/en/
[imagefullwidth src="https://www.sauce-piquante.fr/img/cms/tabasco-pub.jpg" alt="Tabasco sauce" size.width="600px" size.height="400px" loading="eager" legend="Tabasco sauces"/]
[row class="c-rcktcms__center"]
[col size="12"]
Tabasco is the best-known hot sauce brand, distributed worldwide. Its use is not limited to Mexican cuisine; it has entered the culture of many peoples and is also used in European, Asian and African cuisine.
The McIlhenny story
Edmund McIlhenny was born in 1815 in the state of Maryland in the United States. He left Maryland in 1840 to go to Louisiana to join the major banking industries that had established themselves there. Just before the Civil War he was wealthy and even became the owner of a bank. However, this was short-lived, because once the Civil War ended where he served as an employee of the Confederate army in Texas, the economy of the southern United States was very fragile and he lost everything. He decided to return to Louisiana to his Avery Island plantation where he grew vegetables and fruits as well as tabasco peppers. Between 1866 and 1868 McIlhenny, probably inspired by a sauce produced by Manuel White, experimented with creating his own sauce. In 1868 he harvested his first peppers and the following year he marketed his first bottles of hot sauce which he called Tabasco Brand Pepper Sauce.
Since 1870, the packaging of Tabasco sauce has barely changed; it uses the famous glass bottle with the same label. He first sold his production in Louisiana and neighboring states. The same year he began distribution in other states and in larger cities like New York, Philadelphia… helped by a large distribution company.
He died in 1890, not considering his invention as a great innovation or as a product that would conquer the world. It was his 2 sons who developed the brand's reputation and began distribution worldwide.
The Tabasco sauce recipe
First of all, Tabasco has nothing to do with tobacco. It's simply the name of the pepper used to make the sauce. The recipe consists of few ingredients but remains complex and time-consuming to make. It's a tabasco pepper purée combined with vinegar and salt, all aged in oak barrels for 3 years. Over the years, the brand has developed its sauce range and offers Tabasco habanero, Tabasco chipotle, Tabasco garlic pepper and Tabasco sweet and spicy.
Until very recently, tabasco peppers were grown on Avery Island, the company's headquarters. Today, most of the production is located in Central and South America, for quality reasons, as the sunshine is more stable and especially to prevent possible bad weather such as storms.
Even today, peppers are harvested by hand to collect perfectly ripe peppers, then they are pureed the same day as harvest.
The pepper purée is immediately placed in oak barrels (old barrels used for aging bourbon). They are then shipped to Avery Island where they will be stored for 3 years.
After 3 years of aging, the pepper purée is mixed with vinegar then bottled and marketed. The salt comes from Avery Island, which is the largest salt factory in the USA.
- Tabasco habanero: 7000 to 8000 Scoville units
- Red Tabasco: 2500 to 5000 Scoville units
- Green Tabasco (with jalapeño pepper): 600 to 800 Scoville units
- Tabasco garlic pepper: 1200 to 1800 Scoville units
- Tabasco sweet and spice: 100 to 600 Scoville units
- Tabasco chipotle: 2000 to 2500 Scoville units
Tabasco in numbers
Tabasco is present in 160 countries, and translated into 22 languages and dialects. Every day 720,000 bottles of Tabasco are produced at Avery Island. Tabasco is packaged in different formats: the 57 ml bottle, the 147 ml bottle that we distribute at sauce piquante, the 3.7L gallon and the 3.7 ml mini. We find Tabasco even in space as it is available in numerous space programs such as on the ISS international shuttle.
Tabasco News
For several years now, Tabasco has been diversifying its range and launching new products. We're happy to be able to offer them to you. We even stock gallons of Tabasco:
There are also:
- Tabasco mustards
- Tabasco steak sauces
- Tabasco wood chips (for hot smoking meats on the barbecue)
Unfortunately, a number of these sauces have been discontinued.
[carrousel products="1522,1121,25,385,1058,765" title="Tabasco" subtitle="the sauces"]
[/col]
[/row]