The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
A Cloud of Cocoa was born from a collaboration with Salt & Straw, the ice cream maker known for creatively inventive flavors. The brief was simple in concept and difficult in execution: create a fragrance inspired by a boozy hot chocolate. Josh Meyer worked with food-grade materials and Japanese whisky to develop something suitable for skin that could also be used as an edible ice cream topping. The result is a fragrance that performs like perfume and tastes like it belongs in a dessert context.
The combination of chocolate, malt, and whiskey is unusual because most chocolate fragrances use cocoa as a base note and build around it. Here, the chocolate takes a leading role. The whiskey does not arrive as a cameo. It is structural, giving the composition a warmth that feels cooked rather than sweet. The malt bridges the two, and the result is something that smells coherent rather than layered.
The evolution
The opening announces itself immediately: malt milkshake sweetness with a chocolate richness that borders on edible. For the initial phase, the chocolate dominates and the whiskey stays present but subdued. Then the balance shifts. The whiskey emerges more fully, warm and present, while the chocolate deepens into something more complex. The malt becomes rounder, settling into the composition. In the drydown, the chocolate persists but the whiskey softens to a gentle warmth that stays close to the skin, lingering at the wrist.
Cultural impact
The Salt & Straw collaboration positioned A Cloud of Cocoa as something distinct in the fragrance world. It is one of the few perfumes explicitly designed to function as an edible topping, bringing together perfumery and culinary arts. Wearers describe it as the fragrance equivalent of a comfort drink on a cold evening.
The House
Imaginary AuthorsImaginary Authors is a Portland‑based niche fragrance house that frames scent as a narrative medium. Founded in 2012, the label releases limited‑edition perfumes, scented soaps and hand‑poured soy wax candles that reference literary forms such as memoirs, mosaics and secret journals. Each launch arrives with a story‑driven name and a modest glass bottle that lets the fragrance speak for itself. The brand’s catalogue spans more than a decade, from the debut Memoirs Of A Trespasser (2012) to the recent First Peach of the Season (2026), offering collectors a curated library of olfactory chapters.
The Creator
Josh MeyerJosh Meyer favors a narrative‑first approach, building a fragrance around a plot before selecting ingredients. He reaches for vintage materials such as Turkish rose, Haitian vetiver, and Madagascan vanilla, then mixes them with modern synthetics that add depth without overpowe…
