Tabasco Madness, Avery Island LA (March 19, 2014)

The Place
 

Everyone has a bottle of Tabasco in their fridge.  Did you ever wonder where it came from?  It comes from this beautiful little island in Louisiana, which smells a lot like Tabasco sauce (by the way). 

The Adventure

If you believe the factory tour, the peppers are picked by hand.  90% of the peppers are grown in Central and South America, the rest are grown on Avery Island.  The pickers have a stick painted the right color red to compare against the peppers to make sure that the ones that they pick are perfectly ripe.  They call it “le petit baton rouge.”

All of the Tabasco sauces are made at this one plant in Louisiana.  The peppers are initially ground up with a little salt.  The salt is from the salt dome that Avery Island sits upon.  They also sell some of their salt – yes we bought a container…

The ground up “mash” is then put into oak barrels.  They use barrels from Jack Daniels that they “unchar” thus removing the charcoal and the whiskey flavoring.  Jack Daniels can only use them once, Tabasco can use them for years.  The mash barrel lids are covered with local salt to keep foreign agents out.  The mash ferments for 3 years.

At the end of 3 years, the fermented mash is stirred in a big vat with vinegar for 28 days and then strained and bottled.  We were able to see the bottling process.

When a barrel is no longer usable, they chop it up and sell it to burn in your barbeque.  The salt from the lids they compress into salt licks for the animals on the island.  The solids and seeds they strain out are put into “hot products” including jelly beans and Ben Gay.  They give the appearance that nothing is wasted.

You only pay a $1 toll to get on the island and the tour is free.  However, we then spent $50 at the Gift Shop.  Smart marketing.  Our most amazing find? Tabasco Pickled Okra.  Our new favorite pickle.  They don’t sell it at home, but we will try to find some in the stores down here to take back with us. 

The Science

The substance that makes peppers spicy is called capsaicin.  It is measured in Scoville units.  The original Tabasco in your fridge is 2,500-5,000 Scoville units.  As points of comparison, Habanero peppers are 350,000 Scoville units and Jalapenos are 3,500.