Drink Highlight: Salt Dome

Specialty Drink Highlight: The Salt Dome

When choosing what to name our specialty drinks, we looked to the local area and its history. And nothing is more vital to McIntosh than the salt dome.

Salt lies miles under the earth’s surface in several states that border the Gulf of Mexico, but our area is unique because the salt has risen close to the surface here: making it a gold mine resource for our area.

Industries take advantage of this asset through a process called solution mining. This process brings a salty brine to the surface that is reduced to three chemicals with industrial use: chlorine, caustic soda, and hydrogen.

But did you know that it isn’t the only important use of the dome in our area?

Half a mile underground, a salt cavern that is large enough to fit the Statue of Liberty holds the most useful resource for Power South Energy Cooperative. Here, air is compressed and stored in the cavern before being used to create electricity.

According to the Smithsonian, the McIntosh plant is the only utility-scale compressed air energy storage facility in the United States, and one of just a handful in the world.

So while one drink name can’t quite capture the full importance of this resource in our area, we do still hope that you enjoy our creation for its namesake.

Our Salt Dome drink is a delicious combination of brown butter toffee and sea salt caramel.