There's a lot of hype around Celtic salt. Here's what we tell people at the store. Celtic sea salt is harvested from the coastal salt marshes of Brittany, France, using ancient hand-harvesting techniques, so it holds onto its natural moisture and its spectrum of trace minerals. Most of that is sodium, your body's main electrolyte, but it also keeps small amounts of magnesium, potassium, and calcium, the minerals that help with hydration, nerve signaling, and muscle function* that get stripped out of refined table salt.
We keep it real though: the amounts are modest and people should choose this salt not because it replaces a balanced diet, but as a small, everyday swap that adds up.
On which salt to pick, here's how we help people select. Refined table salt is the most processed, stripped down to sodium chloride with anti-caking agents added, and we don't carry it.
Our Himalayan pink salt and this Celtic salt are both minimally refined mineral salts, and they're both wonderful, the real difference is their mineral fingerprint and their character.
Himalayan salt is an ancient rock salt mined from the mountains, and its trace profile is iron-forward (that's what makes it pink) alongside calcium, potassium, and magnesium. It's dry, soft, and a touch sweet, lovely as a finishing salt on everything from popcorn to chocolate.
Celtic salt is evaporated from Atlantic seawater in clay ponds, so it carries a moist, sea-mineral profile that leans higher in magnesium, plus potassium, calcium, and a broad spread of trace elements, and it runs a little lower in sodium by weight. It's briny and mellow, and that natural moisture makes it a natural fit for electrolyte water and everyday cooking.
Different minerals, different flavors, both great; the trace amounts are small enough that neither is dramatically "healthier," so pick the mineral profile and taste that suits your needs best.
* These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. Not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Consult your doctor if you are on medication, have a health condition, or are pregnant, nursing, or having surgery.