Who we love? Cornish Sea Salt
This month in our ‘Who do we love’ feature we find out more about one of our favourite Cornish products, Cornish Sea Salt. A thriving Cornish business, Cornish Sea Salt now sells its fantastic range of products not only around the UK but also worldwide. What began as a walk around the shores of the Lizard by the late Tony Fraser, the founder of Cornish Sea Salt, soon turned into a thriving business. We spoke to Rosie Laurent, Marketing Manager, to find out more about how it all began, why Cornish Sea Salt is so good for us and their plans for the future.
Rosie, tell us a bit about Cornish Sea Salt and how it all began
The chance discovery of an Iron Age salt works, tucked away in a remote cove on the south coast of Cornwall seeded the idea for The Cornish Sea Salt Company.
In 2004, after moving to Cornwall, Cornish Sea Salt’s late founder, Tony Fraser went exploring around the shores of the Lizard where he found fragments of clay pots that the Cornish would have used to boil seawater and make salt. He was inspired by the idea of Celts using gorse and hazel fires to heat the pots and make salt and decided to set up his new business.
What followed was a three year puzzle – to find the perfect site, the best harvesting method and discover if people wanted sea salt from Cornwall.
After a lot of hard work Cornish Sea Salt was no longer just a drop in the ocean
Cornish Sea Salt was born in 2008 after years of hard work from Tony Fraser and his team who was passionate about using the best hand-harvesting methods with quality grade A water to create the highest quality sea salt.
What makes Cornish Sea Salt so special?
Simply put, it’s all in the location. Cornwall’s unique geology and historical Grade A water (which is the maximum level of water purity there is, meaning you can actually eat the shellfish out of the sea without cooking!) creates a nutrient rich salt, which retains over sixty naturally occurring trace elements such as potassium, calcium and magnesium. This also means that no two salts can be the same.
Why is Cornish Sea Salt better for us than other salts?
Cornish Sea Salt is as pure as the sea. It’s natural with nothing added or taken away and it’s typically 5 to 10% lower in sodium than processed table salt. Cornish Sea Salt has a very intense salty flavour meaning you use less.
What is it about the Cornish coastline that makes it the ideal place to produce sea salt?
The Atlantic Ocean and The Lizard location combined provide the best mineral reach seawater to harvest sea salt.
What new products are you working on at the moment?
We are always working on new ideas and concepts, and have recently invested on the latest technology for producing larger salt flakes.
Regarding flavours, we are exploring new smoked options, but that’s very much in the infancy stage at the moment.
Did you ever imagine Cornish Sea Salt would achieve such worldwide popularity?
Achieving worldwide popularity was one of Cornish Sea Salt’s ambitions; a lot of work has gone into developing the brand and great relationships abroad. Cornish Sea Salt aims to be known as the best British Sea Salt.
Do you think this popularity is a reflection of how people are becoming more selective about the ingredients/products they buy, going for higher quality, often locally produced products rather than big brand names?
We believe Cornish Sea Salt’s appeal is in its natural ethos and flavour. This matched with the fact the market is moving towards gourmet salts for both provenance, health and flavour reasons means we’re seeing a slow decline in table salts.
Do you think founder, Tony Fraser who sadly passed away in 2012 would be impressed by how big a following Cornish Sea Salt has now?
We recently named the latest Salt House production site after Tony – The Fraser building, which his wife Nicole opened with her daughters. Cornish Sea Salt is ultimately carrying out Tony’s vision for the company and he would be very happy with the growth and effect Cornish Sea Salt has had on the local community by creating jobs.
What’s the most unusual recipe you have heard of that includes Cornish Sea Salt?
Actually we just received a tweet from Mark Tiley (winner of Crème de Crème 2016) with his smoked salt and banana caramels – think we would like to try this!
What’s the future for Cornish Sea Salt?
We hope to continue to increase growth both in the UK and in the international markets.
Is it good to know that local Cornish businesses such as Philleigh Way are supporting what you’re doing by choosing Cornish Sea Salt to stock in their shops and use in their businesses?
It is amazing to have such support and it’s hugely valuable. We would like to do more with our partners, from blog posts to competitions to recipe ideas for our website.
You can purchase Cornish Sea Salt direct via their website www.cornishseasalt.co,uk or, from one of the many retail outlets that stock their products. To find your nearest stockist, visit their website and go to the ‘find a stockist’ page.
