Historic Louisiana

Since 1868 the McIlhenny family has been
committed to premium products that enliven
the flavor of food. “Our mission is to assure
that our Tabasco ® diamond provides
uncompromising quality,” the family pledges.
McIlhenny Company founder Edmund
McIlhenny was born in Maryland. McIlhenny
arrived in New Orleans in 1841 and became a
banker. He married Mary Eliza Avery in 1859,
and they had eight children. During the Civil
War, the McIlhennys moved to the Avery
Plantation on Petite Anse Island (now Avery
Island) near New Iberia. When conflict
neared, the family moved to Texas and
afterwards returned.
It’s said McIlhenny obtained his special
Capsicum frutescens peppers “after the Civil
War from a traveler recently returned from
Mexico or Central America.” McIlhenny
mashed the peppers with Avery Island salt,
fermented them for thirty days, added
French white wine vinegar, and let them age
at least another month. McIlhenny then
strained the sauce into narrow-necked
cologne-type bottles.
McIlhenny was urged to sell his sauce
commercially. He named it Tabasco ® , a word
of Mexican Indian origin, began marketing it
in 1868, and patented it in 1870.
During McIlhenny’s entire career (1868-
1890) he produced about 350,000 bottles of
Tabasco® Sauce. Today, 550,000 bottles are
produced daily.
Tabasco ® Sauce was sent to soldiers in
Vietnam and in Operation Desert Storm. The
sauce was included in troops’ MRE (Meals
Ready to Eat) packages. Walter McIlhenny,
retired Marine Corps general, even had
a special camouflage holster designed for
the bottles.
President and CEO Paul C. P. McIlhenny
notes “Tabasco ® Sauce remains the leader and
the standard in its condiment category.” New
sauces include milder Tabasco ® green pepper
sauce, zesty Tabasco ® garlic pepper sauce,
super-hot Tabasco ® habanero pepper sauce
and Tabasco ® chipotle pepper sauce.
Tabasco ® Country Stores, stocked with
apparel and gift items, are located on Avery
Island and New Orleans, Louisiana; San
Antonio and Kemah, Texas. Heinz Ketchup
and other food products are now spiced with
Tabasco ® Sauce.
McIlhenny Company sponsors African-
American marketing internships and an
African-American “Real Men Cook” program,
as well as the Food Bank in Los Angeles,
California. The New Orleans House of Blues
Foundation, the “Scottish Treasures” exhibit at
the New Orleans Museum of
Art, and the Pacific exhibit
planned for the National D-
Day Museum all have
McIlhenny Company support.
Aim your computer to
www.TABASCO.com and
experience PepperFest ® or visit
the McIlhenny Company
Visitors Center on Avery Island,
with bottling plant and
museum, Jungle Gardens and
Bird City, the sanctuary begun
by Edward Avery McIlhenny,
who created a garden paradise
with native and exotic plants.
Rest assured. McIlhenny
Company’s future is secure! It
always stores some of its
specially selected pepper seeds
in a fireproof, walk-in vault on
Avery Island as a hedge against
any crop failure.
MCILHENNY
COMPANY
✧
Top, left: An 1857 portrait of Tabasco ® brand
pepper sauce inventor Edmund McIlhenny.
Below: A global cultural icon from
Louisiana: The modern Tabasco ® brand
pepper sauce bottle.
SHARING THE HERITAGE
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