tabasco plant tour

TABASCO ® Brand Factory Tour & Museum

The self-guided, TABASCO ® Factory Tour will take you through the history and process of making TABASCO ® Sauce.

Daily Hours – 9 am-4 pm (CST)

Avery Island Fan Experience (reservations recommended)

$15.50 Adults

$12.50 Children (4 and under are free)

$13.95 Seniors & Veterans

Cash is not currently accepted

Phone: (337) 373-6139

Holiday Closures: New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, Easter Sunday, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

Tour Information

Experience the history and production of our world-famous hot sauce on Avery Island, Louisiana. The Avery Island Fan Experience includes a self-guided tour of the TABASCO ® Museum, Pepper Greenhouse, Barrel Warehouse, Avery Island Conservation, Salt Mine diorama, TABASCO Country Store ® , TABASCO ® Restaurant 1868! and the 170-acre natural beauty of Jungle Gardens.

GROUP INFORMATION

For groups of 20 or more, please e-mail [email protected] or call 337-373-6139 to inquire about discounted rates. When you e-mail, please provide the name of your group, the total number of attendees (including the number of adults, children, and seniors), if you plan to dine at TABASCO® Restaurant 1868!, and any other special requests.

Stop 1: TABASCO® Museum

Learn the history of TABASCO® Sauce, Avery Island, and the McIlhenny family.

Stop 2: Greenhouse Peppers

View a variety of peppers from seedings to full grown plants used to make TABASCO® Family of Flavors®.

Stop 3: Barrel Aging Cooperage

Visit the barrel warehouse for a peek at the pepper mash aging process.

Stop 4: Blending Room

Watch the 28-day blending process of salt, peppers, and vinegar in action to make TABASCO® Sauce.

Stop 5: Avery Island Exhibit

Learn about what makes Avery Island the perfect place to manufacture TABASCO® Sauce.

Stop 6: Salt Mine Experience

See a sneak peek into what it’s like in the salt mine.

Stop 7: Bottling Line

Watch us bottle TABASCO® Sauce for distribution to 195 countries.

Stop 8: TABASCO® Today

Learn how TABASCO® Sauce has been flavoring the world of today’s kitchens and culinary communities.

Stop 9: Country Store

Sample our sauces and stock up on TABASCO® brand gear.

Stop 10: Restaurant 1868

Visit Restaurant 1868 for lunch after the tour and see how TABASCO® Sauce will Flavor Your World.

Looking to visit Avery Island?

Hwy 329, Avery Island, LA 70513

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This Is My South

A travel guide to the Southern USA

Visiting the Tabasco Factory in Avery Island

August 4, 2021 By Caroline Eubanks 2 Comments

Tabasco is one of the world’s most well-known brands of hot sauce, but that wasn’t always the case. Located on rural Avery Island, a trip to the Tabasco Factory is a popular day trip from New Orleans or Lafayette . From New Orleans, it’s a 2.5 hour drive and from Lafayette it’s only 45 minutes away. It’s the best place to learn about the unique process in creating the sauce.

The History of Tabasco Hot Sauce

The Tabasco company started with the bland food during the Reconstruction Era. New Orleans banker Edward McIllhenny invented the pepper sauce 1868 using the Tabasco pepper variety from Latin America. It quickly gained popularity, especially abroad. The company created recipes to distribute with the sauce, showing people how to use it in dishes with the flavors of Louisiana .

The location on Avery Island was beneficial because it’s considered to be a salt reserve, a product used in the completion of the sauce. A company town developed around the factory with employees buying groceries at the Tabasco store.

Looking for more information about the history of Tabasco? Check out this article from HowStuffWorks .

Touring the Tabasco Factory

Tabasco is still family-run, carrying on the tradition. The famous bottles can be seen in countless television shows and movies as well as in restaurants in 195 countries. It’s even been included in military rations and served to the British royal family and NASA astronauts .

Something unique about Tabasco is the process they use to determine peppers are ready to harvest. A small red stick, or petite baton rouge, is used to confirm the correct shade of red. From there, the peppers are cooked down into a mash.

The mash is aged in white oak barrels for three years, similar to bourbon or whiskey , and the barrels are topped in salt. This mash, which is ten times hotter than the finished sauce, is sampled by an expert. Distilled vinegar is added and the liquid is strained and bottled.

There are also now eight varieties of the sauce, including sriracha and buffalo sauces. On the Tabasco Factory Tour, visitors will learn about the history and process. In the gift shop, you’ll find unique Tabasco products like Tabasco ice cream and jelly beans.

Eating at Tabasco

The Tabasco Factory also has an onsite restaurant, Restaurant 1868 . It’s named for the year of the company’s founding and serves classic Louisiana fare a la carte. Offerings include gumbo, po boys, crawfish etouffee, and bread pudding. There’s also a bloody mary bar, complete with Tabasco. You can even enjoy cooking classes by reservation.

What to See on Avery Island and Nearby

But your tour of the Tabasco Factory won’t take up your entire day. The other place to visit on Avery Island is Jungle Gardens . The 170-acre botanical garden and bird sanctuary was created by McIllhenny’s son Ned in 1895 to protect the area’s snowy egrets. It opened to the public in 1935 and has a number of animals and sculptures, including a famous Buddha.

On your way back to Lafayette, stop by town of New Iberia. The Bayou Teche Museum has exhibits on the bayou that surrounds the parish including its notable residents, history, and food. You’ll find traditional Mardi Gras costumes and zydeco instruments in the exhibits.

Shadows on the Teche is a preserved sugar plantation that covers its history, including the lives of the enslaved people that lived there. In addition to tours of the home, visitors can wander throguh the gardens. You can also tour the Conrad Rice Mill , the oldest operating rice mill in America.

On nearby Jefferson Island, Rip Van Winkle Gardens was built in 1870 by actor Joseph Jefferson, who played “Rip Van Winkle” in a stage production of the Washington Irving tale. It is believed that the cypress wood included in the house was originally planted by Jean Lafitte. There’s also an onsite cafe and a bed and breakfast.

Where to Stay Near Avery Island

There are no accommodations in Avery Island proper. DoubleTree by Hilton Lafayette is the closest full-service hotel, located on the southern end of the city. It has a restaurant and bar, an outdoor pool, and an airport shuttle.

In New Iberia, the Holiday Inn Express & Suites New Iberia-Avery Island is the top-rated property, with daily hot breakfast, an outdoor pool, and in-rom microwaves and refrigerators. Rip Van Winkle Gardens has onsite cottages . There’s even an RV park at Conrad Rice Mill.

Tips for Visiting the Tabasco Factory

The Tabasco Factory is located at Highway 329, Avery Island, Louisiana 70513. It’s open daily from 9 am to 4 pm. Tickets are $12.50 for adults, $9.50 for children, and free for children under 4. Discounts are offered for seniors and veterans with proof of ID.

About Caroline Eubanks

Caroline Eubanks is the editor of this website, a Lowell Thomas award-winning travel writer, and the author of This Is My South: The Essential Travel Guide to the Southern States. Her stories from the South have appeared in National Geographic Traveler, Afar, Thrillist, Roads and Kingdoms, and BBC Travel.

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Tabasco Tour — An Awesome Experience on Avery Island Louisiana

By: Author Ginny Vail

Posted on Published: 29 Dec 2022  - Last updated: 2 Apr 2023

Spice up your travels with a Tabasco Tour on Louisiana’s Avery Island. Tours include the Tabasco Museum, Tabasco Factory, and Jungle Garden plus options for a great Cajun food experience.

Tabasco is one of the many sauces that enhance the Cajun and Creole dishes that separate Louisiana’s cuisine from the rest of the nation.

There’s a lot to love about visiting Avery Island and taking a Tabasco Tour. The island’s four tour options offer a variety of places to see and experience. Depending on your choices, you can visit the museum and factory, drive or walk through the Jungle Garden, have an Acadiana Culinary Experience, or attend a cooking demonstration.

The McIlhenny Company has been producing Tabasco Sauce on Avery Island since Edmund McIlhenny first perfected the recipe and formed the company in 1868. The sauce is popular worldwide, and all of it is processed here. They produce an astounding 700,000 bottles a day.

The Tabasco Tour is reason enough to visit this part of Louisiana, but there’s more. We were staying in nearby Lafayette and discovered several fun and interesting things to do there . We also took a few swamp tours and absolutely loved them.

What’s in this post?

• Tour Options : Tabasco Museum, Factory, and Jungle Garden and/or add other options like a Culinary Experience or a Cooking Demo
• Tabasco Flavors and Tasting
• Tabasco Peppers

About Avery Island Louisiana

Getting to avery island, best time to visit avery island, mcilhenny family and company history.

Tabasco Tour Options

McIlhenny Company offers four tour options, and you can purchase tickets on their Tabasco website:

• Tabasco — the   Avery Island Experience:  Self-guided tour through the museum and factory and drive or walk through the Jungle Garden (Daily except major holidays — allow about 2-hours)
• Acadiana Culinary Experience:  Sample the food of Acadiana, learn bits of history, and taste test Tabasco mash with a flight of Bloody Mary’s (Mondays and Wednesdays only — 1-hour)
• Cooking Demo Experience:  Experience the demo; then enjoy the food (Tuesdays and Thursdays only — 1-hour)
• Private guided tour  of the factory

We took a specially arranged tour and did a combination of 1, 2, and 4. It was a great tour and a great day.

Tabasco Museum

The museum has displays with artifacts, old photos and lots of interpretive signage covering the evolution of Avery Island, the history of the McIlhenny/Avery family, and the creation of Tabasco Sauce.

Tabasco Factory

There are both guided and self-guided versions of the factory tour. The tour route includes lots of signage explaining the stages, which is very helpful, especially if you take the self guided option. Both options take you through the various stages of sauce production including:

• the mash warehouse where white oak barrels are prepared and filled with pepper mash, and then stacked and left to ferment
• the blending room where enormous wooden vats blend the mash with vinegar
• the bottling operation where the sauce is bottled, labeled, and packed for shipping

Avery Island Jungle Garden

Walk or drive through the wonderfully preserved 170-acre garden sanctuary:

• Flora: We were not there at the right time of year to see it, but the garden has a huge area with camellia plants. They bloom mostly during winter and spring.
• Fauna: Alligators, deer, lots of Snowy Egrets, and more. the McIlhenny family even added a raised platform in one of the island’s lagoons so the egrets could safely nest.
• Chinese Temple: The garden also includes a Statue of Buddha located in a tiny Chinese Temple on top of a small rocky hill. It was a gift to McIlhenny from friends.

Tabasco Flavors and Tasting the Pepper Mash

During the Acadiana Culinary Experience, we were seated at a bar in a private room. We each got a flight of glasses with tomato juice to use to sample the Tabasco flavors, and were offered vodka to add if we wanted to create Bloody Marys. We also tasted two vintages of pepper mash.

Next George, our host, served three different Cajun dishes for us to test the Tabasco flavors on food. We sampled sauces on red beans and rice, crawfish étouffée, and boudin (boo-dahn), a sausage made with seasoned meat and rice. George said just use a small amount of Tabasco to punch up the flavor but not so much that’s it’s hot. The purpose of the sauce is to enhance the flavor of food, not to set your mouth on fire.

Tabasco comes in 7 flavors: Original Red Pepper, Green Pepper, Chipotle, Buffalo Style, Habanero, Garlic, and Sweet & Spicy. We also tasted an additional flavor that is historically reserved for the McIlhenny family. The pepper mash for Tabasco Family Reserve is aged a lot longer and is really smooth. You won’t find it in stores, but it can be ordered from the Tabasco online store.

Does Tabasco Go Bad?

Tabasco Sauce does not need to be refrigerated , and it’s good for 3-years.

Tabasco Pepper Plants

The peppers grown on Avery Island are heirloom and are only used for seed stock. Most of peppers used for the sauce are grown in South America or Africa. After raising the peppers, the growers harvest and mash them and send the mash to the Tabasco Factory on Avery Island where all the rest of the process, from fermentation to shipping, takes place.

The scientific name for the peppers is  capsicum frutescens , but they are commonly called Tabasco. The Workers who pick the peppers carry a red stick to check the color, and they only pick those that are the perfect shade of red. After picking, the growers quickly crush the peppers and send the mash to the factory where it’s mixed with salt and aged for up to 3 years in white oak barrels.

Driving or hiring a car and driver seem to be the only options. Avery Island is 138 miles (222 km) from New Orleans and 29 miles (47 km) from Lafayette. We were attending a travel writers conference in Lafayette and took a specially arranged day tour.

Avery Island is open every day except for major holidays and the museum and factory tours are indoors. You could go anytime, rain or shine. The Jungle Garden would be best in Spring when the flora is greener, the camellias are blooming, and the snowy egrets are nesting. Our October visit to the Jungle Garden was certainly well worth the time, although Spring would have been better, especially for photography.

The Culinary Experience is available on Mondays and Wednesdays. The Cooking Demo is available on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Can You Eat on Avery Island?

Yes, the onsite Restaurant 1868 serves local Cajun cuisine , and you will get food if you take either the Acadiana Culinary Experience, which we did, or the food demo. You can also sample the sauce at the tasting bar in the Tabasco Country Store.

If you love discovering regional food, checkout our food bucket list post featuring favorite foods from around the country.

Avery is a 2200-acre island in Iberia Parish, Louisiana. The island is actually a large salt dome surrounded by wetlands. The dome is solid rock salt pushed up from the Earth’s interior and is believed to be “deeper than Mt. Everest is high.” The salt used to produce Tabasco Sauce comes from the salt dome. (Source: Island Geology signage in the Museum)

In 2018, Avery Island was added to the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places. The National Register listing acknowledges that the island is worthy of preservation and confirms it’s importance in local, state and national history. ( Source )

Native Americans

The island was an important source of food and salt for Native Americans. They visited the island to hunt and gather food, and also collected briny water from springs and boiled the water off to harvest the salt. They traded the salt for other goods from other tribes. Workers still find Native American pottery shards and arrow and spear heads on the Island.

The evolution from swampy wetlands to a sugar plantation to a world famous pepper sauce company stems from two fortunate marriages. In 1818, John Craig Marsh purchased land on what is now Avery Island and created a sugar plantation. His daughter (Sarah) married a jurist from Baton Rouge named Daniel Dudley Avery. In 1855, Daniel took over as owner and the island became known as Avery Island.

Shortly before the Civil War, Daniel and Sarah’s daughter (Mary Eliza Avery) married Edmund McIlhenny. McIlhenny acquired some very hot peppers from an acquaintance and planted the peppers’ seeds. He began experimenting with the peppers and learned how to make a great pepper sauce. In 1868, he founded McIlhenny Company and began producing Tabasco Sauce. Edmund McIlhenny’s descendants still own and operate the Company. ( Source )

Generations of Families Live and Work on Avery Island

What impressed and surprised me most during our tour was learning that the people working in the factory also live on or near Avery Island, and they and their families have done so for generations. Our tour guide, Keyna Amy, pointed to a large photo on the factory wall with three men and a boy. She explained that it was her great-grandfather, grandfather, father, and brother. Now she and her family work here too; this has been a way of life for five generations.

One More Reason to Admire McIlhenny Company

The McIlhenny Company and family not only produce the world’s most famous pepper sauce and provide good jobs, they also care enough about the island, it’s history, and it’s flora and fauna that that they have both a historian and botanist on the payroll. Both of them conduct portions of the tours, but they do way more than that:

• Shane K. Bernard, Ph.D. has been a historian and curator for McIlhenny for 30 years. He continues to find fossils and artifacts on the island and he’s located and searched through old records, handwritten notes and even recipes to document the history of the McIlhenny family and company. He published a book about it titled: TABASCO: An Illustrated History.
• Garrie Landry is a retired professor and professional botanist who works to identify and catalog the island’s flora and fauna. He discovered and uncovered gardens that were hidden by overgrowth, and he has made major improvements to the gardens and trails. He also has a wonderful blog about the garden with fantastic bird photos.

This is one of my all-time favorite tours because there is such a variety of interesting things to see and learn and do. We learned a bit of history about the island and the McIlhenny family. We toured the factory, sampled the pepper mash, and tested the various Tabasco flavors with great Cajun dishes. Then we walked through parts of the Jungle Garden and nearly stepped on a baby alligator hidden in leaves along the path. It was a great day and a great experience.

If you are interested in Cajun cooking, we also drove a little and took a lesson at Spuddy’s Cajun Cooking. We made gumbo, jambalaya, and we had tons of fun.

We’d love to thank our friends at TBEX and Lafayette Travel for sponsoring us on this incredible Tabasco tour.

About the Author

Ginny Vail is a travel writer who loves travel planning, sightseeing, photography, and videography. She’s visited all 50 states and traveled around the world. Her articles focus on discovering places to go, sights to see, and details about when and how to visit them.

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Visiting the Tabasco Factory Tour and Museum – Avery Island, Louisiana

One of the places I was most looking forward to on our road trip from Atlanta to Galveston last November was the Tabasco Factory and Museum which is located on Avery Island in Louisiana. I love Tabasco and usually have several bottles of the holy grail of hot sauces in the kitchen cupboard at home – the Garlic Pepper one being my favourite. When we were planning our road trip, we decided to stay in Lafayette the evening before our visit as it was not only close to the I-10 but also only a short forty minute drive to Avery Island itself. Avery Island is not actually a real island but a salt dome which is three miles long and two and a half miles wide and located three miles inland from the Louisiana coastline. As well as the Tabasco Factory, Avery Island is also home to Jungle Gardens as well as being the home of the McIlhenny family and their employees. Tabasco has been produced at Avery Island since the 1860’s. It was very easy to find Avery Island from Highway 90 as all we needed to do was to look out for the signs with the giant bottles of Tabasco on them. There was a small toll gate at the entrance to Avery Island but we did not need to pay a toll despite having money ready to do so – the gentleman instead just handed us a pass for the car to place on the dashboard and told us the direction we needed to go. We were only planning to do the factory tour whilst we were there as we were limited on time as we still had to drive to Galveston in Texas that day all ready to board our cruise the following morning .

We arrived at the factory and parked the car just before 10:00am. The first thing that is immediately noticeable is the smell of Tabasco in the air all around you. It hit me as soon as I got out of the car! It was also incredibly quiet and there was no one else to be seen – a great benefit of visiting midweek in November. We purchased our tickets which were $5.50 each and also at this time, we were each given three free miniature bottles of Tabasco Sauce – the original Red Pepper Sauce, the Green Pepper sauce and the Chipotle Pepper Sauce.

The Self-Guided tour starts in the Tabasco Museum which is the same building where you buy your tickets from. I loved reading about the McIlhenny family and Avery Island, the history of Tabasco Sauce and seeing all the different memorabilia displayed from across the years. I also found it interesting to find out there are only three ingredients that make up Tabasco Sauce – peppers, vinegar and salt.

The Self-Guided tour around the grounds is easy to do as there are plenty of numbered signs pointing you in the right direction.

Our next stop was the Greenhouse although the majority of the peppers used for Tabasco Sauce are now grown overseas in Central and South America and Africa using seeds from Avery Island. All of the peppers are picked by hand when they match the precise shade of red on a small painted stick that each picker has to determine if the pepper is ripe enough. The peppers are then mixed with salt and ground into a pulp called mash.

Once the pepper mash arrives at Avery Island, it is placed into barrels and topped with a thick layer of salt to protect it from impurities and stored in the Barrel Warehouse. The mash ages in the barrels for three years (I had no idea it was this long) to allow the flavours to evolve and the raw pepper mash to gradually mellow.

Once the pepper mash has aged for three years, a member of the McIlhenny family inspects each batch for flavour and heat before it is approved for blending. Vinegar is added to the mash and is mixed intermittently for two to three weeks before being strained of skin and seeds and sent for bottling.

The next two stops showed information about Avery Island and Jungle Gardens as well as the salt mine and salt dome.

At the Bottling Line approximately 700,000 bottles of Tabasco Sauce are produced every day – all the Tabasco Sauce you see all around the world will have come from this factory at Avery Island. The bottling line is only open Monday to Thursday so make sure to visit on one of those days and not at the weekend – it is fascinating to watch.

Our final stop on the tour was the Flavor Lab where as well as being able to get your photo taken with your favourite giant bottle of Tabasco, we also taste tested some of the Chipotle Pepper sauce and learnt how the flavour can change depending on what you eat it with. We also found out that Tabasco had just released their hottest sauce ever and we could try it if we wanted to at the Country Store.

At the back of the brilliant Tabasco Country Store is the tasting bar where you can try all of the different Tabasco products. After trying most of the sauces available, we both really wanted to try the new Scorpion sauce which is twenty times hotter than the original Red Pepper sauce just to see how hot it really was. We both dipped a pretzel into the dish of it and tried it and oh my god, I have never had anything as hot as that before. The burning was like nothing else and it just got worse and worse and we’d only had a dot of it on the end of a pretzel stick! My boyfriend turned bright red and was sweating and I think I had tears in my eyes at one point. There was ice cream and honey available to help with the burning which thankfully eventually subsided. Even after that, I still wanted to buy a bottle of the Scorpion sauce just to have one but stopped myself as I knew that I would never try it again. The Country Store also contains every bit of Tabasco merchandise you could think of and more. I seriously had to stop myself from buying half of the shop but I did get a Christmas tree decoration as well as several bottles of different Tabasco Sauces which I had not seen before including Roasted Red Pepper and Raspberry Chipotle – both of which were delicious. Thankfully all of our bottles of Tabasco Sauce made it home in one piece but only just. Despite wrapping each of them carefully in bubble wrap to protect them, my suitcase was opened and the bottles were unwrapped and inspected twice by the TSA at both Atlanta Airport and Boston Airport before being thrown back into my suitcase. I would have been heartbroken if one or more of them had been smashed.

Altogether we spent just under an hour and a half at the Tabasco Factory and I loved every minute of it. I’m so glad that we planned it into our road trip as it is definitely worth a visit and at $5.50 each for the tour, it is not expensive either and a great bargain. If you love Tabasco, you have to go! I visited Avery Island in December 2017. All prices and information are correct at time of publication. Pin this Blog Post on Pinterest Follow Me on Instagram Follow Me on Bloglovin’

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5 thoughts on “ Visiting the Tabasco Factory Tour and Museum – Avery Island, Louisiana ”

Plan on visiting soon. Live in Pensacola Florida

It’s a great way to spend an hour or two! Send my love to Florida Joe 🙂

My wife and I are in our eighties and while still active, long walks and prolonged standing are not our favorite things. Will this be a problem at Avery Island.

Hi Eric. Absolutely not – the Tabasco Factory is very small and there are no long walks or periods of standing so there should hopefully not be an issue and you can park right outside too 🙂

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The Tabasco Factory Tour: Louisiana’s Hottest Attraction

May 2, 2021

Simply put, the Tabasco Factory tour is one of the best things to do in Avery Island. Here’s how a visit to this island reveals the secret to success.

The Tabasco Factory Tour Review

Recommended reading: 27 Ways Food and Travel Go Together (Not just for “Foodies”)

Avery Island gets people guessing from the start.

First, it’s not an island, at least not in the conventional sense.

It’s a 2.5 mile wide peak of salt that rises, island-like, from the surrounding swamps and bayous of the  Deep American South .

Second, it’s the home of Tabasco, the most famous hot pepper sauce in the world.

Today, the Tabasco Factory runs a slick operation beneath the Louisiana sun. Tabasco bottles line up for photo ops while glassy miniatures wait in the gift shop and Avery Island gumbo comes with no fewer than six different Tabasco versions.

And if hot sauce golf bags, key rings and clothes are all that’s been missing from your life, you’ll find them all here.

But a Tabasco factory tour also reveals a lot more. It talks about the mystery that is the secret to success.

Tabasco Factory Tour: Need to Knows

The Tabasco Factory tour is self-guided through pretty big grounds. It’s indoors and outdoors and the sun is fierce in Louisiana, so bring hats and water and try to avoid the outdoor portions during the midday heat.

The Tabasco Factory tour takes in the TABASCO ® Museum, Pepper Greenhouse, Barrel Warehouse, Blending and Bottling exhibition, Avery Island Conservation Area, Salt Mine diorama, TABASCO ® Country Store, and the 1868! Restaurant.

The food is unpretentious, traditional Louisiana fare. With a LOT of hot sauce available.

It’s great fun and easily one of the best things to do on Avery Island.

TABASCO AND THE SECRET TO SUCCESS

Today, Tabasco retails in over 185 countries, in over 20 languages and dialects and has even appeared in the world of James Bond. The business generates over $100 million dollars each year – and every single bottle is filled in the Tabasco Factory here on Avery Island Louisiana.

Yet, the story began back in 1868 with a young man who had lost everything in America’s Civil War.

Edmund McIlhenny dreamed of putting “a bottle of Tabasco on every table” and he and his heirs have arguably achieved just that.

The recipe is largely unchanged and the bottle reads like a history book.

But how did McIlhenny do it?

Why this hot sauce, why here?

What is Tabasco made of?

Tabasco is a hot sauce mash of capsicum frutescens peppers aged, strained and mixed with vinegar and local rock salt.

WHY WAS TABASCO SO SUCCESSFUL?

Was it his business partner, the less well known John. C. Henshaw, who opened up sales to the prosperous north east?

Was it the company’s devotion to family, with a 5 th generation CEO today?

Or was it the company’s approach to marketing and embracing new technology while keeping the basics of the product the same?

The first ever newspaper advertisement in New Orleans in 1869 was for Tabasco.

They made an early move to radio. And were one of the first food companies to get online.

And then there was that pioneering product placement involving  The Man with the Golden Gun.

Yes, the Tabasco factory tour reveals that they were the masters of marketing. Keeping up with the new. Retaining the old. 

The shape of the bottle hasn’t changed. McIlhenny initially forged them from recycled cologne bottles as that was all that was available in the post-war years. A green top replaces the wax seal but the label remains the same: Tabasco, Avery Island, McIlhenny.

Does the Tabasco Factory Tour reveal this as the secret to success?

Is the secret to success simply committing to one thing and then trying any and everything to make that thing work?

And when it comes to earning a living through our own creativity, does it pay to create different works or to focus on one thing and one thing only and market the hell out of that?

Creatively.

That’s a lot of introspection to wrangle out of a Louisiana hot sauce tour.

But the Tabasco Factory tour seems to invite thought, time, reflection.

Other Things to do on Avery Island

Avery island jungle gardens: a safari rather than a garden.

And if you didn’t get that side of things during the bright blaze of the factory, the neighbouring Jungle Gardens provide a soothing journey through Avery Island Louisiana.

Along the self-drive safari, the water ripples, the sun slides by.

Even the alligators seem languid, lovely even, as the wheels roll over tarmac in this semi-tropical garden. One hundred and seventy acres of the Louisiana state: wild and free yet also dotted with McIlhenny’s ancestors eco-passion projects.

Buddhist Statues

Buddhist statues, wild deer, bamboo and live oaks stretch along the Bayou Petite Anse, home to the world’s largest collection of camellias.

Birdwatchers can look out for roseate spoonbills, white ibises and the occasional great blue heron in this sanctuary that attracts terns and blue-winged teals.

Snowy Egrets

But it’s the snowy egrets that dominate this part of Avery Island Louisiana: the result of a McIlhenny bid to save the birds from extinction when fashion found their feathers fruitful for female hats.

And for all the reflection on what underpins the secret of success, perhaps the better point lives among the egrets.

It’s not so much the reach of success; it’s what you do with it that counts.

You can find Bird City within the Jungle Gardens on Avery Island, Iberia Parish.

Avery Island to New Orleans: can I visit Avery Island as a day trip?

Avery Island Louisiana is a two hour drive from New Orleans so can be done in an ambitious day trip from the city. Alternatively, weave it into a road trip through Louisiana and visit nearby Lafayette and learn all about Cajun history.

How long should I spend at the Tabasco factory on Avery Island?

The weather is hot here and there’s plenty to do. I’d suggest a morning visiting the Tabasco Factory and the afternoon driving around the Jungle Gardens (it makes sense to have a car here – you won’t be allowed to walk through because of the alligators.)

Shelter from the sun over lunch; the cafe offers a surprisingly decent range of Cajun classics like gumbo.

And of course plenty of Tabasco.

How to Arrange a Tabasco Factory Tour

Both the Tabasco Factory and Avery Island are open all year round but, as ever, double check the details before you set off. And the best place to do that is on the website itself:   how to visit Avery Island.

Avery Island Things To Do

Obviously, the Tabasco Factory tops the list for things to do on Avery Island but don’t miss driving around the Jungle Gardens.

Nearby attractions include the living m useum of Acadian history at Vermilionville and the arts centre of the closest city of Lafayette. 

More on Travel in New Orleans and Through Louisiana

• The difference between a swamp and a bayou
• Your perfect 3 days in New Orleans Itinerary
• The best road trip from New Orleans
• The story behind What a Wonderful World
• Sugary beignets at Cafe du Monde
• Driving the Great River Road

Disclosure – I travelled through Louisiana with assistance from Flight Centre, Hertz UK, Louisiana Travel and TTM World. As ever as always, I kept the right to write what I like. Otherwise, what is the point?!

2 thoughts on “The Tabasco Factory Tour: Louisiana’s Hottest Attraction”

I have so often wondered how it is that Tabasco is the hot sauce sold round the world. While it is no where near my fave, it has certainly come in handy in areas that are less spice obsessed than I, and the clever moves you describe in your article sure explain their success!

Marketing. It almost always comes down to that!

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Discover the Historic Home of TABASCOⓇ Sauce—Avery Island, LA

A beloved brand, Jungle Gardens, and Bird City, make Avery Island an international travel destination, right in our backyard

by McIlhenny Co.

August 31, 2023

If the last time you visited Avery Island was on a yellow school bus during a field trip, it’s high time for a return visit to the historic home of Acadiana’s most famed product: TABASCOⓇ brand hot sauce. This brand is so beloved around the world that Avery Island has become an international travel destination, and it’s right here in our back yard.

At Avery Island, Tabasco® creates hot sauces in a variety of formulas and flavors

A Tabasco greenhouse, where peppers are grown from seedling starts to mature plants.

Young pepper plants inside a Tabasco greenhouse

Inside the Barrel Aging Cooperage, where pepper mash aging magic happens.

First things first:   Find out how this iconic condiment is created by taking the TABASCOⓇ Brand Factory Tour & Museum . This self-guided tour gives guests an inside look at the journey which transports TABASCOⓇ hot sauce from the fields of Avery Island to tables around the world. Stop 1 visits the Museum , housed in a chic, but cozy, wooden cottage—and offering a glimpse (or a deep dive, it’s up to you) into the storied histories of the TABASCOⓇ brand and the McIlhenny family, via exhibits of family photographs and TABASCOⓇ artifacts. Some, like a collection of Native American projectile points, and the fossilized tooth of a mastodon excavated by Avery Island salt miners in 1889, were unearthed from the grounds of Avery Island itself. Stop 2 takes you to the Greenhouse to view the famous peppers themselves, from seedlings to mature plants.

A McIllhenny family member tastes pepper mash for quality control.

The process of creating good hot sauce is revealed to be as involved and complex as the making of a fine wine

Stop 3 visits the Barrel Aging Cooperage , where the pepper mash aging magic happens, and the process of creating good hot sauce is revealed to be as involved and complex as the making of a fine wine. Stop 4 follows the process to the Blending Room where, once the mash has been aged for approximately 28 days, it is blended into the sauce we know and love. Then it’s on to the Bottling Line stop, where you get to live out your “Laverne & Shirley” dreams. Ok, not really; you can’t touch them, but you can watch as bottles pass through their final phase of production before being packaged for distribution to 195 countries. The tour ends at the TABASCOⓇ Today exhibit, which offers some unforgettable photo opportunities, like those giant TABASCOⓇ bottles … perfect for your Instagram!

Ancient live oak groves shade public picnic areas at Avery Island

Avery Island abounds with native wildlife, including snowy egrets, roseate spoonbills, and abundant alligators.

A stone bridge crossing a waterway in Avery Island's beautiful Jungle Gardens

In late winter and early spring, camellias brighten the gardens at Avery Island.

Tabasco Logo

Picture-perfect moments don’t end at the museum, though. Jungle Gardens at Avery Island is a highly sought-after backdrop for bridal, engagement and family portraits. Visit and you’ll see why: these historic gardens were created in 1920 by arctic explorer, naturalist, and conservationist Edward Avery “Ned” McIlhenny, lovingly referred to as “Mr. Ned.” The 170-acre gardens’ design were heavily influenced by Asian landscape design, and present a breathtaking showcase rarely encountered in Louisiana. Wander through one of the oldest timber bamboo groves in America, featuring over 64 varieties sourced through Ned McIlhenny’s relationship with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Or admire the iconic Buddha statue Mr. Ned received as a gift, which is estimated to be 900 years old. To enhance your self-guided tour, take advantage of Avery Island’s virtual tour application, accessible through your phone.  Jungle Gardens is also home to a variety of local wildlife. For example, Mr. Ned’s Bird City rookery, founded in 1890, is home to thousands of egrets, and played a critical role in the conservation of this native bird.

Restaurant 1868

Hearty gumbo is on the menu at 1868 Restaurant

Getting a taste during the Tabasco Culinary Experience tour

Picking up some pointers during a Tabasco cooking class

Restaurant 1868 serves Bloody Marys spiced with Tabasco® brand hot sauce (of course).

Of course, no-one visiting Avery Island leaves hungry! Restaurant 1868 is a casual spot that will cure all of your Cajun cravings. Named as an homage to the year TABASCOⓇ was founded, the Cajun cottage-style restaurant feels as if it has always been a part of Avery Island. Its convenient location makes it easy to drop in during any part of your day, be it for a snack in between tours, or for refueling after a day spent roaming the gardens. The menu features many of Louisiana’s greatest hits, from crawfish pies to poboys, and plenty of spicy treats in-between, all created by culinary mastermind, chef Nelson Boutte.

For those interested in taking the culinary experience of TABASCO® to the next level, begin at the TABASCOⓇ Country Store , where you can dive in to samples of pepper flavored ice cream, amongst other treats. Even better, sign up for the TABASCOⓇ Culinary Experience . This guided culinary demonstration connects flavors with history and includes a mash tasting and a Bloody Mary flight. Those looking to take home some authentic Cajun cooking tips might also want to sign up for the TABASCOⓇ Cooking Demo. Led by Chef GiGi Patout, whose family history is rooted in the culture of New Iberia and its culinary traditions, the event serves as a culinary introduction to some of TABASCOⓇ’s most popular dishes, and ends with a four-course meal.

It doesn’t matter if you are in search of a day trip for the family, a group getaway, an exciting date, or an opportunity to better understand the best of Louisiana culture, you’ll find it at Avery Island. There is truly something for everyone, and it’s only a short drive away.

For more information about visiting Avery Island—home of TABASCO® hot sauce—and to sign up for classes, trips and tours, visit tabasco.com/visit-avery-island/

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TABASCO Country Store ® Avery Island

Tabasco country store ® avery island.

McIlhenny Company 329 Avery Island Rd Avery Island, LA 70513

1-800-634-9599

HOURS OF OPERATION:

Monday - Sunday from 9 A.M. – 4 P.M. CST

Welcome to Avery Island’s TABASCO Country Store ®

No other location does it quite like the original. It was here, on Avery Island, where Edmund McIlhenny first developed his world-famous recipe for TABASCO ® Original Red Pepper Sauce. And it was also here that the first TABASCO Country Store ® came to life.

Still thriving to this day, our unique location offers visitors the ultimate access to TABASCO ® fan gear and collectibles. From Avery Island exclusives and limited release products to interactive activities and more, you won’t want to miss this stop on your next South Louisiana trip.

Take a TABASCO ® Taste Tour

Bring home the ultimate bragging rights by trying all seven of our TABASCO ® Family of Flavors.

Taste Avery Island Exclusives

Dive into a top-notch taste adventure with flavorful TABASCO ® takes on ice cream, soda and more.

Experience the Magic of Avery Island

Take in all the majestic sights, smells and sounds of the place TABASCO ®  sauce calls home.

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Hot Stuff: Taking The Tabasco Factory Tour On Avery Island, Louisiana

February 24, 2020 By stephen 8 Comments

After checking out of our hotel in Lafayette , it was time to head to New Orleans for the first of our two visits there during February 2020. We had an important stop to make along the way though – the Tabasco Factory on Avery Island.

We first heard about it last year when visiting the Old Mill Museum in Lindsborg, Kansas as our tour guides Sheila and Jim suggested it to us. It was only a short diversion down to Avery Island along the way, so we figured it would be a fun place to stop along the route.

Shae called ahead of time to make sure they were pet-friendly as we’d have Truffles with us. They said they were and, to a certain extent, they are. Dogs are allowed in the Tabasco Country Store and outside at Restaurant 1868!, but aren’t allowed on the self-guided tour itself which isn’t what we expected based on the phone call. The nice thing though is that you can leave your pup with the employees in the Country Store and they’ll keep an eye on them out the back of the store. They made sure Truffles had water, they took her outside to use the restroom, etc., so she seemed well taken care of.

Before dropping Truffles off, we bought our tickets for the tour as you buy your tickets just outside of the museum.

Tabasco Factory Tours are only $5.50 per person which is very reasonable and comes with six mini bottles of Tabasco sauce (or perhaps three mini bottles per person). You can also buy separate tickets to Jungle Gardens which is a 170 acre semitropical garden that’s next door, or you can save a dollar by buying tickets for both attractions at the same time. Seeing as we still had to drive a couple of hours to New Orleans, we decided to only do the Tabasco Factory tour.

Stop 1 – Tabasco Musuem

There are ten places to visit on the self-guided Tabasco Factory Tour, with the first stop being the Tabasco Museum where you buy your tickets.

Inside the museum there’s information about the history of Tabasco Sauce and all kinds of memorabilia, including a Tabasco bottle guitar played by Van Halen’s bassist Michael Anthony.

After you’ve checked out everything in the museum, the tour continues outside where you’ll see a signpost clearly marking where you need to go next.

You’ll want to keep an eye out on your way to the Greenhouse as apparently there are sometimes bear sightings.

The fact that this sign is near a bamboo grove made us wonder if it was panda bears we should be looking out for 😉 The Tabasco Factory has this bamboo growing there because the company’s third president – E.A. McIlhenny – volunteered to be an experimental grower for the US Department of Agriculture. He planted 65 different types of bamboo on Avery Island, about 35 of which are still growing there.

While walking to the greenhouse, be sure to also keep an eye out for their fun bridge which is painted a little like bottles of Tabasco sauce.

Stop 2 – Tabasco Greenhouse

The Tabasco Greenhouse is the second stop on the tour and is where you can see a few different types of peppers being grown.

The one that’s obviously of most interest is the Tabasco pepper. It’s thought to have originated in Mexico or Central America, but no one knows exactly where it came from. It scores between 30,000-50,000 on the Scoville heat scale which, while hot, is nothing compared to the Ghost Pepper (1,041,427 on the Scoville heat scale) and Carolina Reaper (1,569,300 on the Scoville heat scale).

Something random we learned in the greenhouse is that this variety grows with the pod pointing up towards the sky. Heat rises after all 😉

Stop 3 – Barrel Aging Cooperage

As you leave the greenhouse, you’ll see another building which is the Tabasco Barrel Museum.

Inside you’ll find exhibits explaining the barrel aging process of Tabasco peppers, including a video showing how it’s aged and artifacts from the last couple of centuries.

Just outside of the museum area is the cooperage where you can see hundreds of barrels of Tabasco peppers being aged. The tops of the barrels are covered with a layer of salt to help prevent impurities from getting in the barrel.

Stop 4 – Blending Building

The fourth stop on the tour is the blending building.

Inside you’ll learn about the blending process where the Tabasco peppers that have been aged for up to three years in the cooperage are blended with distilled vinegar and stirred periodically for two to three weeks in 1,800 gallon vats made of wood.

Before the sauce is bottled, the seeds and skins from the peppers are removed and both scientific and taste testing is done to ensure it meets their quality expectations.

Stop 5 – Avery Island Experience

The fifth stop on the tour is the Avery Island Experience. This is where you’ll learn more about Avery Island, such as the fact that it’s not an island. It’s actually a salt dome covering 2,200 acres. With hills, valleys and water surrounding much of it, it certainly gives the appearance of an island.

Stop 6 – Salt Mine Experience

The sixth part of the Tabasco Factory tour is the Salt Mine Experience. To be honest, this section is a little hokey and doesn’t really add anything to the tour. All it consists of is a couple of mannequins dressed up as salt miners. You walk past them while dynamite sounds are played over speakers and…that’s it.

Stop 7 – Bottling Line

The short walk through the Salt Mine Experience leads you through to the bottling line.

They’d already bottled more than a quarter of a million bottles of Tabasco sauce that day, with the latest batch being chipotle flavored that was being shipped off to Belgium.

Stop 8 – Food & Flavors Of Tabasco Today

The eighth stop on the Tabasco Factory tour provides information about Tabasco sauce nowadays from its flavors to its iconic bottle to all the countries where you can find it worldwide to recipes and more. One fascinating tidbit is that Tabasco sauce was originally bottled in used cologne bottles!

This part of the tour also provides opportunities to get some cool pictures.

Seeing as our last name is Pepper, this photo op had to be taken advantage of.

Stop 9 – Tabasco Country Store

The ninth stop of the tour took us back to the Tabasco Country Store where we picked up Truffles.

It’s a gift shop packed full of Tabasco sauce and Tabasco-themed goodies.

One of my favorite items I saw was this baby blanket:

Cutest photo of the day goes to Truffles though who rocked her pepper beads like Flava Flav.

Be sure to head to the back of the Tabasco Country Store as there’s a bar where you can taste-test about two dozen Tabasco sauces, mustards, etc. The raspberry chipotle Tabasco sauce was one of our favorites and I also bought a bottle of their garlic grilling marinade as it was incredibly flavorful. Beware though – a couple of the sauces are very hot!

They even had Tabasco soda pop and Tabasco ice creams to try.

Stop 10 – Restaurant 1868!

It was about 2:30pm by this point, so we decided to have lunch at Restaurant 1868! seeing as they had pet-friendly seating on their porch and it was a nice day. 1868 is the year that Edmund McIlhenny founded the Tabasco company, hence the restaurant’s name.

Their menu had all kinds of tasty-sounding options, so as usual I had a hard time choosing what to get.

I’d enjoyed trying boudin in Lafayette a few days before, so I ended up ordering the Boudin Po Boy, while Shae got the Fiesta Nacho Supreme. Both our meals were tasty and reasonably priced.

Restaurant 1868! also offers a make-your-own Bloody Mary bar, so Shae took advantage of that being available seeing as I would be the one driving us to New Orleans that afternoon.

Final Thoughts

Despite not being big Tabasco sauce eaters, Shae and I had a great time going on the Tabasco Factory tour. It was surprisingly fun, interestingly and well-priced. Getting to try a bunch of different Tabasco sauces in the Tabasco Country Store was an added bonus and gave me a new appreciation for their products.

If you’ll be in or near Lafayette, Louisiana, I’d highly recommend taking a trip out to Avery Island to visit the Tabasco Factory.

Tabasco Factory Tours, 32 Wisteria Rd, Avery Island, LA 70513

Reader Interactions

February 25, 2020 at 2:56 pm

I really enjoyed this blog post! What a neat place and your pictures and comments were so great. I’m sold and if I’m ever anywhere near there, I’d go! Cheers, Lauren

February 25, 2020 at 3:31 pm

Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙂

February 25, 2020 at 7:29 pm

This looks great – we are big Tabasco fans in my family!

But you failed to tell us – which one of you is sweet and which is spicy? 😀

February 25, 2020 at 11:22 pm

We’re each pointing to the appropriate description 😉

February 28, 2020 at 9:09 am

Oh I missed that! 😀

March 5, 2020 at 8:00 am

Hi! I loved this post and it sounds like a great place! Our three little chihuahua babies would just love the restaurant Lol……Very great writing and love to read about your adventures. Look forward to your trip posts from Tucson. Be safe!

March 5, 2020 at 3:34 pm

Thanks! Truffles loved getting to try the boudin at the restaurant 🙂

June 22, 2020 at 2:14 pm

I live down the road in New Iberia and grew up going to Avery Island. Haven’t been in quite awhile and look forward to making it back there as soon as COVID is gone. The island is closed to visitors because of the virus.

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Spicy Tabasco and Jungle Gardens on Avery Island Salt Dome in Louisiana

Jungle Gardens on Avery Island is a popular destination that should not be missed when visiting Lafayette, Lake Charles or New Orleans in the southwestern area of Louisiana.

The garden is a tranquil, hidden oasis on top of a giant salt dome, which began to form more than 150 million years ago. Avery Island is also home to the legendary TABASCO® brand hot sauce factory.

The Tabasco hot sauce factory is the only place in the world where they manufacture and produce this hot sauce. Take a tour of the Tabasco Factory before embarking on the three- mile, self-guided driving tour of the beautiful Jungle Gardens.

Avery Island

Avery Island boasts more than 100 historic buildings, along with many archaeologically significant sites. The 2,200-acre area is on the National Register of Historic Places to ensure the protection and preservation of the archaeological and architectural integrity of the site.

The island is surrounded by a salt marsh, cypress swamp, and bayou. The word “bayou” is a French term for a slow-moving small steam, derived from the Choctaw Indigenous word “ bayuk.” Its rich natural resources include oil production started in 1942, and salt mining in 1862.

The Avery and McIlhenny families have owned the island for almost 200 years. The McIlhenny family has been making the world-famous Tabasco hot sauce on the island for 160 years.

Subscribe below to be alerted to the next article as soon as it is published. We pride ourselves in writing informative articles with interesting facts. Please leave any comments, questions or suggestions below.

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Avery Island Salt Dome

Avery Island sits on a huge salt dome. It is the largest of five salt domes along Louisiana’s coast.

The dome is 163 ft (50 m) high and 2 mi (3.2 km) in diameter. Scientists believe the salt dome began to form more than 150 million years ago during the Jurassic period and could extends miles underground — similar to an upside down mountain the height of Mount Everest.

Since prehistoric times, salt has been extracted from the island and Indigenous peoples started collecting salt from brine spring water. Early settlers to the area began extracting salt using the same method.

Avery Island historic marker for the first rock salt mine. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Rock salt on display in the Tabasco Museum on Avery Island. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Avery Island Salt Dome Atchafalaya Water Heritage Trail. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Things to do in Avery Island

Tabasco tour experience.

Learn everything about Tabasco. The Tabasco Tour Experience provides insights into the production of the iconic hot pepper sauce from start to finish. It includes a visit to the Tabasco Museum, Tabasco Factory, Tabasco Store and Restaurant 1868. Here’s a map showing the facilities on the tour.

The iconic sauce got its start when Edward McIlhenny, the inventor of Tabasco, planted some seeds for Capsicum frutescens peppers he was given from Mexico.

Did you know that the original name of the popular hot sauce was “Petite Anse Sauce?” It was renamed shortly after to Tabasco, a Mexican word meaning, “land where the soil is humid” or “place of coral or oyster shell.”

Capsicum frutescens peppers are grown to make Tabasco sauce on Avery Island. Photo: Kevin Wagar©

Tabasco Museum

The first part of the Tabasco tour experience is a stop at the museum.

The self-guided tour covers all aspects of the history of the people and the land, Avery Island Conservation and production of the hot sauce, including the pepper greenhouse and barrel warehouse, and the salt mining.

Historic photo of the McIlhenny Company Tabasco truck and workers

Tour the Tabasco Factory

Visit the Tabasco Factory to see the entire process that goes into the making this iconic hot pepper sauce. It takes nearly five years to go from planting the seeds to the final production of bottling the sauce.

After the peppers reach the perfect shade of red they are harvested and crushed with salt to make what is called a mash. This concoction is aged for up to three years in white oak barrels. At the end of this aging, the peppers are graded into flavour and heat level.

Vinegar is added and it is aged for up to another three weeks. The mash is then strained to leave only pure liquid to be bottled.

Outside the Tabasco Factory on Avery Island. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Large vats inside the Tabasco Factory on Avery Island near Lafayette, Louisiana. Photo: Kevin Wager©

White oak barrels inside the Tabasco Factory. Photo: Kevin Wager©

The production line inside the Tabasco Factory. Photo: Kevin Wager©

Little Red Stick used by Tabasco pepper pickers to check color for ripeness. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Tabasco Store

Hot sauce lovers can sample all varieties, flavors and heat levels of hot pepper sauces created by the factory. Hot pepper jellies, Bloody Mary mix, chili starters, barbecue sauces and an assortment of other products are also available.

The newest addition to the lineup is a limited edition Avocado Jalapeño Hot Sauce Dressing.

Every kind of Tabasco® pepper sauce and related products inside the Tabasco Factory Shop. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Restaurant 1868

Next to the museum and store, step inside Restaurant 1868 to try some true southwestern Louisiana Cajun-style food — spiced up with Tabasco sauce, of course.

We tried the $8 Boudin Eggrolls and the $13 Sampler. The two deep-fried eggrolls are stuffed with boudin (sausage) and pepper jack cheese along with tangy pepper jelly.

The Sampler is a cup each of three popular southern dishes, including crawfish etouffee , chicken and sausage gumbo, and red beans on rice.

Prices are very reasonable. See a menu .

Outside Restaurant 1868 on Avery Island. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Boudin eggrolls stuffed with sausage and pepper jack cheese with a cup of Tabasco spicy pepper jelly at the Restaurant 1868 on Avery Island.

The sampler served at Restaurant 1868 includes Crawfish Etouffee, chicken and sausage gumbo and red beans. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr@

Jungle Gardens of Avery Island

Take a three-mile, self-guided driving tour of the semi-tropical, 170-acre Jungle Gardens. This beautiful, peaceful area first opened to the public in 1935, and is a great spot to enjoy nature at its best. Naturalist Edward Avery McIlhenny, son of E. McIlhenny, the inventor of Tabasco sauce, began creating the gardens on his estate in the 1920s. Edward collected botanical exotics from around the world.

The garden houses one of the largest collections of live oak trees more than 100 years old, all dripping with Spanish moss. There are 64 varieties of bamboo and North America’s oldest timber bamboo groves. Also found in the garden are 251 varieties of camellias and an abundance of Azaleas.

The stunning gardens on Avery Island features a bird sanctuary, known as Bird City, and abundant wildlife, including white-tailed deer and alligators, inhabit the ponds and waterways.

Take a virtual tour here .

Avery Island Bird Sanctuary – Bird City

Conservationist Edward McIlhenny founded the private bird sanctuary, Bird City, around 1895, out of concern for the demise of the endangered snowy white egrets. The egret’s feathers used in women’s hats, were highly prized by local hunters and the number of birds rapidly declined.

McIlhenny started by raising eight birds in the protected aviary he created. He eventually released them to naturally migrate. The birds returned to their safe haven each spring, and their population grew to around 100,000 by 1911.

Snowy white egrets continue to migrate to Bird City along with other birds. The best time to see these fine birds is from February to April each year. Birdwatching tours are available all year.

Here is a list of the birds found in the gardens.

Snowy white egrets take refuge at Bird City in Jungle Gardens Avery Island in Iberia Parish. Photo: Kevin Wagar©

Photos of Jungle Gardens on Avery Island

Alligators inhabit the ponds of Avery Gardens in Iberia Parish near LaFayette Lousiana. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Alligators and wild birds inhabit the ponds of Avery Gardens near LaFayette Louisiana. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Take a tour of beautiful Avery Island near LaFayette Louisiana. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

A Buddha 900 years old watches over a section of the tranquil grounds of Jungle Gardens on Avery Island. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Jungle Gardens Avery Island near LaFayette Louisiana. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Take a Jungle Garden tour on Avery Island to see the stunning gardens. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

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Fun Facts about Jungle Gardens on Avery Island

• It’s a 170-acre semi-tropical garden created by Edward McIlhenny, son of Tabasco® founder, on part of the family’s 2,200 acre estate.
• Edward McIlhenny founded the private bird sanctuary, Bird City, around 1895.
• He saved nearly extinct snowy egrets and by 1911, their numbers grew to 100,000 birds.
• He brought back the white-tail deer population.
• A 900-year-old Buddha watches over a section of the tranquil zen-like grounds.

A 900-year-old Buddha watches over a section of the tranquil grounds. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

• Alligators inhabit the ponds.
• Pepper plants are grown to be used in the factory to make Tabasco.
• There are 251 varieties of camellias and an abundance of Azaleas.
• There are 64 varieties of bamboo.
• It is one of the largest collections of live oak trees more than 100 years old, dripping with Spanish moss.
• The exotic garden plants come from all over the world.
• Did you know Spanish moss is not a moss? It is a flowering plant called epiphytic or ‘air plant.’ This type of plant grows typically on trees or on top of other plants and does not have roots in the ground. It is in the same family of plants as pineapples and orchids.

Beautiful Jungle Gardens on Avery Island is full of giant live oak trees. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Beautiful Jungle Gardens on Avery Island is full of giant live oak trees dripping with moss. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

Giant live oak trees on the tranquil grounds of Jungle Gardens on Avery Island. Photo: Wendy Nordvik-Carr©

How to get to Avery Island

How to get to avery island from lafayette.

Avery Island is a short 50 minute (30.7 mi) ,mostly along Highway 90.

While traveling along Highway 90 through Iberia County, watch for the abundance of sugar cane plantations. The Louisiana Sugar Cane Festival is held the last weekend in September in New Iberia to celebrate everything sugar and the end of harvest. This fun family-focussed event includes several parades, entertainment and lots of food.

How to get to Avery Island from New Orleans

How to get to avery island from lake charles.

Take a full-day road trip or longer from Lake Charles to Jungle Gardens on Avery Island, traveling 5.5 hours, round trip without stops. This amazing journey passes through the Creole Nature Trail All-American Road. Services are limited along the route, but the natural experience along the scenic byway are definitely worth checking out.

With 400 different species of birds, this area is considered one of the top birding places in North America. The road rims the Gulf of Mexico with plenty of access to beaches and marshland in Louisiana’s outback wilderness. A word of caution — remember American alligators live in the freshwater lakes, swamps and bayous of the southwest.

Consider staying a little longer in Louisiana, book accommodation by using Booking.Com and any commissions earned will help keep this website running.

Looking for more adventures? Be sure to check out these articles to help start planning your next trip:

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Wendy Nordvik-Carr

Wendy Nordvik-Carr is a highly regarded travel writer who produces quality, well-researched articles with stunning photography and video. She seeks out authentic experiences showcasing the people, culture and history that make each destination unique. Her focus is on solo, couple and multigenerational travel through cruising, air and road trip adventures.

Wendy is the editor & writer for LifesIncredibleJourney.com, a travel site that encourages exploration of destinations near & far.

She is a TMAC Director, Chair, National PD Committee and Chair of TMAC's BC & Yukon Chapter, as well as a member of SATW & NATJA.

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Why I Loved the Tabasco Factory Tour on Avery Island

If you love hot sauce, a Tabasco Factory tour on Avery Island is a must!

It’s no secret that I LOVE spicy food. I’ve even participated in a hot sauce challenge at a hot sauce factory that required waivers to try a dab of “The Source” on a toothpick that’s 7.1 million Scoville units in Kansas City, KS.

So of course I wanted to visit the “Home of Tabasco” while I was in Louisiana.

You could easily spend the entire day there between the tour, the shops, dining, and the beautiful grounds.

Who started the Tabasco Company?

The Tabasco Company was founded by Edmund McIhenny in 1868.

What’s incredible is that the McIhenny Company which owns Tabasco is still family-owned by the McIhenny family and operated at the original location on Avery Island.

Take the Self-Guided Tour of the Tabasco Factory

During the self-guided tour, you’ll learn about the history of Tabasco sauce and the process of making Tabasco sauce.

You can take as long or as little as you want in each building since you aren’t required to have an official tour guide.

The Tabasco tour helps you learn how pepper sauce is created from seed to sauce.

What Does the Avery Island Fan Experience Include?

The Avery Island Fan Experience includes:

• A self-guided tour of the TABASCO ®  Museum
• Pepper Greenhouse

Barrel Warehouse

• Avery Island Conservation
• Salt Mine diorama
• TABASCO Country Store ®
• TABASCO ®  Restaurant 1868!
• The 170-acre natural beauty of Jungle Gardens

You get a mini bottle of Tabasco sauce as an added bonus with your tour.

There is a virtual tour online if you want to know what to expect before you go.

Tabasco Factory Tour Tickets

Reservations are recommended for The Avery Island Fan Experience.

It’s a short walk between the numbered buildings on the factory grounds for the self-guided tour.

Start at the Tabasco Museum

I would recommend going to The Tabasco Museum as your first stop because it provides a great overview of the history of the company.

You can watch a short film to learn more about the Tabasco Company brand.

Be on the lookout for exhibits that share how the Civil War resulted in the founder’s relocation to Avery Island which was used as a sugar plantation, and more.

Many of the exhibits show the range of products that the beloved sauce has been branded on over the years.

Fun fact: The Original Tabasco was packaged in cologne bottles.

View the Pepper Greenhouse

The next stop on the tour is Pepper Greenhouse where you’ll learn more about Tabasco peppers. You’ll see red peppers and other varieties.

Tabasco sauce is made using only three ingredients, distilled vinegar, red pepper, and salt.

The original recipe from 1868 has stayed the same for the most part. The original pepper seeds of  Capsicum frutescens  peppers are traced back to South America.

I found this part of the tour really interesting because I didn’t know that Tabasco was stored in bourbon barrels. I loved the connection to Bourbon Country in Kentucky.

I’ve even visited a Cooperage to watch the barrel-making process.

The pepper mash is stored for up to three years in white oak barrels.

The island’s salt is placed on top of the barrels.

If you go inside the building with the mash vats, I recommend pushing the button that turns on a fan where you can smell the pepper mash.

Salt Mine Experience

You’ll learn more about the salt that was mined onsite during the tour.

Avery Island was home to the first salt mine in the country.

The salt mine is now permanently closed but there is a walk-through salt mine exhibit where you can have a greater understanding of its part in the legendary sauce.

View Different Parts of the Tabasco Factory

I thought it was really interesting to see where specific bottles of Tabasco were being shipped from North America to locations all over the world.

As the factory hums along in production look for the signs above the bottling lines telling you where it’s being shipped in the world.

Strike a Pose With the Giant Tabasco Bottles

The giant Tabasco bottles are perfect for a photo op during your tour.

Guests can stand by their preferred Tabasco sauce of choice.

Sample Flavors at Tabasco Tasting Bar

As an added bonus you can sample flavors of Tabasco for free at the Tabasco Tasting Bar.

One of the best things is tasting and trying different sauces after learning about the Tabasco sauce process.

Try Tabasco Ice Cream in the Tabasco Country Store

It sounds odd but Tabasco ice cream is sooo good!!!

During my visit, I ordered a cup of half jalapeno soft serve ice cream and half sweet and sour Tabasco-flavored ice cream.

If you have a soft serve machine at home I was told that you can recreate the ice cream at home with 1 gallon of Borden vanilla ice cream and 5 oz of your Tabasco sauce of choice.

You can try a sample size of Tabasco ice cream at the Tabasco Tasting Bar. If you decide that you want a larger portion you can purchase a cup from the gift shop cashier.

Find a Unique Souvenir in the Tabasco Country Store

This gift shop is filled with one-of-a-kind Tabasco-themed souvenirs and gifts. The Tabasco store has just about anything you could think of and more.

I purchased several mini travel bottles of Tabasco as gifts and also bought the barrel-aged Tabasco sauce because it was a little more unique.

If you’re feeling extra adventurous check out the Tabasco recipes for a build-your-own Bloody Mary bar to try at home.

Enjoy a Meal at TABASCO ®  Restaurant 1868

The restaurant located next door to the retail shop is casual and features authentic Cajun dishes.

You can’t go wrong with gumbo, red beans and rice, boudin egg rolls, and crawfish pie.

You order and pay for your food ahead of time with the cashier.

As an added bonus there is an assortment of Tabasco sauce on your table available to enhance your meal.

If you’re interested in taking your culinary adventure to the next level there are cooking classes at 1868.

Explore the Beauty of the Island on the Jungle Garden Tour

Jungle Gardens is a mysteriously beautiful place with a 14-stop tour through 170 acres that includes one of the oldest timber bamboo groves in America.

Guests can hike, bike, or drive the 3-mile trail.

Bayou Petite Anse Means “Little Cove” in Louisiana

Each stop along the way provides more history of the area. You can download an audio tour on your phone with the Travels Story app to enhance your visit even more.

Jungle Gardens is filled with exotic plants, beautiful flowers, and wildlife providing plenty of photo ops along the way.

Be on the lookout for alligators near the water’s edge.

The Buddha statue on the Jungle Gardens tour was a surprise gift to E. A. McIlhenny from two friends in New York City.

You can get a closer glance at the Buddha statue that’s believed to be over 900 years old by peeking through the window.

Admire The Cleveland Oak

The Cleveland Oak has the largest girth of any oak on Avery Island at almost 25 feet around.

The live oaks in Jungle Gardens are another work of art. The ancient oaks lean and twist and turn.

Visit Avery Island’s “Bird City” at Jungle Gardens

Avery Island known as “Bird City,” is a private bird sanctuary in Jungle Gardens on Avery Island.

There is abundant wildlife to observe on Avery Island including snowy egrets who visit each spring.

There are several platforms where visitors can observe the birds from a safe distance.

If you’re a birder, don’t forget to pack binoculars to get a better view of the egrets.

Jungle Gardens Gift Shop

I love to purchase art when I visit a destination. I found an assortment of prints to choose from in the gift shop.

I now have “Hot Peppers with Old Barn” by artist Steve Seneca displayed in my kitchen.

How Much Time Should You Allow for Your Visit to Avery Island?

I would budget at least 2 hours for a visit.

The Tabasco tour lasts around 45 minutes and the Jungle Gardens experience lasts around 1.25 minutes.

If you plan on eating and shopping you may want to allow more time for your visit.

When is the Tabasco Factory Closed?

The Tabasco Factory is closed on major holidays including:

• New Year’s Eve
• New Year’s Day
• Easter Sunday
• 4th of July
• Thanksgiving Day
• Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

Where is the Tabasco Factory Located?

The Tabasco Factory is located in Iberia Parish at 32 Wisteria Road, Avery Island, LA, only 10 miles from New Iberia, LA.

The Tabasco Factory is a Great Road Trip Stop

Distance to The Tabasco Factory:

• Houma, LA (87- miles – 1hr 29 minutes)
• Lake Charles, LA ( 104. 2 miles – 1 hr 50 minutes)
• New Orleans, LA (137.4 miles – 2 hrs 13 minutes)

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How long is the Tabasco Factory Tour? What was...

• United States    
• Louisiana (LA)    
• Avery Island    
• Things to Do in Avery Island    
• TABASCO Brand Factory Tour & Museum

TABASCO Brand Factory Tour & Museum Questions & Answers

How long is the Tabasco Factory Tour? What was the cost?

Its Free, but it costs $1 to get on the island. The tour itself is under 30 mins, however because of the store and I would plan 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

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Ask a question.

Get quick answers from TABASCO Brand Factory Tour & Museum staff and past visitors.

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Were planning a trip to Louisiana later this year and I just found out we can visit the Tabasco factory.

Are there any, more artisan, hot sauce factories in LA that are open for visitors?

Thats an excellent question – Id never really thought of it!

I looked up the other famous hot sauces from Louisiana – Franks, Crystal, Louisiana – but none of them offer anything. There may be artisanal ones out there, but so far theyve eluded me & to be honest if I found a tour offered it may very well be the first time Id ever heard of the sauce as wed be getting a bit obscure. And Im a hot sauce fan!

For your sake I hope someone will chime in with something. For what its worth, the Tabasco visit is best done on a weekday to see anything happening – it was pretty quiet the Sunday I went, and I remember the visit more for the store than for anything else. I bought an industrial-sized version of their jalapeño sauce! They also have a limited edition bottle only sold there that is a step above the typical stuff.

Scott, we may need you as our personal tour guide, first the music tips in my road trip post, now the hot sauce.. 🙂

I didnt know Franks is from LA originally, but I did see the brand or name Muriels pop up here and there. Im trying to find out more, but it seems everybody and their cousin are now making hot sauce, as do we occasionally, and its hard to figure out how local, original, small or big some of these brands are.

Stop 3 Barrel Aging Cooperage

As you leave the greenhouse, youll see another building which is the Tabasco Barrel Museum.

Inside youll find exhibits explaining the barrel aging process of Tabasco peppers, including a video showing how its aged and artifacts from the last couple of centuries.

Just outside of the museum area is the cooperage where you can see hundreds of barrels of Tabasco peppers being aged. The tops of the barrels are covered with a layer of salt to help prevent impurities from getting in the barrel.

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Does The Tabasco Factory Tour Reveal This As The Secret To Success

Is the secret to success simply committing to one thing and then trying any and everything to make that thing work?

And when it comes to earning a living through our own creativity, does it pay to create different works or to focus on one thing and one thing only and market the hell out of that?

Creatively.

That’s a lot of introspection to wrangle out of a Louisiana hot sauce tour.

But the Tabasco Factory tour seems to invite thought, time, reflection.

Stop 10 Restaurant 1868

It was about 2:30pm by this point, so we decided to have lunch at Restaurant 1868! seeing as they had pet-friendly seating on their porch and it was a nice day. 1868 is the year that Edmund McIlhenny founded the Tabasco company, hence the restaurants name.

Their menu had all kinds of tasty-sounding options, so as usual I had a hard time choosing what to get.

Id enjoyed trying boudin in Lafayette a few days before, so I ended up ordering the Boudin Po Boy, while Shae got the Fiesta Nacho Supreme. Both our meals were tasty and reasonably priced.

Restaurant 1868! also offers a make-your-own Bloody Mary bar, so Shae took advantage of that being available seeing as I would be the one driving us to New Orleans that afternoon.

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Tabasco Sauce Factory Tour

Touring the island gives visitors a rare look into the factory process, as well as several different tour options to enjoy. Some of the tour offerings focus on the surrounding wildlife and sustainable production habits. On the contrary, other educational points of interest focus on the history of the brand and the family behind it.

A post shared by Thibault Mortegoute on Apr 8, 2017 at 5:06am PDT

Open daily from 9 am to 4 pm, you can take a factory tour of the Tabasco bottling plant. Here, guests can enjoy a self-guided tour with ten different stops. Here, exhibits detail the process, as well as a short history film in the onsite museum.

Other stops along the tour include the greenhouse, a look at the barrel process, the bottling process, and a trip to the onsite store and restaurant. As the visit continues, it becomes apparent that many significant changes have occurred over the years. In addition, the modernized process is impressive, to say the least.

What Is Cincinnati Chili

Cincinnati Chili lives up to its name insomuch thats its from Cincinnati and its main ingredient is chili. Sort of . The chili in this dish is nothing like chili eaten in Texas or sold in cans across America. Instead, its more like a Greek meat sauce with flavors of cinnamon, clove and bay leaf. Its kind of like pastitsio meets spagbol meets a burrito.

In Cincinnati, cooks start by topping oval plates with spaghetti and then smother the simple pasta strands with highly seasoned meat sauce. Based on how the chili is ordered, they finish by adding the following:

• Chili Spaghetti Nothing The name says it all.
• Cincinnati Three Way Chili Lots of Grated Cheddar Cheese
• Cincinnati Four Way Chili Either Chopped Onions or Kidney Beans and Lots of Grated Cheddar Cheese.
• Cincinnati Five Way Chili Chopped Onions, Kidney Beans and Lots of Grated Cheddar Cheese.

You may be wondering about Cincinnati One Way Chili. Wonder no more. One Way Chili isnt a thing. Without the fixings, its just plain spaghetti and we dont play that way.

Pro Tip Dont count out Cincinnati Chili if its combination of disparate ingredients sounds weird to you. In our opinion and, more importantly, the opinion of millions of hungry midwesterners, Cincinnati Chili is dee-licious.

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Where Is The Best Cincinnati Chili

Cincinnati is the obvious answer to the question of wheres the best Cincinnati Chili. The better question is where to find the best Cincinnati style Chili in Cincinnati. Unlike the specific ways to order Cincinnati Chili, that answer isnt so easy.

Some people will quickly respond with Skyline Chili , the citys 800-pound chili gorilla. Not only does Skyline have a secret recipe and numerous locations, but eating at Skyline is an absolute must for its slice of midwestern culture.

Others will respond with Camp Washington Chili , a local institution with just one location and prestigious accolades that include a James Beard award. As a bonus, this Cincinnati chili parlor has a dinner menu and hours that extend through the night.

As noted above, Cincinnati has more than 100 chili parlors. Other top Cincinnati Chili restaurants include Blue Ash Chili , Chili Time , Dixie Chili , Empress Chili , Gold Star Chili , Pleasant Ridge Chili and Price Hill Chili .

Pro Tip Dont twirl your spaghetti when you eat Cincinnati Chili in its home city. Locals are choppers instead of twirlers and will know right away that youre not a native Ohioan.

Try Some Of My Other Hot Sauce Recipes

• How to Make Hot Sauce from Chili Powders

Check out more Hot Sauce Recipes or learn more about How to Make Hot Sauce with lots of answer to frequently asked questions, such as pH and acidity, processing, and where to buy hot sauce woozy bottles. Grab a couple bottles of tabasco sauce!

Got any questions? Ask away! Im happy to help. If you enjoy this recipe, I hope youll leave a comment with some STARS. Also, please share it on social media. Dont forget to tag us at #ChiliPepperMadness. Ill be sure to share! Thanks! Mike H.

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The Tabasco Factory Tour Review

Avery Island gets people guessing from the start.

First, its not an island, at least not in the conventional sense.

Its a 2.5 mile wide peak of salt that rises, island-like, from the surrounding swamps and bayous of the Deep American South .

Second, it’s the home of Tabasco, the most famous hot pepper sauce in the world.

Today, the Tabasco Factory runs a slick operation beneath the Louisiana sun. Tabasco bottles line up for photo ops while glassy miniatures wait in the gift shop and Avery Island gumbo comes with no fewer than six different Tabasco versions.

And if hot sauce golf bags, key rings and clothes are all that’s been missing from your life, you’ll find them all here.

But a Tabasco factory tour also reveals a lot more. It talks about the mystery that is the secret to success.

What To See On Avery Island And Nearby

But your tour of the Tabasco Factory wont take up your entire day. The other place to visit on Avery Island is . The 170-acre botanical garden and bird sanctuary was created by McIllhennys son Ned in 1895 to protect the areas snowy egrets. It opened to the public in 1935 and has a number of animals and sculptures, including a famous Buddha.

On your way back to Lafayette, stop by town of New Iberia. The Bayou Teche Museum has exhibits on the bayou that surrounds the parish including its notable residents, history, and food. Youll find traditional Mardi Gras costumes and zydeco instruments in the exhibits.

Shadows on the Teche is a preserved sugar plantation that covers its history, including the lives of the enslaved people that lived there. In addition to tours of the home, visitors can wander throguh the gardens. You can also tour the Conrad Rice Mill , the oldest operating rice mill in America.

On nearby Jefferson Island, Rip Van Winkle Gardens was built in 1870 by actor Joseph Jefferson, who played Rip Van Winkle in a stage production of the Washington Irving tale. It is believed that the cypress wood included in the house was originally planted by Jean Lafitte. Theres also an onsite cafe and a bed and breakfast.

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Tabasco And The Secret To Success

Today, Tabasco retails in over 185 countries, in over 20 languages and dialects and has even appeared in the world of James Bond. The business generates over $100 million dollars each year – and every single bottle is filled in the Tabasco Factory here on Avery Island Louisiana.

Yet, the story began back in 1868 with a young man who had lost everything in America’s Civil War.

Edmund McIlhenny dreamed of putting a bottle of Tabasco on every table and he and his heirs have arguably achieved just that.

The recipe is largely unchanged and the bottle reads like a history book.

But how did McIlhenny do it?

Why this hot sauce, why here?

How Hot Is Tabasco Sauce

Even though tabasco peppers are very hot, actual Tabasco Hot Sauce is not quite as hot as the actual peppers, measuring in at 2,5005,000 Scoville Heat Units . That is about as hot as a mild to medium-heat jalapeno pepper.

That’s it, my friends. I hope you enjoy the sauce. If you make it, shoot me a pic or post it on social. I’d love to take a look!

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Avery Island: Home Of Tabasco Brand Pepper Sauce

Stop 4 blending building.

The fourth stop on the tour is the blending building.

Inside youll learn about the blending process where the Tabasco peppers that have been aged for up to three years in the cooperage are blended with distilled vinegar and stirred periodically for two to three weeks in 1,800 gallon vats made of wood.

Before the sauce is bottled, the seeds and skins from the peppers are removed and both scientific and taste testing is done to ensure it meets their quality expectations.

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Welcome To The Louisiana Way Of Life

Good food. Good times. Good people. Thats what the Louisiana way of life is all about. And as Louisianas original hot sauce, its what were all about too.

We got our start in 1928 in New Iberia, Louisiana, when we carefully selected the best peppers, combined them with vinegar and salt and left them to ferment during the aging process. The result was a perfectly simple balance of heat and flavor that earned us a reputation for quality and taste.

More than 93 years later, and not a whole lots changed. We still make Louisiana Hot Sauce the same way in the same place with the same high standards. Sure, over the years, weve added to our family of recipes with flavored sauces, wing sauces, new pepper varieties and more, but weve always stayed true to who we are perfectly balanced, perfectly original and always perfectly Louisiana.

The Strawberry Tabasco Pepper Jelly Recipe Story

Last year, Mark and I went to Avery Island , to a Tabasco factory tour. I didn’t write about it much back then because we didn’t stay as long as we’d planned.

You see, we went right before the 4th of July weekend, when Mark had some time off of work. We went on like a Thursday morning, heading out of our driveway about 2 hours after the time we thought that the bumper-to-bumper Baton Rouge morning traffic would end.

Well, y’all, were we ever wrong!!! Yep!! Passing through Baton Rouge an hour into our trip was a stop-and-go nightmare. For like two hours, we moved about 2 to 5 feet down I-12 at a snail’s pace, only for Mark to have to stop for 30 seconds to 1 minute, and then drive forward again.

Ya’ll, it was pure staycation torture for both of us!! After the first 30 minutes, both of our backs started to hurt, and after we finally made it through Baton Rouge 2 long, miserable hours later, we were both cranky, hungry, and hurting.

So, we rode the lighter traffic out another hour. Then, we stopped to eat pho at a groovy little restaurant in Lafayette. Satiated and filled with the pho glow, we arrived at Avery Island another hour later, tired but hopeful.

Well, I’m sorry to say that neither one of us could appreciate the beauty of the Tabasco Factory grounds that day. So, we popped into a few tour stops, then spent the rest of our short time there at the Tabasco Country Store.

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Why Was Tabasco So Successful

Was it his business partner, the less well known John. C. Henshaw, who opened up sales to the prosperous north east?

Was it the companys devotion to family, with a 5th generation CEO today?

Or was it the companys approach to marketing and embracing new technology while keeping the basics of the product the same?

They made an early move to radio. And were one of the first food companies to get online.

And then there was that pioneering product placement involving The Man with the Golden Gun.

Yes, the Tabasco factory tour reveals that they were the masters of marketing. Keeping up with the new. Retaining the old.

The shape of the bottle hasn’t changed. McIlhenny initially forged them from recycled cologne bottles as that was all that was available in the post-war years. A green top replaces the wax seal but the label remains the same: Tabasco, Avery Island, McIlhenny.

What Goes With Cincinnati Chili

To be honest, you dont NEED to add anything to our Cincinnati Chili recipe but you may WANT to add some hot sauce for extra zip. We added a few dashes of Louisiana hot sauce and the smoky flavor worked well.

Buy Louisiana Hot Sauce from Amazon.

The fine folks in Cincinnati often add crushed oyster crackers to their Cincinnati Chili spaghetti dishes. Since were not from Cincinnati, thats overkill for us. The dish isnt exactly dainty not that were complaining.

While were on the same page about not adding oyster crackers, we agree to disagree when it comes to dessert. Its a local tradition to eat a York Peppermint Patty after eating a plate of chili spaghetti in Cincinnati. Its and American candy classic!

Discover more American candy favorites.

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Strawberry Tabasco Pepper Jelly

Allow me to present my all new strawberry Tabasco pepper jelly, y’all!! It’s oh soooo sweet with a little bit of yum-delicious heat. And it’s pourable, spreadable and party sharing-friendly, too. But, you may just want to keep enough on hand to spoil yourself straight food silly every homemade pepper jelly craving now and then. Yep and yay…

Disclosure: A Sprinkling of Cayenne is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Where To Stay Near Avery Island

There are no accommodations in Avery Island proper. DoubleTree by Hilton Lafayette is the closest full-service hotel, located on the southern end of the city. It has a restaurant and bar, an outdoor pool, and an airport shuttle.

In New Iberia, the Holiday Inn Express & Suites New Iberia-Avery Island is the top-rated property, with daily hot breakfast, an outdoor pool, and in-rom microwaves and refrigerators. Rip Van Winkle Gardens has onsite cottages . Theres even an RV park at Conrad Rice Mill.

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