From Salt Marsh to Salt Mill

From Salt Marsh to Salt Mill

In the very beginning, one of the key questions was: what salt should we use? It seemed like a small question at first, but it quickly became clear that it was fundamental. We simply can’t make Tomasu without this specific type of salt. Trust us, we tried. And it didn’t work.

This question led us in 2015 straight to Guérande, where salt has been harvested the same way for over 2000 years. Hand-raked from clay-bottomed basins, the salt crystals are formed in the ponds by sun and wind and the paludiers carefully harvest the salt once it has formed naturally (about 15% - 20% moisture). Drying is made by storing the salt for several years. Moisture drains out of it naturally by gravity.

Initially, we traveled there out of curiosity and because it sounded interesting. Sel de Guérande turned out to be exactly that. There isn’t another salt that works better for us. What makes Guérande salt special isn’t just its history. This salt is naturally rich in all kinds of minerals and other trace elements that mass-produced salts lose in processing. But we only discovered that after we started working with it. Our first tests were guided by common sense, the impact on our fermentation, the actual taste, and our personal relationship with the people in Guérande. This made clear that nature got it right from the beginning.

We use gros sel de Guérande (salt) salt as one of the four foundational ingredients in our soy sauce, and we’ve taken it a step further by infusing the salt with our soy sauce and aging it in former soy sauce barrels for a minimum of 12 months. This process allows the salt to absorb the rich tones of both the wood and the soy sauce, resulting in a product that is rich in umami and full of depth.

So eventually the Tomasu salt became a staple in our own kitchen. But we really started using it daily when we started using a proper mill. Beyond the practical benefits, we learned that many of the flavors were locked inside the crystals.

And you can’t talk about salt grinders without mentioning Peugeot. Peugeot Saveurs has been crafting mills since 1874, and their expertise shows. The grinding mechanism is made from zirconium, a material so hard and durable it’s used in aerospace and medical industries. This mill is built to last a lifetime, delivering a smooth, consistent grind every time, from extra fine (powder) to coarse, and it’s completely corrosion-resistant, perfect for busy kitchens or humid environments.

Adjusting the grind is effortless. Turn the ring at the bottom for a delicate finish on a plated dish, or a coarser texture for a perfectly grilled steak. We leave that up to you. When you grind Soy Salt fresh, the flavors bloom. You can smell it, taste it, and feel the difference immediately.