fleur de sel

Fleur de sel ("flower of salt" in French; French pronunciation: ​[flœr də sɛl]) or flor de sal (in Portuguese, Spanish and Catalan) is a hand-harvested sea salt collected by workers who scrape only the top layer of salt before it sinks to the bottom of large salt pans. Traditional French fleur de sel is collected off the coast of Brittany, most notably in the town of Guérande (called Fleur de Sel de Guérande), but also in Noirmoutier, Île de Ré and Camargue.

Fleur de sel is often slightly grey due to the sand collected in the process of harvesting the salt from the pans. On occasion, the presence of Dunaliella salina (a type of pink microalga commonly found in salt marshes) can give it a light pink tint. It is usually sold in sealed jars.

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