If your table salt in France is looking a strange colour…lucky you!
The famous French brand is celebrating its 90th anniversary with a special golden idea
"If your salt is golden when you sprinkle it on your food, then you've won!", La Baleine has said, of its 90th anniversary campaign
La Baleine / Instagram.com/p/C5NX0Sxi-2D/
Noticed your table salt looking a little unusual in colour recently? It could be excellent news, after French brand La Baleine revealed it is selling 10 boxes of ‘golden salt’.
The boxes will go on sale throughout the year, until the end of 2024, the company has said, in a campaign designed to celebrate its 90th anniversary. There will be 10 boxes available, each will win a €1,000 prize.
"If your salt is golden when you sprinkle it on your food, then you've won!", the company said in a press release.
The ‘winning’ salt is hidden in 10 boxes (cylinders) of the brand’s 500g, 550g or 600g packages.
The salt is not the only golden item; a local jeweller has also made a drop-shaped pendant combining salt and gold, to celebrate the brand’s nine decades in business (although this is not available to win!).
La Baleine has been offering prizes to celebrate its 90th throughout the year.
In June, it offered a limited edition refillable version of its classic triangular salt shaker, with the logo and name clearly visible in gold on deep blue; in May, it had an Instax camera, keychain and salt box to give away; and in April, it gave away two prize packages of a branded poster and magnet.
A whale of a time
La Baleine has sold salt since 1934, with crystals produced at the Salins du Midi in Aigues-Mortes (Gard). It is owned by the Salins group, France’s largest table salt producer, which produces 4.8 million tonnes per year, reaching annual sales of €500 million.
The crystals are harvested from the salt ponds of the Camargue every year in September, after a season of natural evaporation during the summer.
The brand, which translates as The Whale in English, sought to distinguish itself from its competitors - refined ground salt producers from Franche-Comté - from the beginning by choosing a whale as its emblem. This intentionally contrasts sharply with the Franche-Comté region’s lion symbol.
Read also: French spreadable cheese La Vache Qui Rit celebrates 100th year
La Baleine’s original logo was designed by Benjamin Rabier, the illustrator of another famous French food icon, the cow on the packaging for cheese brand ‘La Vache qui Rit (The Laughing Cow)’.
