We Welcome Blackthorn Scottish Sea Salt Flakes
At Blackthorn, they understand that Salt is the single most transformative ingredient of all time. Clean and unrefined, the taste of their Salt is everything a discerning palate requires – sweet, with a mouth-watering tang. Used cleverly it can transform the mediocre, enhance a range of flavours or add a suggestion of rolling moreishness and sophistication to any meal.
The crucial crystal crunch factor is a given – Blackthorn always encourage ‘by hand’ sprinkling if only to experience this satisfaction, but also to ensure the exact distribution and grain size that you desire on each occasion.
At Blackthorn, they use 100% west coast sea water and nothing else. There are no illusions: no adding, no seeding, no bleaching, just pure Scottish sea salt. When you taste Blackthorn Salt you taste nature – the sea, the winds and the thorns.
Blackthorn ways are patient, gentle and sustainable: Scottish West Coast sea water is slowly trickled through the country’s only graduation thorn tower whilst being evaporated by the exhilarating West Coast winds.
The first stages of the Blackthorn journey are wild and solely require nature: West Coast seas and winds.
Reminiscent of a Brothers Grimm fairy tale, their imposing tower of thorns sits facing the sea and the mountains of Arran. This spiky structure is incredibly effective as well as being visually impressive: it enables a significant acceleration of the evaporation process required for sea salt production.
Sea water is dribbled through 54 wooden taps and a series of channels which are checked and adjusted daily according to the weather. The sea water seeps along every twig and thorn, maximising exposure to their powerful and persistent coastal winds (and any sun that might be showing face). The emerging droplets partially evaporate and any remaining liquid becomes a more concentrated brine.
The final stage is all skill and alchemy: Blackthorn take the now exceptionally salty brine, add their Salters and their intricate knowledge of their salt, some gentle heat and nothing else… at all.
It took years to perfect Blackthorn’s unique method of harnessing the wind and sea to ensure we create a better salt, a ‘salt of the world’ as well as ‘for the world’ and one that they are proud of.
