Athonite Salt

This Is The Style Of Salt I First Tasted On Mount Athos.  The Salt The Monks Make For Themselves So They Can Be Self-sufficient.  We Have Remained True To The Over 1,600 Year Old Athonite Tradition And Maintained The Process Even As We Have Updated The Equipment By A Few Centuries.  Each Harvest Comes From A Blend Of 14 Different Locations Across The Cold, Clear Waters Of Marblehead, Massachusetts, Just A Few Miles North Of Boston.

As The Salt Is De-watered We Are Constantly Testing It, Balancing It With The Other Naturally Occurring Mineral Mixtures Of The Different Seawaters From The Marblehead Coast, Like A Fine Blended Scotch, A Meritage Wine Or A Pauillac Bordeaux. And Like A Fine Wine, Our Salt Has Seasonality. Because Of Varying Algae And Plankton Content During The Year Our Salt Has A Seasonality Unique To Small Hand-crafted Batch Salts. Our Summer, Fall, Winter And Spring Salts All Have Slightly Different Tasting Notes.

Buy It By The Ounce, The Quarter Pound, A 7 Ounce Chefs Jar That Will Live On Your Stovetop Or The Large 2.5 Pound Chef’s Jar. You’d Be Surprised How Many Have Decided That The 8 Pound “Create Your Own Dead Sea” Jar Makes A Good Wedding, Anniversary Or Birthday Present.

Bonaire is famous for particular salt crystals, or “sun gems,” that are long, dense and heavy. Because the crystals are as big as a fist, they can be transformed into several grades to meet different customer needs. The salt produced on the island is used in multiple ways, including home water softeners, dyes for the textile industry and processing in the petroleum industry.

Manufacturers also use the salt to produce chlorine used to purify drinking water. A third of the salt is shipped to customers in the Caribbean, a third to North America and the rest to Europe and Africa. The plant also ships salt to Haiti, where the essential nutrient is medicated to help Haitians ward off disease.

Clean water and clean air are what Bonaireans say make their salt so good, with the sun, arid climate and gentle trade winds making the process relatively fast. It takes only two to three months from the time the seawater enters the salt flats until the salt crystals are ready for harvest.