Bad Birdy

Cabernet, brandy, pineapple, cinnamon, and Coca-Cola — a sessionable wine-based punch from TikTok.

Recipe via @kuduowl.

The Bad Birdy comes from @kuduowl on TikTok. The source is a social media recipe with no established bar origin or historical context. What it is: a crowd-pleasing, wine-based punch drink that uses red wine and brandy as its base, brings sweetness and tropical flavor from pineapple, lifts with citrus, adds spice from cinnamon syrup, and finishes with the bitterness of Coca-Cola and Angostura.

The combination of wine and cola has a longer history than the TikTok era suggests. Kalimotxo, the Basque red wine and Coca-Cola mixture, has been a staple of Spanish youth culture since at least the 1970s. The French drink Monaco mixes beer, lemonade, and grenadine. Wine-and-mixer traditions are global and well-established. The Bad Birdy sits in this tradition while adding the bar technique of citrus, spice, and Angostura for a more structured result.

This is an approachable, sessionable drink. Not a serious cocktail — but a genuinely good one.

Bad Birdy cocktail in a tall glass with ice, dark wine-colored with pineapple and lemon garnish

Single Serve

2 oz

Cabernet Sauvignon

Mid-quality, fruit-forward — not a wine you'd mourn

1 oz

Brandy or Cognac (VS)

Lifts the wine base with spirit structure

1 oz

Pineapple Juice

0.5 oz

Fresh Lemon Juice

0.5 oz

Fresh Lime Juice

0.5 oz

Cinnamon Syrup

1:1 simple syrup with cinnamon stick infused

2 dashes

Angostura Bitters

2 oz

Coca-Cola (top)

—

Serve: tall glass, ice

Steps

Build in a tall glass with ice.

Combine wine, brandy, pineapple juice, lemon, lime, cinnamon syrup, and bitters in a shaker with ice.

Shake briefly — 5-7 seconds, just to chill and combine.

Strain over ice in a tall glass.

Top with Coca-Cola. Stir gently once.

Cinnamon Syrup

A simple 1:1 syrup infused with cinnamon sticks. Widely useful — works in whiskey cocktails, coffee drinks, and tropical drinks alike.

500 g

Granulated Sugar

500 g

Water

Cinnamon Sticks

Bring water and cinnamon sticks to a gentle simmer. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Remove from heat and steep cinnamon for 20 minutes. Strain and bottle. Keeps refrigerated for 3 weeks.

Flavor Notes

First sip

Bright and tropical from the pineapple and citrus. The Cabernet's fruit registers as a rich background, not as a dominant wine note.

Mid-palate

Cinnamon warmth builds. The brandy provides structure. Angostura bitters add spice complexity that prevents the drink from being one-dimensional.

Finish

The cola's caramel and carbonation round the finish. Sweet, slightly bitter, satisfying. Easy drinking.

Variations

Batch for a group

Multiply all non-carbonated ingredients by 8. Mix in a pitcher. Top individual glasses with cola at serve time. Keeps the carbonation fresh.

Spanish wine version

Use a light Garnacha or Tempranillo instead of Cabernet. More fruit-forward, slightly earthier. The Iberian wine-and-cola lineage is strong here.