From Sea to Seasoning

By applying 21st-century technology to a tradition as old as the Iron age, cornish sea salt captures the complex flavours of Britain’s seas and makes salt pure again

- James Stewart

Philip Tanswell stands on a remote shore of the Lizard Peninsula. Brown-green seaweed heaves on the rocks and silver-blue sea glitters in a vast bay that’s empty except for the white sails of a yacht. It’s a beautiful, wild spot. ‘This seawater and this geology is why we’re here,’ says Philip, managing director of Cornish Sea Salt. ‘They produce the subtle taste differences in our salt.’

I want to believe him. But, look, it’s salt – how different can it be? ‘It’s that taste of when you’re in the sea, jumping through the waves,’ he says. ‘When you get a splash of water in your mouth you taste all those trace minerals that are naturally in the sea. That’s what Cornish Sea Salt has.’ 

2016 was quite a year for Britain’s newest artisan salt manufacturer. Over the previous year the company saw its sales increase by 40 per cent. Exports expanded to 35 countries, from neighbouring Europe (especially Germany and Scandinavia) or Anglophile nations like Australia and America to the Middle East and China. Even there, people get Cornish Sea Salt as a nautical brand, Philips says, while British ex-pats buy it for a taste of Cornwall.

SALT BOOM