Sal del Mar Gourmet Sea Salt from the Sea of Cortez

Salt. Sometimes we forget just how magical it is. Or at least, how magical it can be. Salt is meant to enhance the flavor of your food or drink…not overwhelm or compete with it. So when someone finds a salt that perfectly does that, one can become a little obsessed with it… maybe even start a business around it. Such is the case with Claudia Karafotas and her company, Sal del Mar purveyor of gourmet sea salt.

A former magazine editor for a home and garden magazine, Claudia and her new husband (self-proclaimed foodies) had just moved to the small Sea of Cortez beach town, San Carlos. They loved it, but Claudia’s creative side needed a little activity. Enter the salt they found and would use to cook and rim glasses with. They adored it! It had “an intense, rustic flavor that was crisp but not sharp,” and they found that it only took a pinch to do the job. Claudia wanted to know everything about this miraculous “rock” and so she traveled further south into Mexico (still along the Sea of Cortez) to see for herself the origin of the salt and just how it was harvested. What she found was that basically, the Sea of Cortez is allowed to flood huge, shallow beds and then a dam is used to trap the water. When the water evaporates (purely by the sun) it leaves a layer of salt, which is collected – by hand.

That was almost five years ago, when Sal del Mar was born. What’s equally special? The company sells this artisan salt in cotton bags, hand-stitched by the women of Sabinito, a tiny Mexican (poverty stricken) village. The partnership of the people in this village with Claudia and Sal del Mar creates revenue and enables village women to stay at home and care for their children, but still be able to earn money to benefit their families. Right on their website, Sal del Mar proclaims the “underlying belief behind Sal del Mar is that helping each other helps make ours a better world.” Again, that’s some very special salt.

If you’d like to learn more about Claudia’s adventure you can visit the Sal del Mar website. Once there you can read about this amazing story and company, you can peruse some delicious food and drink recipes (like the just-posted Rick Bayless blood orange margarita) and of course, you can shop for the amazing Sal del Mar salts in their hand-embroidered bags. Contact Claudia and Sal del Mar about customizing a design and using the bags of salt for wedding favors, business thank-you gifts, etc. There’s really not much this salt can’t do!

DID YOU KNOW?
In Roman times, a man in love was called salax (in a salted state) and this is the origin of the word salacious.