Tasmanian salt sommelier experience: This tasting will change the way you season

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Tasmanian salt sommelier experience: This tasting will change the way you season

By Justin Meneguzzi
The Tasman Sea Salt tour includes tasting platters at the Mayfield Estate cellar door.

The Tasman Sea Salt tour includes tasting platters at the Mayfield Estate cellar door.

In a steel shed whirring with machinery, Chris Manson peels back the giant lid of a bin to reveal a mountain of brilliant white powder that would turn Walter White green with envy. Only, instead of the dry deserts of New Mexico, this is the untampered eastern coast of Tasmania and there's the unmistakable tang of sea salt in the air.

"We have some of the nicest, cleanest waters in the world for farming salt," says Manson, the co-founder and farmer of Tasman Sea Salt.

"Ninety-nine per cent of the hard work is really done out there by nature," he adds, gesturing towards the brilliant cerulean sea just beyond the walls of his boutique coastal salt works.

Tasman Sea Salt founder Chris Manson says we have some of the nicest, cleanest waters in the world for farming salt.

Tasman Sea Salt founder Chris Manson says we have some of the nicest, cleanest waters in the world for farming salt.

Judging from the two evaporative cooling towers behind us, I can't help but think Manson is being a bit modest. A former corporate lawyer with no experience in farming, he had to learn a lot of science and engineering quickly, sourcing bespoke parts that would allow him to pump, evaporate and dry salt water at scale while drawing on solar and hydro power to keep operations as environmentally friendly as possible.

Today Tasman Sea Salt can produce nearly 40 tonnes of salt each year, a relative speck compared to global salt producers in Europe and Asia, but what makes this salt distinct is a mineral signature unique to the Tasman Sea, which contains higher levels of potassium and less sodium.

On a guided tour, Manson says the idea to start farming struck when he returned to Tasmania to visit his parents after moving to London for work. At dinner he noticed the family's table salt came from the United Kingdom and had travelled just as far as he had to be there.

The Salt Sommelier experience includes a tour of the saltworks and tasting.

The Salt Sommelier experience includes a tour of the saltworks and tasting.

"Why were we using salt from the other side of the world when we have our own pristine waters right here?"

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That much of our table salt comes from the United Kingdom is no accident, says co-founder Alice Laing. Because of its essential function in the human body, and its role in preserving food for armies, salt has played a crucial role in building civilisations. Roman soldiers were paid in salt (the word "salary" derives from salt), it was traded for gold, and competition to find new salt trade routes helped lead to the fall of the Venetian empire.

Our tour moves indoors to the newly built, Scandinavian-influenced Mayfield Estate cellar door, where large windows deliver sweeping views of Maria Island bathed in blue haze. Here Laing guides us through individual tasting platters that highlight the many uses and types of salt. A tuna gravlax demonstrates the powerful simplicity of curing, while a blend of wakame seaweed and salt draws out umami flavours in a roasted butternut pumpkin puree.

The most illustrative tasting comes from a simple cherry tomato sliced in half. We eat one half raw, taking note of its sour and bitter flavours. A sprinkle of salt makes the second half sweeter, harmoniously balancing both sides of the palate.

"More than anything, salt has the most profound impact on food. It expands the taste buds on our tongues and lets us taste more deeply, allowing more subtle flavours to come through," says Laing, who no longer uses pepper in her cooking after discovering the versatility of salt. She says the saturation of salt in over-processed food has given the mineral a bad rap, but the problem is many people don't know how to use it to enhance what they are eating.

"A sprinkle of salt can save a tannin heavy wine or an espresso that's too bitter. It enables food to be its best self and have its very best flavours."

THE DETAILS

TOUR

Tasman Sea Salt runs its Salt Sommelier experience, a 75-minute immersive tour of the saltworks and tasting experience, each Thursday and Friday at 2pm. It costs $75 a person, bookings required. See tasmanseasalt.com

STAY

Piermont Retreat offers luxury homestead lodgings in nearby Swansea with views over Freycinet Peninsula. From $410 a night twin share, minimum two nights. See piermont.com.au

MORE

traveller.com.au/tasmania

discovertasmania.com.au

Justin Meneguzzi toured Tasman Sea Salt as a guest of Tourism Tasmania.

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