My Almost-Award-Winning Cocktail: Armand!

The Jungle Bird gets reimagined with Miami poolside-pounder vibes.

Some personal news: Earlier this spring I entered a cocktail competition of sorts, for the first time ever.

And last week it was announced I got second place!

I’m always fascinated to hear bartenders talk about their thought processes behind the cocktails they create, so here’s mine.

Each season, Sother Hospitality, the online cocktail-education class hosted by Sother Teague, asks participants to submit an original cocktail employing ingredients made as part of the class over the previous season. I’d never submitted anything during previous seasons (I’ve never worked as a bartender and figured no one would care about any cocktail I might create), but, I don’t know, I guess I was feeling creative this time around.

I should mention that I’ve known Sother for many years, so I submitted the drink under my partner’s name so as not to influence the judges’ decision. (Mostly I was afraid that Sother might expect more from me than he would some random stranger, or, worse, might see me differently as a person if he didn’t like the drink I’d created.)

Of the various bitters and shrubs and cordials and whatnot the class had made over the preceding season, I liked the pineapple shrub the best. I’d played around with making similar shrubs before, during early-pandemic times, to use in a Pina Colada-ish drink created by Jena Ellenwood, but I wanted to do something different this time around.

I adore Jungle Birds, which, as a rare Campari-employing cocktail in the Tiki canon, are (to my mind) among the more wintery of Tiki drinks. What if I lightened up the cocktail into something summery and crushable?

I took a few minutes to think about how to do so. I wanted to keep my cocktail recognizably related to the classic, and its basic proportions similar to those of the original, but swap in lighter, brighter ingredients. The Jungle Bird’s heavy, rich, molasses-y blackstrap rum, an element I ordinarily love, was the first thing to go, replaced by aged rum. Next out: the Campari, in favor of the lighter, juicier Aperol, which got increased to a full ounce from three-quarters. The pineapple shrub replaced the usual pineapple juice, but in the same quantity, and I kept the lime juice the same. I felt the drink no longer needed simple syrup, Aperol being so much sweeter than the Campari it was replacing, so the simple got cut. The final element: transforming it into a highball by topping the mixture with a generous splash of club soda.

I made it and liked it, but felt it needed a small touch of something more. What would Sother do? He’d add bitters, of course! Normally I’d reach for good ol’ Ango, but I figured this one needed the lighter, brighter, juicier flavors of Peychaud’s. (Although in retrospect, Sother’s own Driftwood bitters, with its primary flavors of grapefruit and cinnamon, probably would’ve made a great choice as well, if perhaps an overly suck-uppy one.)

Once the drink came together in my head, I made it only twice before writing down the spec and sending it in for the competition. I’m an admitted perfectionist, and I know myself well enough to know I’d overthink it for ages otherwise, spend weeks tweaking ingredients and quantities, and likely never get around to submitting it. So if you’re an experienced drink-maker and you’re looking at this thinking “Hmm, I’d do it differently and change this and that,” you’re probably right! But even as it is, it makes a damn good summer crusher.

It’s not exactly groundbreaking, I’ll be the first to admit. But I didn’t want it to be. I knew that if the drink won (runners-up usually aren’t chosen or announced), it would be made by the home bartenders watching the online show, and it needed to be accessible in terms of both ingredients and techniques to people of wildly varying drink-making skill.

I think the biggest compliment was that the show’s producer said he made a huge batch of it and brought it to a party recently, and it proved a massive hit. If you make it, let me know what you think and what tweaks you would incorporate to make it even better.

Armand

1.5 ounces aged rum
1 ounce Aperol
1.5 ounces pineapple shrub (recipe below)
.5 ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed
2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
Club soda, to top (about 3 ounces)

Combine the first five ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake well.
Strain into a Collins or highball glass over ice.
Top with club soda (about 3 ounces).
Garnish with pineapple fronds (optional).

Pineapple shrub (recipe by Sother Teague)

1 cup fresh pineapple, cubed (ideally roasted or caramelized)
2 ounces pineapple syrup (see below)
3 ounces sherry vinegar
.5 cup granulated sugar

Add all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.

Pineapple syrup (recipe by Sother Teague)

1 177-mL can pineapple juice
.75 cup granulated sugar

Shake to combine.