Avery Island

12 thousand years of History

Avery Island, Louisiana, the birthplace of TABASCO® brand Pepper Sauce, has been owned for over 180 years by the interrelated Marsh, Avery and McIlhenny families. Lush subtropical flora and venerable live oaks cover this geological oddity, which is one of five “islands” rising in atypical and mystical fashion well above south Louisiana’s flat coastal marshes. The island is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The island occupies roughly 2,200 acres and sits atop a deposit of solid rock salt thought to be deeper than Mt. Everest is high. Geologists believe this deposit is the remnant of a buried ancient seabed, pushed to the surface by the sheer weight of surrounding alluvial sediments. Although covered with a layer of fertile soil, salt springs may have attracted prehistoric settlers to the Island as early as 12 thousand years ago.

A group of children peeks inside the Buddha temple at Jungle Gardens of Avery Island

The Birth of Tabasco Brand Pepper Sauce

After the Civil War, former New Orleans banker E. McIlhenny met a traveler recently arrived from Mexico – a certain “Gleason,” according to family tradition – who gave McIlhenny a handful of pepper pods, advising him to season his meals with them. McIlhenny saved some of the pods and planted them in his in-laws’ garden on Avery Island; he delighted in the peppers’ piquant flavor, which added excitement to the monotonous food of the Reconstruction-era South.

Around 1866 McIlhenny experimented with making a hot sauce from these peppers, hitting upon a formula that called for crushing the reddest, ripest peppers, stirring in Avery Island salt, and aging the concoction. He then added French white wine vinegar, hand-stirring it regularly to blend the flavors. After straining, he transferred the sauce to small cologne-type bottles, which he corked and sealed in green wax.

How Tabasco Became Iconic

“That Famous Sauce Mr. McIlhenny Makes” proved so popular with family and friends that McIlhenny decided to market it, growing his first commercial crop in 1868. The next year he sent out 658 bottles of sauce at one dollar a piece wholesale to grocers around the Gulf Coast, particularly in New Orleans. The public responded positively and soon McIlhenny had introduced TABASCO® sauce to consumers in major markets across the United States. By the end of the 1870s McIlhenny was exporting TABASCO® sauce to Europe. So began the fiery condiment that is now a global cultural and culinary icon.

Today, Avery Island remains the home of the TABASCO® brand Pepper Sauce factory, as well as Jungle Gardens and its Bird City wildfowl refuge. The island also contains the largest grove of giant timber bamboo outside China. The TABASCO® factory and gardens are open to the public.

By Johanna Hyves

French Intern from St.-Jean-d’Angély

On Jan. 19, I visited Avery Island with Mrs. Hebert. We wanted to start the visit by the TABASCO® Museum but it was closed so we went to the TABASCO® store. There, we watched a really interesting movie about the history of the original TABASCO® sauce, which was created by Edmund McIlhenny in the 19th century on Avery Island, and which is labeled in 180 countries today.

Le 19 Jan., je suis allée visiter Avery Island avec Mme. Hebert. Nous voulions commencer la visite par le musée du TABASCO® mais celui-ci était fermé, alors nous décidions d’aller au magasin TABASCO®. Là-bas, nous avons regardé un film très intéressant relatant l’histoire de la sauce originale TABASCO®, qui fut créée au 19ème siècle sur Avery Island par Edmund McIlhenny, et qui est vendue dans 180 pays aujourd’hui.

After that, it was time for us to taste some TABASCO® sauce. The store has a large range of TABASCO® sauce with seven different flavors (Original Red, Green Jalapeño, Chipotle, Buffalo Style, Habanero, Garlic Pepper and Sweet & Spicy). There are even TABASCO® candies and ice cream!

The store really impressed me because it proposed to the visitors to buy so many different things with the TABASCO® brand! You could get there of course different kinds of Tabasco sauce, but also TABASCO® shirts, ties, caps, key chains, canes, crockery, bags, candies, posters, etc… They sold whatever you want except the only thing you really need when you taste TABASCO®: water!

Après cela, le temps était venu pour nous de goûter cette fameuse sauce TABASCO®. Le magasin possède une grande gamme de sauces TABASCO® avec sept saveurs différentes (Original Red, Green Jalapeño, Chipotle, Buffalo Style, Habanero, Garlic Pepper and Sweet & Spicy). Nous pouvons même y trouver des bonbons et des glaces au TABASCO®!

Le magasin m’a vraiment impressionnée car il propose aux visiteurs d’acheter beaucoup de choses différentes de la marque TABASCO®! Bien sûr vous pouvez acheter là-bas différents types de sauce TABASCO®, mais aussi des t-shirts, des cravates, des casquettes, des porte-clés, des canes, de la vaisselle, des sacs, des bonbons, des affiches, etc… Ils vendent tout ce que vous voulez sauf ce que vous avez réellement besoin quand vous goutez du TABASCO®: de l’eau!

Next, we drove to the Jungle Gardens on the northwest side of the island. The landscapes were wonderful and the sunset on the Bayou Petite Anse was really breathtaking. I decided to go out the car for a moment to try to find alligators, but it isn’t the season to watch them. However, I saw some egrets and other water birds on the bayou. I also enjoyed the different kinds of trees, plants and flowers which grow on the Island like camellias and bamboo.

Ensuite, nous sommes allées au Jungle Garden au nord-est de l’île. Les paysages étaient merveilleux et le coucher de soleil sur le Bayou Petite Anse était à couper le souffle. J’ai decidé de sortir de la voiture un moment pour essayer de trouver des alligators mais ce n’est pas la saison pour les voir. Cependant, j’ai pu observer quelques aigrettes et autres oiseaux sur le bayou. J’ai également beaucoup aimé les différents types d’arbres, de plantes et de fleurs poussant sur l’île comme des camélias ou des bambous.