On our way to Lafayette we stopped to tour the Tabasco factory. It is here that all Tabasco sauces are produced for distribution around the world. The Tabasco operation, founded in 1868, is owned and operated by the McIlhenny family on Avery Island in south Louisiana. Most of the family and people who work in the factory and their families live on Avery Island.
The peppers are hand picked and all the pickers carry a "petite baton rouge" (small red stick) which is painted the exact colour that the pepper must be for picking. When the peppers reach maturity they are crushed, mixed with salt from the Avery Island salt mines and allowed to age in barrels for three years. The barrels that are used are purchased from the Jack Daniels whisky distillery. It seems that the distillery can only use the barrels once while Tabasco can use them repeatedly and at the end of the barrels useful life they are chipped up and sold to be used as flavor chips for Bar-B-Q's.
At the end of the three years the pepper mash is mixed with white vinegar and allowed to age another thirty days.
The resulting sauce is then bottled and shipped to different counties around the world. The day we toured the factory they were producing sauces for Hungary.
The left over pulp or mash is then used to make "hot" gum and candies or ground up for use in crab boil mixtures and other Cajun spice blends.
Our stop at the Tabasco factory was very pleasant, informative and rewarding and we topped off our tour by enjoying a bowl of crawfish etouffee...yummy! I would highly recommend the stop to anyone who finds themselves in the area.
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