Avery Island: The Home of TABASCO® Sauce
Surrounded by swamps and marshes, Avery Island is a mysterious and beautiful place that is home to the McIlhenny and Avery families, the heirloom tabasco pepper fields, a historic salt mine, the TABASCO® Sauce factory, a barrel cooperage, a mash-aging facility and the lush 170-acre Jungle Gardens. Located about 140-miles west of New Orleans, Avery Island sits atop one of five natural salt domes on the Louisiana coast and has been home to TABASCO® Sauce since its creation in 1868.
The home of TABASCO® Sauce welcomes more than 100,000 visitors a year, as travellers from around the world journey to Avery Island to learn more about the iconic sauce. These visitors include chefs and best-selling cookbook authors like James Beard, Jacques Pépin, Marion Cunningham, Mario Batali, Sheila Lukins and many more who have visited Avery Island to experience the rich history, witness the meticulous production of TABASCO® Sauce and enjoy the hospitality of the McIlhenny family. Many of these culinary legends have included TABASCO® Sauce in their recipes and played a significant role in teaching people the world over how to use the sauce in their everyday lives.
Visit the factory, experience Louisiana wildlife and eat authentic Cajun fare by booking your next trip to Avery Island at TABASCO.com/visit-avery-island.
Available tours include:
- Jungle Gardens + Bird City Tours
- TABASCO® Factory Tour + Museum
- TABASCO® Culinary Tour
- Cooking Class with lunch
TABASCO® Sauce Celebrates 150 Years of Flavouring Food & Drink Around the World
- In 1868 Edmund McIlhenny harvested his first tabasco pepper crop from which he created a piquant sauce to enliven the falvours in foods for family and friends. The creation of this simple sauce would unwittingly change the way the worlds eats forever. Today, 150 years later, the same three ingredients that made his TABASCO® Sauce - tabasco peppers, salt and vinegar - are aged and bottled by Edmund's family on Avery Island, the process virtually unchanged.
- McIlhenny Company remains family-owned and operated.
- The careful craftmanship and versatility of TABASCO® Sauce has made it a friend of chefs, home cooks, bartenders and food lovers for a century and a half.
- TABASCO® Sauce is a uniquely global brand not only for its ubiquity, but also for its versatility. This instantly recognisable pepper sauce is just as at home in main street diners, cosy cafes and the finest dining establishments as it is in the home cupboards, kitchen tabletops and handbags of food lovers all over the world.
The 150th Anniversary of TABASCO® Sauce
- 2018 marks the 150th anniversary of TABASCO® Sauce.
- The anniversary celebration is focussed on inspiring today's - and tomorrow's! - food lovers to use TABASCO® Sauce in all their favourite dishes and drinks all over the world.
- McIlhenny Company, the maker of TABASCO® Sauce, is marking this historic milestone with a yearlong celebration dedicated to the people who have helped make the sauce famous and a staple on tables, indispensable in kitchens and an essential ingredient in classic and other popular recipes worldwide.
Interesting Facts
- There are 720 drops of TABASCO® Sauce in each bottle and 700,000 bottles a day are produced in Avery Island.
- Within 20 years of its creation TABASCO® Sauce arrived in the UK, France, Canada, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and India. It appeared in oyster saloons and in the first Bloody Mary.
- It has since been used by NASA astronauts aboard the Skylab space station to help improve the bland taste of their food in the 1970's, has received a Royal Warrant by Her Majesty the Queen in 2009 and has also appeared in two James Bond movies!
For more information on the 150th anniversary of TABASCO® Sauce including hints, tips and recipes email louisiana@deep-south-usa.com or visit Facebook.com/TabascoUK, Instagram @TABASCO_UK or Twitter @TABASCO_UK #TABASCO150
