Asin Tibuok Matcha Latte: The Bohol Sea Salt in Your Cup

An Asin Tibuok Matcha Latte is ceremonial-grade matcha and steamed milk, finished with a grating of asin tibuok, a smoked sea salt made by hand in Bohol. At Lavande Nails & Café in Legazpi Village, Makati it costs ₱500, and the salt is grated over your drink at the counter.

What asin tibuok is

Asin tibuok comes from Alburquerque, a coastal town in Bohol. The name is Cebuano for “whole salt” or “unbroken salt”, and the method is centuries old.

Making it takes months. Coconut husks are soaked in seawater until they are saturated with salt, then dried and burned slowly into ash. Seawater is poured through that ash to draw out a strong brine. The brine is ladled into small clay pots set over a fire and boiled down, again and again, until each pot is filled with a solid white dome.

The heat cracks the pots. What comes off the fire looks like an egg in a broken shell, which is why you will sometimes hear it called “dinosaur egg” salt.

Only a few families still make it. The Slow Food Foundation lists asin tibuok in its Ark of Taste, a catalogue of traditional foods at risk of disappearing.

Why put it on matcha

Salt and bitter flavours have a useful relationship. A small amount of salt mutes bitterness and lets sweetness come forward. It is the reason salted caramel works, and the reason some people put a pinch of salt in coffee.

Matcha is naturally a little bitter and grassy. Asin tibuok is smoky and mineral, less sharp than table salt. Grated over a matcha latte, it rounds off the bitter edge and leaves a faint savoury note after each sip. You taste matcha, then milk, then something you cannot quite place. That last part is the salt.

How it is made at Lavande

• The matcha is ceremonial grade, whisked to order in a bowl with a bamboo whisk. It is never made in advance.
• The milk is your choice of full cream, oat, soy or coconut, at the same price.
• The salt is grated from the block at the counter, in front of you, just before the drink is served.

If you prefer coffee, the Asin Tibuok Latte uses the same salt and costs ₱300.

How to drink it

Stir once, from the bottom, so the salt is not all in the first sip.

It goes well with something plain and buttery from the pastry counter. A croissant is a better partner than a very sweet dessert, which would hide the salt.

Come for the drink, or the drink and your nails

The café at Lavande has its own seating and its own menu, so you can come in only for a matcha. If you are booking a manicure, arrive fifteen minutes early and start here. The café menu has the rest of the drinks, and you can book a nail appointment online.