“There is no such thing as a commodity,” Harvard Business School guru Ted Levitt once opined. “All goods and services can be differentiated.”
Morton Salt proved that premise by branding table salt, under a trademark that goes back to the 1940s, and the tagline, “When it rains it pours.” But now, good old sodium chloride comes in a mouth-watering variety of brand names.
Check out a gourmet food shop or upscale restaurant, and you’ll find that once-humble salt has moved to the center of the table. As the owner of four-star restaurants in New York City and Yountville, California, told Time Magazine: “Salt is the most important seasoning ingredient there is.”
Which might account for the emergence of such brands as:
Alderwood Smoked, a dark brown salt intended for burgers and salmon.
Australian Pink, mild and snowflake shaped.
Bolivian Rose, extracted by hand in the Andes mountains, colored by minerals in the earth.
Cyprus Black, white sea salt from the Mediterranean, mixed with charcoal.
Fleur de Sel, a pricy option from Williams-Sonoma ($10.50 for 8.8 ounces).
Hawaiian Red, intensely flavored, colored by natural clay.
