The Guerande salt

A small history of salt

When the water is high, sea-water enters the salt-pans, and remains there, trapped. Thanks to a slight inclination, the water then reaches all the pans.

The evaporation process can start. Slowly evaparoting, the water becomes more and more concentrated in salt.

Sea-salt

When sea-water reaches a concentration of 260g of sodium chloride per liter, the salt crystallize on the clayey ground of the pans. That's when it is collected, from June to September, in an traditional way, with a big wooden tool called "las". The Guerande salt is a natural product, well-known for its richness in magnesium and its gustatory qualities.

The salt-flower

Coming straight from the ocean, the salt-flower is composed of small crystals formed on the top of the salt-pans, during the days when the evaporation process is fast.

We collect manually this very rare salt of great quality with a "lousse" : a wooden rake which enables us to gather the thin film of salt on top of the water.

The salt flower has sometimes a pink colour, which is explained by the presence of a microscopic red seaweed, the Dunaliella. It also gives it a smell of violet.