Bittersweet Love Bird | A Passion Fruit Rum Cocktail

With sweet passion fruit and pineapple, the Bittersweet Love Bird is a deliciously tropical white rum and bitter Campari cocktail.

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Bittersweet Love Bird

Tropical cocktails as often believed to be cloyingly sweet, full of artificial flavors and corn syrup sour mix. The best tropical cocktails, however, are a carefully curated balance of potent liquor and sweet, tart, and bitter flavors. This Bittersweet Love Bird is a twist on the classic Jungle Bird cocktail. Here, sweet passion fruit syrup couples with traditional ingredients of tart lime juice and bitter Campari for a lovely reddish-pink beverage to share with your favorite people.

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Overhead shot of a pinkish-red passion fruit cocktail with two pineapple leaves and a cocktail cherry.
The Bittersweet Love Bird cocktail with a blue background.
Angled image of the pinkish-red Bittersweet Love Bird cocktail.

Aperitifs & Amari

Campari is one of the most well-known members of the amaro family. Distinctively red in color, this Italian liqueur is infused with a propriety combination of herbs and fruit (including chinotto and cascarilla) that give it a signature bitter flavor. Most well known as an ingredient in the gin-based Negroni, Campari is one of many aperitifs and digestifs used in cocktails around the world.

Aperitifs and digestifs generally refer to any drink you traditionally serve before or after dinner, either to whet the appetite or aid in digestion. These fortified wines and liquors – culminative known as amari – have a long history, with individual recipes distinct to specific regions of European countries. Many of these longstanding recipes are still available today, kept alive through enduring traditions and global trade.

Like cocktail bitters (their more potent cousin), amari should be used thoughtfully and judiciously. Too little, and the other flavors will overwhelm it. Too much, and you won’t taste anything else. Today, there are countless bottles of amaro on the market, with new products every year. Some of the most well-known are Campari (citrus based), Aperol (gentian and rhubarb-based), and Cynar (artichoke based), but the new Californian company Lo-Fi is currently making waves in the cocktail world.

A passion fruit rum cocktail with a dark background and model globe.

Bittersweet Love Bird

A passionfruit twist on the classic Jungle Bird cocktail.
Prep Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes
Servings 1 cocktail

Ingredients
  

  • 2 ounces pineapple juice
  • 1 ½ ounce white rum
  • 1/2 ounce Campari
  • ½ ounce passionfruit syrup
  • ½ ounce lime juice
  • Cocktail cherries & pineapple leaves

Instructions
 

  • Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with a few ice cubes. Vigorously shake until the outside is frosty. Strain into a glass and serve with pineapple leaves and a cherry.
Keyword bar, campari, cocktail, drink, rum, tiki
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