Hot Stuff!

I once saw a magazine article about the Mclhennhy Company and its universally known pepper sauce, Tabasco. I knew that if I were ever in the vicinity of Avery Island, Lousiana, I'd have to visit the factory. Well, guess where I went today?

This family-owned business has been making the beloved red sauce for four generations. It's a unique situation, what with every single bottle of Tabasco shipped worldwide (to 160 countries) being created in one fairly small factory in this remote part of Louisiana. First, a bit about Avery Island. It isn't an island in the usual sense. Rather than being surrounded by water, it sits amid a vast swampland. What's known as the "island" is actually a rise in the landscape that forms the top of a huge salt dome that extends fifteen miles into the earth. Avery Island is the site of the first working salt mine in the U.S. Salt is still mined in the depths of the island, and some of it is used to manufacture the pepper sauce.

The red tabasco peppers from which the sauce is made grow on the island. But these days the bulk of the peppers are grown on farms in Central and South America. The peppers are picked by hand just as they reach a specific shade of red. According to the McIlhenny recipe's strict rules, peppers must be ground up and mixed with salt on the day of their harvest. This pepper "mash" is sent from the various locations to Avery Island, where it is aged in barrels for three years. At the three year mark, the barrels are opened and the mash is mixed with a special vinegar. This solution is slowly stirred by machine for twenty eight days. Then the pulp is strained out and the resultant red liquid is bottled and made ready for shipment.

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Those of us on the tour today got to see some of this process and learned a good bit about pepper sauce and the McIlhenny family. The family has quite an enclave on this isolated salt dome cap. Much of the "island" is devoted to a splendiferously huge drive-through "Jungle Garden," boasting hundreds of enormous live oak trees, blooming plants, and even a sitting Buddha who gazes out over a lovely pond with an arched bridge. Unfortunately, part way through the Jungle Garden, my camera battery went dead and I wasn't able get many photos.

The Jungle Garden is also home to "Bird City" a large colony of egrets established by one of the early McIlhennys.



I couldn't help but wonder what it must be like to be born into a family like the McIlhennys. From the earliest age you must be aware that you are destined to make pepper sauce, and that by so doing you are able to live in a magnificent corner of the world where time seems to stand still. Not such a bad deal.