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It was when another subscriber pointed out that the chemical compositions of unrefined sea salt and unrefined rock salt were in fact usually very different (the pressure put onto the salt in a ‘salt dome’ from the rock and earth above squeezes most of the beneficial minerals and trace elements out), that Nick realised his quest would have to continue. The ‘best salt in the world’ would have to be a sea salt, but one harvested from the cleanest sea in an area with the lowest levels of air pollution, and harvested in the least damaging way to ensure that as many of seawater’s 85 natural chemicals and trace elements were preserved.

However, he also felt that the distance the salt was transported had to be limited. After all, could one justify the pollution produced by flying or shipping salt from the other side of the world just because it was fractionally cleaner, when most of us breathe industrially polluted air and eat industrially polluted food every day? He set Western Europe as the maximum distance, and found a great source, the salt marshes in the Ria Formosa Lagoon Natural Park in the Portuguese Algarve.

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