hummingbird buzzed into my brain. Once pomelos start coming in, we’ll switch to using their juice and this little bird will really fly (did I just say that? Ugh).

Hummingbird

1 oz. Demerara Rum

1 oz. Blackstrap Rum

1 oz. Fresh Lime Juice

1 oz. Grapefruit Juice

3/4 oz. Cara Cara Sherbet

1/2 oz. Brovo Apertivo