Tabasco

Original Tabasco contains just three ingredients: ripe red peppers, Avery Island salt and distilled vinegar. The sauce is still made by the family-owned McIlhenny Company and is sold in more than 195 countries and territories, with labels in 36 languages and dialects.

History

Edmund McIlhenny harvested his first commercial crop of peppers on Avery Island in 1868. A year later he sent 658 bottles to merchants on the Gulf Coast, mainly in New Orleans, and in 1870 he patented the sauce. By the late 1870s Tabasco was sold throughout the United States and in Europe.

The first bottles resembled cologne bottles – with a sprinkler fitment and sealed with green wax. The sauce is concentrated, so it was meant to be sprinkled, not poured. The company has remained in the family and is still based on the same island. Since the 1960s the peppers have also been grown in Latin America, from seed raised on Avery Island.

Did you know?

• The peppers are picked by hand, and their colour is compared with a red-painted stick called "le petit bâton rouge".
• The pepper mash ages for up to three years in white oak barrels, and every batch is personally checked by a member of the McIlhenny family.
• According to the company, the name Tabasco is a word from a Mexican Indian language, usually interpreted as "place where the soil is humid".
• Tabasco has been part of US military ration packs since the 1980s and has flown to the Skylab station and the International Space Station.
• In 2009 the company received a Royal Warrant from Queen Elizabeth II.

What we stock

We sell the classic Original Red sauce in 60 and 150 ml bottles. Green, made from jalapeño peppers, is milder, Habanero with papaya and mango is considerably hotter, and Scorpion, made from scorpion peppers with guava and pineapple, is the hottest of all. Sriracha (256 ml), made from red jalapeño peppers with garlic, is thicker and also suits Asian dishes.

A few drops of Original Red season eggs, pizza, soups, sauces and a Bloody Mary. Green Tabasco goes well with fish, seafood and guacamole, Sriracha with noodles, rice and burgers. Add the hotter varieties drop by drop.