Cocktail

I’ve been on ambergris alert ever since I started researching its fascinating history last year for Key Ingredient, so I was excited to see that it was being featured in a cocktail at Billy Sunday after Mike Sula included it in a bar-guide feature last month.

In case you’re not familiar with ambergris, it’s a solid, waxy substance produced in the digestive systems of sperm whales that’s been used in perfume for centuries. It’s often called whale vomit, but scientists believe that it usually comes out of the other end of the whale (though no one’s sure). After floating in the ocean for months or years, chunks of ambergris take on a sweet aroma and eventually wash up onshore to be fought over by beachcombers.