Fleur de Sel de Guerande - Hervy

5.4 oz jar - Brittany, France

This was the very first Fleur de Sel we carried, back in 1999, and we have loved it ever since! It's a beautiful French sea salt made from the least salty, purest part of the evaporating water in the salt pond. It is the sweetest salt we have ever tasted.

This Fleur de Sel de Guérande salt from M. Gilles Hervy is the genuine article. It's an unrefined, unadulterated, and unprocessed sea salt. Its small, flaky crystals taste of the sea and its minerals.

This unprocessed sea salt is for finishing (rather than cooking), perfect for bringing out the flavors in grilled meat, salads, or raw vegetables. A favorite French treat is fresh radishes dipped in Fleur de Sel, served with sweet butter and freshly sliced baguette.

The area around the town of Guérande in Brittany enjoys a milder microclimate than the rest of the region, filled with salt marshes and benefiting from clean Atlantic currents. That's why Guérande is famous—it's a veritable haven for harvesting unprocessed sea salt.

The "Fleur de Sel”, which translates to "flower of salt," is the cream of the salt crop—it's a single day's evaporation of salt from the very top layer of seawater in the salt pans.
This top layer is carefully skimmed off, yielding a delicate and prized salt.

Fleur de Sel de Guérande is harvested in limited quantities. For every 80 pounds of Sel Gris (hand-harvested sea salt from the entire season), only 3 pounds of Fleur de Sel are harvested.

Fleur de Sel de Guérande is known for being unrefined, unadulterated, and unprocessed. It retains its natural mineral content and carries the distinct flavors of the sea.

Its small, delicate crystals dissolve easily and provide a pleasant crunch when used as a finishing salt.

Unlike many salt farmers, or "paludiers," the Hervy family has chosen to remain independent rather than joining a marketing cooperative to sell their wares. Gilles Hervy continues to work mostly with his family to produce this amazing, favorite salt!