sea salts

[Guest guest]

I don't post often, take online only, so I have to 'go here' to

catch up on message archives.

I have a friend in Mexico who is involved in a co-op that collects and dries

sea salt. We're thinking about marketing it here in the US, as it's very pure

and

clean. Most sea salts use clay beds to dry (or leach out the water, evaporative

method)

their salts, so the salt themselves have enough clay or impurities that it

turns it brownish, or whatever color the clay was to begin with. A really stark

white salt usually indicates that the drying process also involved chemically

bleaching out

the noticeable darker particles.

The process my friend is using is drying in limestone caverns, so the salt

crystals are naturally extremely white and purity rate is very high.

We have been researching various markets for this salt from the gourmet

food market, the organic and biodynamic resellers as well as cheesemakers, etc.

I was wondering how important is a pure salt to the processes and recipes this

group

makes. Would a coarse grind be best for bath bombs? This is a coarse flake, and

when used in cooking, is best to grind in a pepper mill for a more even

saltiness

in the food.

(My trade is goat milk soap, sea salt doesn't come into the picture, so I'm

clueless!)

I do however make a great salt-bath whey to brine an aged Domiati cheese I make

from

goat milk and I'm finding this cavern-dried salt holds up much better than what

I get

in the health food store as sea salt.

Anyhow, I'm just tossing feelers out to some of the groups I think might benefit

by a new 'breed' of an old ingredient.

What price range do you pay for the salt products you use in your recipes? What

quantity packaging

do you purchase. (bulk bin, 1 - 5 pound bags, etc.) I guess what I'm asking is,

would this be a viable market area for such an unusual food item? They're still

in the laboratory testing stages, trying to determine actual break down and

impurity

levels, etc.

Any comments would be welcome, positive or negative!