Halen Môn - Anglesey Sea Salt Company — Attraction in Wales

firstly i apologies for this review as its doesn't concern the cafe nor the visits. I just hope that it will make some people think a little

I was watching a documentary on Anglesey (zdf 2018) in wich they went to see Halen Môn. They showed a part of the sea salt processing and i got quite suprised when i saw the moment you pour the brine before crystalization. Seemed to be light/machine above it. Would you be able to tell what is the role of those? Are they lights or fans to increase evaporation? I went on replay to try to chek more precisely, meanwhile the documentary went on describing Halen Môn got the Queen Award for Sustainibility. It was too much, i needed to know more about your salt company and studied your website.

To summarize: Halen Môn BOILS sea water (from the pan discovery to the vacuum boiler) to obtain sea salt. And you get a sustainability award. And you get a PDO just like "Champagne, Parma Ham..." that have rules and processes to protect a knowledge, a craftmanship and recipes that sometimes exists over centuries.

Are people that ignorant to forget how sea salt is naturally produced since tenths of centuries? just by sea water, sun and wind - Salt evaporation pond. "Our process is unique and has been legally recognised as such under EU law" indeed, i dont know much place in the world in wich salt is produced by boiling sea water . "We don’t buy in or add in salt from anywhere else" I hope you don't since you claim to have a PDO

"Every year, we aim to reduce our carbon footprint for every kilogramme we produce" You can say you save energy by vacuum and that you will go to sunplant or windplant to power your factory (as im sure marketing or even genuine environemental concern will advice you to do if not done already). You boil sea water to make salt. This is absurd.

Halen Môn then sells "natural" salt. The water might be natural, charcoal filtering is odd while mussels are a very good idea but the process is not. You emphasize the handmade aspect wich intervene in the last part of the process while for some natural sea salt (real, in my opinion) its fully handmade.

I dont have any problem with Halen Môn sucess, i'm very happy that Obama likes it. I don't care if its pricey, it might be of an excellent quality and taste that would justify its price. I have none interest into diffaming the company or your products.

I'm just deeply saddened that something as absurd as this can exist: how can a company that produces sea salt by boiling sea water can get a sustainability award? I would have naively imagined that this award would reward a company, lets say a nut producer for exemple, that would improve its sustainbility by using the nutshells to produce energy instead of waste thus benefiting in differents levels. But no, an award of sustainability goes to a company that boils sea water to produce salt...

The fact that you got the PDO is one more depressing in matter of what PDO is supposed to protect: to make it short its usually a quite old knowledge to produce quality food that mostly have an excellent environemental and social impact, in a sense not industrially processed (even if industrials will pressure the pdo specifications).

Marketing is a part of business indeed, but please people, don't forget that marketing is made to convince you to buy and at the end its you that can choose and...

It’s a cool place but in terms of the tour, it’s pretty much a one time thing. There are some cool things there with the barrels, and its proximity to the sea zoo is useful. No real “food” option there so we went down the road to foel farm when we’ve visited each time (budget about £8/sandwich there).

The products for sale at Halen Môn shop are expensive. I’m not saying they’re not good value, but they are very Spenny. 500g of their sea salt cost £17 today (28 May 24). I honestly had a word with myself paying that much for salt when I got in the car… I certainly will think again about that. Some of the sauces are over £7/bottle (small). So even though it’s nice stuff, it’s seriously luxury end stuff. You can buy smaller packs of salt etc to take a memento home for much less tho.

Clearly they have overheads etc, this was a “treat” but it’s not something for everyday unfortunately and I think I’ll revert back to more readily available Malden sea salt for a more cost effective alternative. (I have done the salt tasting experience here and do understand the difference and could taste it but I don’t think I can really notice it enough in cooking to justify the difficulty getting home of it and the cost-sorry!) 4/5 with very little to make a comparison to as a place and cost.

Aber falls distillery well worth a visit and doing the gin making instead - more expensive but felt like a bit better value for money as an experience and take home! (Sorry;...

Interesting establishment, although it doesn't take very long to establish the fact that Anglesey sea salt a.k.a Halen Môn should be entered into the Guinness book of world records as being the most expensive sea salt on the face of the earth. The finished salt product itself contains no unique properties that are found localy, it is just pure refind sea salt at the end of the day extracted from sea water from the menai strait that has been cleverly marketed in fancy containers C/w a variety of flavour infusions on offer. The establishment makes for a good educational hub that demonstrate the manufacturing process to the public although there is a charge for this tour and you can sample for free all of the different flavours on offer despite the fact that there is only so much salt one can eat! Lol. Don't expect any bargains to be had here, I would classify this attraction including it's gift shop and cafe as being very expensive in the grand scheme of things, but at the end of the day...