Thanks I just got done reading the "salt origins" link from the tek. That tek is not the one being used just FYI. It is clear now that the salt is just used to pull more spice out of the base solution. So by this we have been just leaving tons of spice in the junk we toss out. At first I thought the salt was helping pull more out of the bark but it's actually just pulling more out of the base into the non polar. Got it