Animation Script

The Maldon Crystal Salt Company has been producing one of our greatest table salts for over 200 years. Attracting the attention of many of our most renowned and famous chefs, Maldon salt is exported all around the world. Its pure white, flaky texture has made it a favourite in many gourmet circles and free from the bitter after taste associated with many salts, Maldon Salt has a distinctive and unique flavour.

So how is it made?

Every two weeks, after a period of dry weather, the salt that has dried across the marshes is reabsorbed by the higher spring tides. This greatly increases the salinity of the seawater making the river Blackwater one of the saltiest in England.
At Maldon, the water is then carefully syphoned off from the middle of the river where the salt concentration is the highest and is stored and left to settle in large storage tanks. Sediment and mud particles are filtered out before eventually being transferred to large stainless steel salt pans.

The water is heated and brought to a ‘galloping boil’ . Any impurities and some magnesium salts form a froth called lees on the surface. This is removed and the temperature adjusted to a point where it can be carefully controlled for the next 15 to 16 hours. As the water becomes saturated and evaporates, salt crystals form on the surface. Slowly, the inverted pyramid shaped crystals grow in size and weight until they eventually fill with water and sink.

With the reducing water and the build up of the crystals on the bottom of the pans, the process is complete when the two levels meet and the water has mostly evaporated. The crystals are then carefully gathered using special rakes in a process called ‘drawing the pan’. They are then shovelled into bins and left to drain before being transferred and loaded into the drying hopper. Once dried, the harvesting process is complete resulting in completely natural, pure white salt crystals, nothing added, nothing taken away and the salt is simply ready to be packed and distributed.