Every single bottle of Tabasco hot sauce that sits on any table at any restaurant or home anywhere in the world is produced in just one tiny place — a salt island less than three miles in size in the Mississippi Delta.
Avery Island is a huge dome of rock salt that reaches deep into the earth. It’s one of five “salt islands” extending above the water’s surface in the Mississippi Delta. The historic salt mine operated there for nearly two centuries. It closed permanently in 2020 when a dome collapse took the lives of two miners. But local salt deposits are still used to produce the local delicacy — Tabasco.
This salt island in Louisiana seems an improbable location for a business that makes only one product type. But that’s the story of the Tabasco Brand, the best-known hot sauce in the world. And it has survived in the same place for 150 years.
Tabasco Is Shipped to 195 Different Countries
On the day of my visit to the facility at Avery Island, located in Iberia Parish adjacent to Lafayette, Louisiana, the production line was processing bottles of Green Tabasco to be shipped to Australia.
My tour of the facility that now makes nine distinctively flavored hot sauces, from “mild to wild,” was one of the highlights of my trip to Lafayette. The tour begins in the brand’s Museum building, and ends at the “General Store.” If you’re interested in the different varieties of peppers, visit this site to expand your knowledge.
Owned and operated by the McIlhenny family for five generations, Tabasco is the continuing story of a family enterprise and offers a lesson in perseverance and determination.
History of Tabasco
Edmund McIlhenny was born in Maryland in 1815. In his mid-twenties, he moved to New Orleans and found work in the banking industry, eventually owning an independent bank and amassing a fortune. He married into the Avery family, and he and his wife had eight children.
With the threat of Civil War looming, the extended family moved to Texas where Edmund became a civilian employee of the Confederate Army, serving as paymaster. When the war ended, the Southern economy was in ruin and the family returned to their plantation on Avery Island. Edmund and his sons eked out a living through farming. He also experimented with growing pepper plants. Today, farmers in other locations, primarily in Mexico or Central American nations, grow most of the peppers used for Tabasco production. But all the seeds, and all the salt, still comes from Avery Island.
Growing the Business
Edmund McIlhenny developed a recipe for hot sauce using only three ingredients: Tabasco peppers originally from Mexico, salt from Avery Island, and vinegar. He planted the first commercial crop of peppers in 1868, and bottled the first Tabasco Pepper Sauce the following year. Tabasco was originally sold only along the Gulf Coast between New Orleans and Galveston, Texas. By 1870, when the sauce was patented, the market included New York, Boston, and Philadelphia.
When Edmund McIlhenny died in 1890, his sons John Avery and Edward Avery McIlhenny realized that the hot sauce company was a financially viable family enterprise. They expanded and modernized the manufacturing process. John, the elder, led the company for only eight years before leaving to fight in the Spanish-American War. He later became a member of Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders and served in the Louisiana Legislature and in government posts in Washington, D.C.
Changes Over the Generations
Although his first loves were birds, exotic plants, and conservation, Edward McIlhenny assumed the reins of the family business in 1898. He renamed it the McIlhenny Company and set out to further expand, modernize, and standardize the production of the familiar spicy red sauce. In 1927, he replaced the cork stoppers used for almost 60 years with a screw top and redesigned the label, similar to the one still in use.
Edward McIlhenny established a private wildlife refuge surrounding the family estate and introduced exotic plants in his private garden. Jungle Gardens and the bird refuge he first envisioned preserve his dream to preserve the coastal marshland. A crew of gardeners and botanists cares for the gardens today.
Edward died in 1949, and his elder brother’s son, Walter Stauffer McIlhenny, became the company president, serving until his death in 1985. He served as a U.S. Marine during WWII. but returned to lead the company in 1946.
Spicing Up Military Food
Walter McIlhenny authored a humorous cookbook – the Charlie Ration Cookbook – that offered suggestions about spicing up military meals. The cookbook was originally sold with sample bottles of Tabasco.
The love affair between troops and Tabasco has lasted. In the 1980s, when the military replaced C-rations with the successor Meals Ready to Eat known as MREs, two-ounce bottles of Tabasco were included with each meal packet. The tradition continues to this day.
Still Family-Owned, Still Growing
Today, after 150 years of operation, the company’s number one product is still the familiar red sauce, but there are eight other varieties. And there may be more in the future. We sampled a new variety named Reaper — it’s definitely hot!
McIlhenny Company remains a family-owned business. Harold Osborn became the eighth president of the company in 2019. He is the great-great-grandson of the founder and succeeds a cousin as president.
The McIlhenny Company holds the distinction of being one of only 850 firms worldwide to receive a royal warrant from the Queen of England. Who knew that Queen Elizabeth II liked hot sauce enough to give it her blessing? The company prominently displays the plaque on an exterior wall of one of the buildings on its campus.
Tour the Facility
As you tour the Tabasco factory, you follow well-marked paths to visit greenhouses, cultivation areas, and warehouses at your own pace. Along the way, detour to venture down a labyrinthian path through a mature bamboo forest. It’s dark and cool even on a hot Louisiana afternoon and testifies to Edward McIlhenny’s fascination with exotic plants.
Walk along paved sidewalks to visit the stately, well-maintained brick buildings with interiors that resemble scientific labs. The multi-step process is simple, but fascinating, and it has changed little from the early days of production.
Only salt is added to the pure pepper mash. The “not-yet-ripe” hot sauce is then sealed in salt-encrusted barrels which are stacked at least four-high in immense warehouses. The original red pepper sauce ages for up to three years before distilled vinegar is added. Then, it’s stored in stainless steel tanks for another 28 days before it is deemed ready for bottling.
If you’re wondering about the barrels, they are typically recycled bourbon barrels, but you won’t detect a hint of bourbon in the hot sauce. Used barrels are thoroughly cleaned to remove any trace of smoky char from the wood. Barrels are then rebanded with stainless steel rings. Up to 73,000 barrels are on site at Avery Island at any given time.
Sample the Sauce, Taste the Food
At the end of the line, visitors stop to snap souvenir photos alongside larger-than-life bottles of Tabasco sauce. In the gift shop, you can sample the nine varieties currently on the market. For those with more sensitive taste buds, pepper-flavored soft ice cream is available to soothe the burn. I sampled it and, honestly, it’s very tasty.
The Restaurant
Restaurant 1868! commemorates the first year a commercial pepper crop grew at the McIlhenny Plantation. The restaurant serves authentic Cajun and Southern comfort food along with a variety of soups, salads, and sandwiches. You can sample boudin egg rolls with spicy Tabasco pepper jelly or Louisiana crawfish etouffee featuring Garlic Tabasco. Chili prepared with Tabasco chili starter, served with jalapenos and onions, is a favorite.
Visitors may also enroll in cooking demonstrations and culinary courses. Check for availability.
Explore Exotic Flora and Fauna
In 1895, William McIlhenny built an aviary and captured eight wild egrets to raise. The birds were once hunted for their plumage. When they were ready to migrate, McIlhenny freed them. However, they returned the next year, as they have every year since. They are in residence from about February through August.
The rookery, part of Avery Island’s acclaimed sanctuary, is now open to the public. Today, experts conduct ongoing studies of both plants and animals at Jungle Gardens and Bird City, and make every attempt to preserve the grounds in their natural state.
William McIlhenny, known as Monsieur Ned, also collected seeds and plants from around the world. More than 600 varieties, from bamboo to holly, along with his favored camellias and azaleas, thrive in today’s Jungle Gardens. Native wildlife, including alligators and hundreds of species of birds (and some very healthy mosquitoes), make their homes among the plants on the manicured grounds.
The original plantation house still stands but is not open to visitors. You may tour by bus or private vehicle, or walk, hike, or bike the many trails.
For information and tours to Tabasco’s facility and Avery Island, visit tabasco.com.
Lafayette Travel arranged my visit to Tabasco and Jungle Gardens on Avery Island.
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