We will be the first to admit that coconut, lime, and sea salt aren’t the most usual of salt flavours. Our sister company, Bagamoyo Sea Salt, is linked to a great organic coconut farm call Kisiwa Farm on Mafia Island. We wanted to use their amazing coconut flakes that are produced using circular economy principles and renewable energy. But coconut and sea salt didn’t really go together as two ingredients. We thought long and hard during our flavour production phase on how best to utilise these two ingredients together. We tried coconut and lemon, coconut and chilli, coconut and tea leaves, and even coconut and cinnamon – we admit that one really didn’t work!

We were having a conversation with someone about our search in finding the right combinations for the coconut and salt infusion. They said that we should follow our Tanzanian routes to find how a coconut-infused salt is used in a local dishes. The discussion turned to some well-known delicious Swahili dishes and stopped at kachumbari. The primary ingredients of kachumbari are: raw tomatoes, raw red onion, salt and lime. The lime and salt slightly pickles the raw onion to reduce its intensity. It is popular as a side salad and is made in many different variations. My friend mentioned that often added chopped raw coconut to their kachumbari as it balanced the strong lime flavour. This is the moment were our coconut and lime infused sea salt was born!

We decided lime zest, rather than lime powder or crystallised lime, was probably the easiest way to infuse the ingredients. But with any food product development, we need to find a regular source of lime zest. We searched the internet for lime zest production processes with the thought that we should attempt producing our own lime zest before outsourcing to a supplier.

The next day, we went out to a local market and bought two kilos of limes. At home, we deseeded, de-juiced, and desiccated the limes. It was a rather satisfying process, with our kitchen smelling of lime zest for a couple of days. Using an old kitchen grinder, we tried to grind the lime zest into a powder which, in all honesty, didn’t really work. We were left with large particles that weren’t very consumer friendly or fit for purpose. However, it was a start!

We produced ten different combinations of the coconut and lime sea salt in various proportions. We did a full senses test on the first batch. We have a distinct memory of that first amazing smell from the coconut and lime mixture. We left the rest in glass jars for two weeks, one month, and six months to test how the flavour lasted.

After making a few more batches and mastering the recipe production (thank goodness for sieves), we sent out some samples to family, friends, and acquaintances to get feedback. Overall, the feedback was positive! We needed to improve the consistency of our lime zest and use smaller pieces of coconut flakes. It worked really well with avocado, fish, and salads. Some people liked to add it to their curries and rice dishes. Over time, we improved our recipe with an actual food dehydrator and a great food processor. It was very satisfying to hear the feedback – ‘this batch is much better than the last’.

So there you have it, the story about the creation and journey of our coconut lime sea salt. We hope this gives you an insight into how a company like ours goes from A to B! Drop us a message with your thoughts about the article or what you have used coconut lime sea salt for – if it isn’t from us.