Before the story, a practical note: I've assembled the ready-made list of every ingredient you'll need to try this one at home. Onto the tale.
The Yellow Bird is a cocktail of Caribbean origin, born in Jamaica in the 1960s and named after the Haitian-Creole folk song "Yellow Bird" — "Choucoune" in the original Creole, dating back to 1893. The song became globally popular in 1957 thanks to Harry Belafonte, and over the following decade it was adapted by The Mills Brothers, Arthur Lyman and countless others, becoming a soundtrack of the tiki wave.
The cocktail, based on aged rum, Galliano, triple sec and lime, was created to ride the hit's popularity and was an instant success at the Jamaican beach resorts of the 1960s and 1970s. Like many tropical drinks born in the tiki era, it vanished in the post-1980s, but has recently returned thanks to the global tiki revival. A cocktail that literally tastes like a calypso song on a tropical beach.
The best way to honor these historical cocktails is to serve them with the right attention. A complete barman kit on Amazon is the fastest way to get started and make a good impression from day one. And if you want to go deeper and give your house the proper bar vibe, a professional cocktail bar station is the final, definitive touch.