Seaweed Salt – Seaweed salt from Iceland

Seaweed Salt, salt flakes with the breath of the Atlantic

Saltverk Seaweed Salt is an Icelandic seaweed salt: hand-harvested sea salt flakes refined with North Atlantic seaweed. Spicy and maritime with a subtle umami depth – in a 90-gram jar, produced using geothermal energy alone.

Saltverk Seaweed Salt is a seaweed salt from Iceland's Westfjords, where dried seaweed from the North Atlantic is mixed into pyramid-shaped salt flakes. The sea provides seasoning in two ways – as salt and as a plant, both coming from the same cold, clear water.

Maritime, green and full of umami

There is a fresh hint of the coast on the nose, while on the palate, the crisp flake and the dark green seaweed flakes combine to create a savory, rounded depth – what chefs call umami. Salty, vegetal, and a little nutty all at once: this seaweed salt tastes like more without asking for more.

The seaweed doesn't overpower: it tastes like a sea breeze, not a harbor. Those who enjoy Japanese cuisine will instantly recognize the kinship to Nori – just with an Icelandic accent.

By the way, edible seaweed has a long tradition in Iceland: dried kelp is mentioned as a staple food in the old sagas, long before it was rediscovered as a modern ingredient. Seaweed Salt carries on this history – the Nordic pantry, reimagined.

For fish, rice, and buttered bread

This seaweed salt is a born companion for everything from the water: pan-fried cod, salmon, shrimp, and even a good tin of fish gains depth with a pinch. Just as lovely: over rice dishes, ramen, avocado, or a slice of buttered bread that suddenly tastes like a walk on the beach.

The fastest way to get there is via seaweed butter: knead soft butter with a generous pinch of Seaweed Salt, chill briefly, and serve on hot sourdough bread or with steamed fish. The 90-gram jar turns a simple snack into a small coastal feast.

Beef also stands up surprisingly well to this maritime seasoning – umami amplifies umami. Sprinkle only after cooking so the flake and seaweed remain visible. You can find related seasoning ideas among the herb and spice salts, and fine fish in our tinned fish category.

Where the salt comes from, the seaweed grows too

Björn Steinar Jónsson has been producing salt in Reykjanes in the Westfjords, about 400 kilometers from Reykjavík, since 2011 using 100 percent geothermal energy – hot spring water at about 97 degrees heats the open pans, a 17th-century method that Saltverk was the first manufacturer worldwide to fully revive. A seaweed salt with this origin is one of a kind.

"Our varieties come from what belongs to us," says Björn about the selection of ingredients – and what could be closer to salt than seaweed from the same water? Harvesting and mixing are done by hand in small batches, filled into 90-gram jars – each batch a little piece of a Westfjord summer.

This jar, too, carries the entire history of the place within it: salt production using geothermal energy existed here as early as the 17th century, the Laki eruption of 1783 ended it, and since 2011, pyramids have been growing in the pans in Reykjanes again – today with the addition of seaweed.

The result is a seasoned salt that doesn't hide its origins, but rather celebrates them quietly. You can find more from the producer at Saltverk – such as the Arctic Thyme Salt, the herbal sibling of the seaweed salt. The sea sends its regards!