Hawaii also offers several different types of salt, and because Hawaii is an island of its own, the waters near Hawaii impart their own distinctive flavor to the salt which cannot be found anywhere else in the world. All of the salts that come from Hawaii are produced through solar evaporation, but with the use of different land minerals.

Red Hawaiian salt, also known as alaea salt is a sea salt that gets its red color from the red volcanic clay, alaea. For centuries this clay was mixed with white solar evaporative salts for use in traditional health care methods, rituals and religious ceremonies. In the 19th century, natives had learned to build large salt pans, or pools in the volcanic red clay to harvest larger amounts of red salt which led them to become major salt suppliers to the Pacific Northwest and fisherman who passed through. Red salt became a major staple for fish and meat curing in the region. White Hawaiian salt is still used for multi-purpose applications, but red salt became more of a staple because of its high iron and mineral content.

Black Hawaiian sea salt, or “Lava salt”, as some like to call it, is harvested from the tiny volcanic island of Molokai where the extremely pure ocean water is solar evaporated over black lava rock to add minerals and once dried, is combined with charcoal to add more minerals and detoxifying properties. Black Hawaiian salt is coarse, crunchy and it’s black, obsidian-like color is meant to offer visual appeal as a finishing salt over meats, vegetables, and even some fruits.