discover TABASCO®
There are lots of reasons why TABASCO® Brand Pepper Sauce is a worldwide icon - its superior quality, the variety of pepper used and the care and time that goes into making it. The basic recipe, the process by which it's made and the ingredients remain much the same as the original TABASCO® Sauce that Edmund McIlhenny created. Five generations of McIlhennys and employees have dedicated themselves to preserving its legacy.
TABASCO® Facts - Did you know?
- TABASCO® Brand Products were established in 1868 by a banker named Edmund McIlhenny on Avery Island, Louisiana. Avery Island remains the headquarters and it is still owned and operated by descendants of Edmund McIlhenny (McIlhenny Company). In fact, the company president and CEO is Paul McIlhenny - Edmund's great grandson.
- TABASCO® Brand Pepper Sauce is made solely from crushed Tabasco red peppers, Avery Island Salt and distilled vinegar.
- Edmund McIlhenny first bottled TABASCO® Sauce in old cologne bottles.
- Edmund McIlhenny originally wanted to call his sauce 'Petite Anse Sauce' (after Avery Island, which was known as Petite Anse Island), but when family members balked at the commercial use of the name of their island, McIlhenny opted for their 2nd choice - Tabasco.
- Tabasco is believed to be a Central American Indian word that means - 'land where the soil is hot & humid' or 'place of coral or oyster shell'.
- The home of the world famous TABASCO® Brand Pepper Sauce, Avery Island, lies about 140 miles west of New Orleans. It's one of five vertical piercement domes of salt rising above the flat Louisiana Gulf Coast.
- Demand for TABASCO® Sauce spread overseas around 1870 and became worldwide from then onwards.
- Each 57ml bottle of TABASCO® Sauce contains at least 720 drops. Of course, that entirely depends on the strength of your shake!
- Japan boasts the 2nd largest TABASCO® Sauce consumption in the world after the USA and the most common usages for TABASCO® Sauce in Japan are on pizza and spaghetti.
- Every year selected seeds are taken from the peppers grown on Avery Island and stored in a bank vault in New Iberia, Louisiana, to insure against possible crop losses.
- Avery Island welcomes more than 100,000 visitors a year.
- TABASCO® Sauce has been found on the tables and in the kitchens of Buckingham Palace, US Presidents, The Eiffel Tower and in outer space!