Cajun Country's Saucy and Spicy Tour
Visiting the Tabasco Pepper Sauce Factory on Avery Island, La.
Jan 2, 2009
Since the 1860s, the McIlhenny family has been making Tabasco hot sauce from peppers which originated in Latin American. Edmund McIlhenny was given the peppers as a gift in the 1850s and planted seeds from a few of those peppers on Avery Island, Louisiana, where the factory is located. McIlhenny commercially sold the Tabasco sauce in 1868 after creating the recipe and bottling the spicy sauce in old perfume bottles.
Today’s Tabasco sauce is made from the same recipe McIlhenny concocted in the 1860s and the fifth generation of McIlhennys is involved in continuing the Tabasco heritage. Tabasco sauce is a brand name recognized around the world. The sauce has been carried on Himalayan expeditions, aboard the International Space Station, and included in military MREs (Meal Ready to Eat).
Tabasco Pepper Sauce: Recipe for Success
Bright red peppers are harvested by hand when a McIlhenny family member determines they are ripe. A little red stick called a “le petit bâton rouge” is placed against a pepper to measure the color and used by harvesters to ensure ripe peppers are being picked. The peppers’ juiciness and weight are also measured to determine if it is harvesting time.
The pepper sauce recipe is simple. Ingredients are peppers, salt, high grain vinegar, white oak barrels from the Jack Daniels Distillery in Tennessee, and time. Ground peppers are mixed with Avery Island salt and the concoction ages up to three years in the oak barrels. Vinegar is added and the mash ferments for an additional 128 days before being bottled for the market. McIlhenny’s original recipe is on display at the factory.
Peppers for the hot sauce are grown on Avery Island and in Latin America. The hot peppers grown in Latin America are from the seeds of Avery Island peppers. Once harvested, the peppers are shipped back to Louisiana for processing. Diversifying the pepper fields between Avery Island and Latin America prevents total crop devastation if a hurricane, drought, insect infestation, or other disaster impacts one of the growing regions.
Tabasco Pepper Sauce Factory: The Tour
The free hour-long tour explains how perfect red peppers are converted into the spicy sauce. Tabasco Pepper Sauce Factory tours are offered daily between 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. but the factory does not process the sauce daily. When not in operation, visitors can still take a peek at the bottling machinery and everyone receives free samples of Tabasco sauce. Don't worry about missing out if the factory is not in operation during the tour, the scent of hot peppers hangs heavy on production and non-production days. On site is a country store with Tabasco souvenirs including apparel, home décor, cook books, and sauces.
Tabasco Pepper Sauce Factory: Geography
Finding the factory is easy. It is located on Avery Island, not a true island but a salt dome and source of salt used in the pepper sauce. It’s located about 40 minutes south of Lafayette, Louisiana, and a 2.5 hour drive west of New Orleans. A $1 toll is charged to access Avery Island.
Down the road from the Tabasco Pepper Sauce Factory is the 250-acre Jungle Gardens founded by Edward Avery "Ned" McIlhenny son of the Tabasco pepper sauce creator. A loop road meanders through lush gardens with car pull outs allowing visitors to walk and spot wildlife such as alligators, snowy egrets, and herons. A large, 900-year-old Buddha statue sits on a hill and overlooks a tranquil pond. Unfortunately, a visitor broke off the statue’s right hear several years ago so the Buddha is in an enclosed setting. The Jungle Gardens are open daily between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. and admission is $6.50 per adult. Tel: 337/ 369-6243.
Traveling to Louisiana’s Cajun Country? Don’t forget to visit the Conrad Rice Mill in New Iberia.
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