Alaea Salt vs. Himalayan Salt: Clay-Colored Sea Salt vs. Mined Rock Salt

Brick red or pink, both of these salts owe their color to iron oxide, but they get it in very different ways. Alaea salt is Hawaiian-style sea salt mixed with ʻalaea, a red clay; Himalayan salt is rock salt mined in Pakistan, tinted pink by traces of iron oxide in the salt itself. Once they dissolve into food, they season like any other salt, so the real choice is color, crunch and what’s actually in the jar. And the traditional salt from the Hanapēpē ponds on Kauaʻi can be given or traded, but not sold.¹

Side by side

The sodium and mineral figures come from one study of pink salt bought in Australia in 2018.⁶ There’s nothing comparable for alaea salt, so you can’t set the two columns against each other number for number.

Where each one really comes from

Alaea. Hawaiian sea salt is called paʻakai, which the University of Hawaiʻi glosses as “to solidify the sea.” At Hanapēpē, underground seawater is drawn from deep wells into holding pools and then into shallow ponds. The white salt that forms is raked, rinsed and dried, and some of it is then mixed with ʻalaea clay from the mountains of Waimea. The Hawaii State Legislature calls the Hanapēpē ponds ancient, authentic Hawaiian salt ponds, and Honolulu Civil Beat reported in 2018 that 21 families connected by bloodline still work them.⁸ That salt doesn’t meet US food-grade requirements, so it can be given or traded but not sold.¹

So the alaea salt in stores is a commercial blend, and the label matters. SaltWorks, for example, sells an “Alaea Red Hawaiian-style Sea Salt” whose sea salt comes from the Pacific Ocean and whose clay comes from the Hawaiian islands.⁴ You’ll see claims that most alaea salt is made in particular countries. We found no source that documents them.

Himalayan. The 2020 Foods study says Pakistan produces Himalayan pink salt for commercial distribution. PMDC, Pakistan’s state mining company, calls its Khewra mine the world’s second largest salt mine and says it pulls out about 1.4 million tons of rock salt a year across all its operations.² The common claim that all Himalayan salt comes from a single mine goes further than any source we found. The same study bought one “pink salt” from Peru, so pink on a label doesn’t by itself mean Pakistani rock salt.⁶

Color: same pigment, different route

Both reds come down to iron oxide. In alaea, the pigment is added: the clay gets mixed into white salt. In Himalayan salt, it’s part of the mined rock, and in the Australian study, darker pink samples generally held more minerals.⁶ That finding is about pink salt only. We didn’t find a published mineral analysis of commercial alaea salt, and we found no food-safety assessment of the clay itself.

Flavor and saltiness

America’s Test Kitchen found that sea salts vary in color but only slightly in flavor, and taste no different from table salt once mixed into food.⁹ We found no taste test of alaea or Himalayan salt specifically. Food writer Sue Lau calls alaea complex and “not quite as salty as other salt types.”¹⁰ That’s her opinion, not a measurement, but it fits what’s in the jar: commercial alaea is salt plus clay, so gram for gram it can’t carry more salt than plain salt. Himalayan salt is still overwhelmingly sodium chloride.

Neither one is a health upgrade. The study’s authors found that a teaspoon of pink salt made no clinically significant contribution to nutrient intake. You’d need more than 30 g a day, about 6 teaspoons, before its minerals mattered, and by then the sodium would cancel any benefit.⁶ We couldn’t trace the widely advertised “84 minerals” figure to any lab analysis. The 2020 study measured 25 minerals, and Harriet Hall points out that lists like that include poisons such as mercury, arsenic, lead and thallium.³ The American Heart Association’s point applies to both salts: for heart health, what matters is your total sodium intake.⁵

Safety

• Iodine. The NIH lists Himalayan salt among specialty salts that usually aren’t iodized, along with sea salt.⁷ If you count on salt for iodine, keep iodized salt in the kitchen too; see iodized vs. non-iodized salt.
• Lead in one pink salt. In the 2020 study, one sample, the only one from Peru, carried 130 times more lead than the white control and went over the limit the authors used.⁶ That’s one product in one study, not a finding about Himalayan salt in general.
• The clay. We found no regulator assessment of ʻalaea clay as a food ingredient. The Hanapēpē restriction applies to the traditional salt, not specifically to the clay.¹

Can one stand in for the other?

For seasoning, yes. For a salt block, no. The ratios below come from our alaea salt substitutes page and keep its labels: Computed has a measurable basis, Attributed quotes a named source, Disputed shows sources that disagree, and Method is our starting point where no published number exists.

Himalayan in place of alaea. Lau says alaea “can’t be substituted for on an equal basis” and tells cooks to cut back when using ordinary coarse salt.¹⁰ She doesn’t give a figure, so the three-quarters starting point is ours. By weight, the Codex standard requires food-grade salt to be at least 97% sodium chloride on a dry basis,¹¹ while alaea is salt cut with some clay, so the same weight of plain salt is the most you’d need. For finishing, coarse pink salt gives you color and crunch, just pink instead of brick red.

Alaea in place of Himalayan. Since alaea carries some clay, you may need a bit more by weight. Start with the same amount and taste. Salt in its most basic form is sodium chloride whatever the source, so once it dissolves, only the color and crunch change.

You’ll sometimes hear that kalua pig depends on the clay in alaea for its texture. We found no source for that.

When to use which

• Hawaiian dishes. Alaea is the traditional pick. Lau seasons her kalua pig with alaea alone,¹⁰ SaltWorks says its salt is traditionally used on kalua pig,⁴ and a Food Network ahi poke recipe from chef Pierre Alabadejos of the Four Seasons Resort Maui calls for “Hawaiian alae (red sea salt).”¹²
• Everyday cooking. Either works once dissolved; fine Himalayan salt is easier to measure.
• Finishing. Both, for color: brick red or pink. It’s about looks, not taste.
• Cooking on a block. Only Himalayan salt is commonly sold this way. We found no published testing of how much salt a block passes to food. See cooking with Himalayan salt.

What isn’t known

• No published weight per teaspoon, sodium content or clay share for any commercial alaea salt.
• No mineral or heavy-metal analysis of alaea salt or ʻalaea clay.
• No taste test of either salt against ordinary salt.
• No dated price comparison.

Related

• Alaea salt and alaea salt substitutes
• Himalayan salt, cooking with Himalayan salt
• Hawaiian sea salt, black lava salt
• Celtic salt vs. Himalayan salt, fleur de sel vs. Himalayan salt, kosher salt vs. Himalayan salt, Himalayan salt vs. sea salt