Mākena Tide Salt

Mākena Tide Salt is two people, a south-facing lava bench, and the patience to let the sun do the work. Noe and Bert Kahale pump clean tide water into shallow basalt pans at the new moon and rake the flakes off about three weeks later.

The pā‘akai — Hawaiian for salt — comes off in soft pyramid flakes that the Kahales finish three ways: clean white, smoked over kiawe wood, and blushed with a little Maui-grown ʻalaea clay for the traditional brick color.

They cap production on purpose. When the pans are empty, the website says so, and the Kahales would rather tell a chef to wait than thin the salt with something trucked in.