Tabasco plant at Avery Island planning visitor improvements

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AVERY ISLAND, La. (KPLC) - Sitting high on top of a salt dome at Avery Island sits a Louisiana classic.The McIlhenny family's Tabasco plant has been making Louisiana's best known hot sauce since 1868. CEO Tony Simmons is a fifth generation member of the family.

"Edmund McIlhenny, who was my great-great grandfather who invented Tabasco, was actually a banker who lived in New Orleans," Simmons said. "He loved to season his food. He had created a condiment that he used on his food to make his food taste better that was made from these peppers."

McIlhenny began making Tabasco after he lost everything in the Civil War.

"His diary tells us by the end of the Civil War, when he returned to Avery Island, he found one of his Tabasco plants growing at the edge of a chicken coop. So every Tabasco plant that we plant today to make Tabasco with, is an heirloom plant from that original.

"Inside the Tabasco Visitors Center, you get to see just how Tabasco sauce is manufactured and why it's so popular around the world."

After aging in wooden barrels, the sauce makes it way into the iconic bottle with the green neckband and red top. It's bottled in 22 languages and sent to 186 countries around the world…all from Avery Island in Iberia Parish.

M.J. and Cheryl Solieau are here on a pilgrimage.

"It makes me proud of my heritage," Cheryl said. "Also, it's American made and these days, that's a really important thing."

It's part of my history and my passion," M.J. said. "I put Tabasco on everything. I've developed a reputation for that, which I'm proud of. That's what it means to come here and get Tabasco sauce."

Employees are loyal to the brand. Elias Landry retired here after 38 years.

"I get a thrill whenever I see it on movies or on television and they're in a restaurant and you see the table and there's a bottle of Tabasco," Elias said. "You know, it's always fascinating."

"A lot of folks from Louisiana feel very proud that they can go anywhere in the world and ask for a bottle of Tabasco, it'll be brought to their table and they know it was made in their state," Simmons said.

To satisfy consumer demand, Tabasco is now bottled in seven different flavors with various heat levels.

For information on visiting the Tabasco plant, go to:

http://www.tabasco.com/avery-island/visitor-information/