Blackthorn | Scottish Sea Salt Flakes

Fare thee well 2024!! It has been a bonkers and busy year, bringing us plenty: the great, the good and the challenges! ⭐️There were exciting collaborations, new customers, new team members, a baby, nerve-wracking yet unforgettable awards… ⭐️ We’ve replaced a section of thorns on the Tower; harvested record-breaking amounts of Blackthorn; and expanded into new international markets. 🇨🇦 🇯🇵 🇺🇸 ⭐️Had the pleasure of attending some fantastic trade shows and hosted brilliant chefs, TV crews, journalists, and local school children. ⚡️ We struggled with some on-site logistics 🐲 but the team have been phenomenal in their juggling and we are super excited about our 2025 plans! 💫It’s time now for a wee hiatus and we’ll be spending time with everything/one behind the scenes that keep us on the right track and hope you are too. Wishing everyone a truly wonderful Hogmanay, and a 2025 overflowing with joy, prosperity, health and a sneaky wee sprinkle of Blackthorn to bring out the best of flavours at each mealtime.✨ #blackthornseasalt #seasalt #salt #artisanproducer #gourmet #2024recap #handharvested #organic #sustainablebusiness #madeinscotland

Blackthorn is a 'salt of the world' as well as 'for the world,' and we are grateful when others think so too and choose to give it to those who’d care at Christmas time. Each crystal embodies the best of the land and sea it comes from, the craft, and the generous, talented, discerning, open-hearted people that we are so lucky to create it for and call our customers. Thank you, from the depths of our hearts, for choosing Blackthorn to share this Christmas! 💚 #blackthornsalt #seasalt #salt #scottishproduce #madeinscotland #organic #Kosher

At Blackthorn Salt, the weather makes or breaks much of our day —especially the wind. Like many across the country, Malky got to know Bert pretty well on Tuesday. We were relieved that it was only fierce winds, sparing heavy rainfall. Still, it kept us busy. Wishing all those affected more drastically as swift a recovery as possible... #blackthornsalt #seasalt #salt #stormbert #artisanfood #madeinScotland #organic #natural

“The thing that really blew my mind about this… is what #Blackthorn Sea Salt did to that drink – it’s not about taking over something, it just really exploded out all of those flavours in the most wonderful way… understanding that it is not the saltiness that we’re after, it is actually about all of those other little trace minerals that are transforming something really simple into something magnificent…” — Ryan Chetiyawardana, @mrlyan, connoisseur of many things including incredible drinks. “Those minerals what are really going to lift the flavours without over taking them… Every small ingredient matters… it is an ingredient that has its place, it has stories, what you are drinking is somebody’s passion” – Daniel Grajewski, Sr. Director, Wine and Beverage at multi Michelin starred José Andrés Group ‘Mix with the best.’ Fever-Tree Blackthorn was thrilled to welcome the talented Fever-Tree crew to Ayr who were on an ingredient-hunting experience with Ryan and . It was an absolute pleasure to show them around and share what we do at Blackthorn. Being a part of the journey behind their beautiful creations—the American Club Soda and the UK Premium Soda Water—as well as some of their lovely cocktail mixers has been a complete honour. Behind these drinks is an immense amount of innovation and care which shines through in their quality and taste - there is a whole world of flavour decisions, precision and effect out there that we would never have previously dreamt of. Yet again, it is highly likely we learnt more than our visitors… Thank you so much to team Fever Tree, Ryan, Daniel and Craig.

You never know where Blackthorn will pop up next! Just last week, the Scottish #DailyMail dedicated a full feature to the world of salt, journeying through the sea salts of various countries and uncovering Scotland’s salt-making heritage. A massive thank you to John MacLeod for his meticulous attention to the Blackthorn story—right down to counting the taps on the Thorn Tower! And, of course, for kindly highlighting Blackthorn as “Britain's best.” Thank you!🙏 We are also currently featured in the flavourful, tender King Arthur Sirloin Beef, dry-aged with Blackthorn Salt crystals. Working with M&S has been great fun and a real eye opener - here it is in the Marks and Spencer Christmas Food Guide alongside their very easy, delicious seasonal tastiness! #blackthornsalt #seasalt #salt #scottishdailymail #dailymail #madeinscotland #marksandspencerfood #thisisnotjust #christmastoodguide #christmasfood

When Fever-Tree came to stay... Salt in drinks- it's not your (or even our!) first thought, but honestly it is incredible what can happen flavourwise. Recently, we delved into the role that salt can and does take on with mixers, Fever Tree mixers, and impact this has on the end cocktail is exciting! A few years ago, the team asked us for samples for some NDP products. The interrogation of ingredients that Fever Tree makes is eye opening and phenomenal. It was the taste above all else that counted and the difference that Blackthorn made, despite costs involved with choosing a salt such as ours, was sufficient for them to include it discretely in the margarita and espresso martini mixer. We were delighted. Fast forward a couple of years and Fever-Tree are launching a couple of new products- a new recipe for the American Club Soda and the UK Premium Soda Water. We are thrilled that #Blackthorn features in both and were even more delighted when the team decided there was more to find out about Blackthorn came up ingredient hunting with Ryan Chetiyawardana and Daniel Grajewski. It was a total honour to meet and 'work' with such knowledgeable and generous experts and over the next few weeks, we'll try and share some snippets of a wonderful time we spent with the FeverTree crew: tasting, sharing our story/ salt obsessions, learning and weather watching... hope you enjoy! #blackthornsalt #seasalt #salt #fevertree #fevertreemixers #drinks #mixers #foodandbeverage #greattaste #mixology

Just to recap in case anyone is new... Our Blackthorn flakes begin their journey in the seawater of Scotland's west coast, collected just a few miles from the Thorn Tower. Here, 90% of the liquid evaporates leaving a super salty brine and setting the stage crystal formation itself. The convection currents in the Pan House baths play havoc with would-be symmetrical crystals meaning each one is unique, and our deliberately slow and gentle method ensures their character and ability to enhance flavours is exciting. It takes around 5-8 days, not hours, for the flakes to form, which allows us to capture approximately 6x more minerals and bark tannins - calcium for sweetness; NaCl for saltiness; potassium for sourness; magnesium for bitterness; and earthy blackthorn branch tannins for savoury umami effects. Blackthorn seeks to enhance each of the five basic tastes and to make the utmost of every flavour so the taste experience really shines, but not simply in a salty way. Great salt can, indeed, be transformative. #blackthornsalt #blackthornseasalt #seasalt #salters #scottishseasalt #madeinscotland #organicfood #organicsalt #sustainable #kosherfood #saltcrystals #crystals #seasaltcrystals #familybusiness

It can be bizarrely tricky to gather our team together despite its size, but here we are, posing about and thrilled with our brand-new bling! Please meet the V.I.People behind #Blackthorn, without whose help our salt would still be a pipedream. Our Salters Malky and Scott, whose brilliant mix of meticulousness and laid-back flexibility ensure that each Blackthorn batch is beautiful, whatever the weather and challenge – seriously, their skills range from hedge-cutting and flow dynamics to chemistry, engineering and alchemy. There is also the boxing-up and sending out of Blackthorn - Michael, Josh, Shay and Ian hand pack and even hand-make (it’s true!) every single box on site! Unbelievable. Then there is Yuliia who interprets ideas like no other, cares for all things marketing, making sure Blackthorn’s window to the world is everything it should be, but also finds time to look after web enquiries, customers and sometimes even brings in cake as well! There are the sales and outreach tasks normally under Hayley’s remit (currently, wisely, taking precious time to be with her wee one) but Campbell has nobly and admirably stepped into her super-organised, smart shoes with smooth success since March.  We have no ‘target customer’ or ‘buyer profile’ here at Blackthorn as those that choose our salt are hugely and delightfully wide-ranging, from chocolatiers, sauce, pasta, bread, butter, cheese, ice cream makers etc., to the local post office, farm shops butchers and fishmongers, to major flag ship department stores, Michelin chefs, quirky cafes and even the world of cosmetics - you can only imagine the ‘always learning’ attitude and enthusiastic interest that these guys have. Lastly, but absolutely not ‘leastly’ there is Lottie, the Salty Dog, without whom we would be with more food (she is the best thief on the planet) but less happy, and of course, Gregorie who pretty much personifies Blackthorn and Whirly who lives it. We are, each of us, wholeheartedly proud of what we do and grateful to be able to work with customers like ours in such a varied and diverse sector as this. Every single day is different. Thank you. 💚🙏 Hayley Ross Campbell Douglas Smith Yuliia Yarmolenko

C’était fantastique! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇫🇷 the auld alliance has come to the fore at Blackthorn as we were invited to make an appearance on France TV Londres News!! We joined forces with the magnificent 2 Michelin starred, 5 AA rosette The Glenturret Lalique Restaurant and chef Mark Donald to give a wee glimpse of what’s going on en Écosse just now. Thank you so much to the lovely journalists Maëlys and Charline for their interest and for creating such a thoughtful episode, calling Blackthorn ‘Le diamant de l’Écosse’ is definitely a highlight for us!! Mark’s dish was utterly inspired - stunning fermented asparagus with beautiful hand dived Scottish scallops, delicately smoked and skewered with blackthorn spines, a hint of The Glenturret and touch of #Blackthorn… I have no words, it was everything it should be and more, bursting with depth, a completeness and exciting! We received so many lovely messages from french viewers- Yuliia and my school-girl french is being tested to the limits!!

Crickey, Where to start? Blackthorn was in 'finals' at the prestigious #GoldenFork event in Battersea Arts Centre last week... and came home laden with this beautiful weighty number- safe to say these cheesy grins only show a glimpse of the complete astonishment, delight and no little imposter feeling that we had. Coined the Oscars of the food world, these arise out of the mass of 13,672 Great Taste product hopefuls which are all blind-judged by an experienced and patient panel of 500. Out of those, a mere 1.8% won 3stars - Blackthorn was one of these and we were utterly thrilled! It didn't occur to us that there would be more to this journey. It turns out that these 3star products are then put forward for the 'Golden Forks' and out of those, just 30 are entered into a final round. We were in extremely good and flabbergastingly knowledgeable company. Hence the excitement on our faces as Blackthorn was announced a winner- one of 12 producers across the whole board to be going home with the Golden Fork. Of course, our heartfelt thanks goes to the team at the Guild of Fine Food for making us so welcome, the incredible venue and delicious nibbles! And to Scotland Food & Drink and Jamie Durkin for the support and category sponsorship and Nigel Barden for putting Gregorie through his paces so brilliantly under the bright lights!! Congratulations also to the others who went, whether they won or not, not least Louisa’s Honey, Lussa Gin, Cashel Irish Farmhouse Cheesemakers, Dà Mhìle Distillery and Seabuckthorn Scotland - the products on show there were complete eye openers in terms of quality, passion and the lengths people went to to create such deliciousness. We are incredibly privileged to be a part of this wonderful world and call it 'work!🙌 📷: Sam Pelly Thank you!