Unveiling the Wonders of Bamboo Salt

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  1. West Coast Salt Fields

  We store sea salt from the West Coast in a pottery jar for three years in the warehouse. During this time, the brine, containing heavy metal components, gradually seeps out from the salt.

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  2. Brine Removal

  The brine extracted from the sea salt undergoes a specific procedure for proper disposal. Within the sea salt, there are still residual brine and heavy metals that haven't fully exited, so it's crucial to ensure thorough processing through intense heat to avoid incomplete treatment.

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  3. Domestic Bamboo

  We source thick sections of domestic bamboo, cut them into segments, and create cylinders by shaping the bamboo nodes. The bamboo contains sulfur compounds within its structure.

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  4. Putting Crushed Salt in the Pot

  When adding the brine-extracted sea salt into the large pot, it's essential to thoroughly crush the salt inside the pot. This task proves challenging to handle with machines, requiring the manual effort of hands to insert and crush the salt.

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  5. Sealing the Pot with Yellow Clay

  After thoroughly crushing salt inside the pot, we create a pliable mixture with yellow clay brought from a pollution-free mountain area, using it to seal the entrance of the pot. Following this, the pot is carefully stacked inside an iron furnace dedicated to producing solar salt.

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  6. First-Stage Roasting with Pine Firewood

  It's crucial to use pine firewood specifically when roasting bamboo salt. The reason for carefully tending the pine firewood in a specially designed furnace is to ensure a strong and consistent heat. This process allows the beneficial components from the pine and the iron essence from the iron furnace to permeate the pot effectively.

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  7. Salt Pillars

  As the pot roasts, it eventually turns into ash. Throughout this process, the beneficial components and essence of bamboo, including the bamboo strainer, permeate into the salt. The yellow clay solidifies, and the salt transforms into sturdy pillars.

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  8. Removing Impurities with a Grinder

  After completing the first roasting process and obtaining the "salt pillars," they are then placed into a grinder to be turned into powder. This step prepares them for the subsequent second to eighth roasting cycles.

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  9. High-Temperature Treatment

  After roasting and grinding the salt from the first cycle, it is reintroduced into the pot, sealed with yellow clay, stacked into the iron furnace, and roasted again with pine firewood. This process is repeated a total of eight times from start to finish. Only after completing this sequence does it move on to the final ninth high-temperature treatment stage.

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  10. Boiling Sea Salt at High Temperatures

  During the crucial ninth roasting cycle, a specially designed, high-temperature furnace capable of withstanding intense heat in the thousands of degrees is employed. These dedicated furnaces, costing around 200 million won each, have a lifespan of approximately 2 to 3 years. Regular replacement of the furnace is necessary, contributing to the significant costs involved in the sea salt production process.

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  11. Removing Impurities

  Raising the heat to over 1,700 degrees causes the sea salt to boil vigorously, melting completely like molten metal. In this process, any remaining impurities within the salt are said to be eliminated.

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  12. Completing and Packaging Sea Salt

  Allowing the streamed bamboo salt to cool for a day results in a solid and firm texture. The blackened bottom part of the solid bamboo salt rock, hardened like a stone, is removed, and the rest is crushed to create various forms such as granulated bamboo salt and powdered bamboo salt, which are then packaged. This entire process, from the first roasting to the final ninth cycle and subsequent processing, takes a total of 25 days.