Tabasco was created by Edmund McIlhenny in 1868 on Avery Island, Louisiana.
Avery Island isn’t an island. It is a large salt dome or mound surrounded by wetlands.
McIlhenny was from Maryland originally, but he moved to New Orleans, Louisiana to seek his fortune in banking and was doing well until the civil war. But the aftermath of the war destroyed his business.
He had acquired some tabasco pepper seeds and he planted them in his garden.
Sometime around 1867, McIlhenny began experimenting with a sauce made from the peppers. He crushed the red peppers from his plants, mixed them with the salt found naturally on Avery Island and aged the mixture for a month in crocks.
Today, peppers are crushed and stored in barrels and topped with salt for up to three years.
The pepper seeds and skins are strained and the juice remaining is mixed with white wine vinegar and then aged for three months in these barrels.
After taste testing and bottling the Tabasco Sauce is born.
After touring we did some Tabasco tastings!
The ice cream was really good!
Jungle gardens
In 1935, McIlhenny opened his 170 acre gardens to the public to enjoy his collection of camellias, azaleas and other imported plants.
McIlhenny Home
A bird sanctuary where thousands of egrets arrive in the spring and a few hang around year round.
Along with a few other critters.
The Buddha statue acquired by the McIlhenny Family is believed to be 900 years old.
If you notice, the statue is missing the bottom part of one of his ears. A few years back, the ear was broken off by a visitor to the park and taken as a souvenir. Hope that person got bad juju. The Buddha is now housed behind plexiglass.
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