French Grey Sea Salt | Sel Gris from Brittany

What Is French Grey Sea Salt?

French grey sea salt, known in France as sel gris and sometimes called Celtic sea salt, is a natural sea salt harvested on the Atlantic coast of Brittany. It is made the same way it has been for more than a thousand years: seawater flows into shallow, clay-lined salt marshes, the sun and wind slowly evaporate the water, and salt workers called paludiers rake the crystals by hand.

The salt takes its light grey color from the fine clay of the marsh beds. It is not washed or refined, so the crystals stay naturally moist, slightly damp to the touch, and keep the trace minerals of the sea along with the sodium chloride.

Grey sea salt has a mild, rounded, mineral and ocean-like taste, less sharp than refined table salt. Its coarse, moist crystals are prized by chefs for seasoning meat and fish before cooking, for salt crusts, roasted vegetables, pasta water, bread and fermentation, and as a crunchy finishing salt.

Because the crystals are moist and coarse, many cooks use a salt grinder made for moist salt, or crush the salt in a mortar for finer seasoning.

Our French grey sea salt contains only natural sea salt with no anti-caking agents or additives. It is sold by weight, from small packs to bulk.