Spice Up Your Life: Exploring Avery Island

This summer, three friends and I decided to road trip through Louisiana. Our trip started in Houston and eventually ended in New Orleans, with stops in Lake Charles, Kisatchie National Forest, Lafayette, Avery Island and Baton Rouge. Avery Island was definitely one of the highlights of the trip, as Tabasco sauce, one of the world’s most famous hot sauces, is manufactured there and is celebrating its 150th birthday this year.

Tabasco was first produced by Edmund McIlhenny in 1868 and has since become widely recognized around the world through its unique taste and pop culture references. The privately owned company’s headquarters remain on Avery Island. The current CEO, Tony Simmons, is actually Edmund McIlhenny’s great-great grandson.

Once we got to the island (which is actually a salt dome in Louisiana), we were able to take a self-guided tour through all the various factories and museums. We learned the history of the recipe and bottle design, and we walked through a greenhouse that was growing the tabasco peppers. The company uses tabasco peppers and mixes it with the salt found on Avery Island. After the mixture is aged, vinegar is added and packaged in cologne-stylized bottles.

In addition to the self-guided tour, the gift shop offers free samples of Tabasco sauces and Tabasco-inspired foods. As we walked through the shop, we tasted Tabasco-flavored olives and Tabasco-flavored Coke. Tabasco currently has nine different variations of their sauce: Original Red, Green Jalapeño, Chipotle Pepper, Buffalo Style, Habanero Pepper, Garlic Pepper, Sweet & Spicy, Sriracha and the new 2017 Scorpion Sauce.

One of the stops in the Jungle Gardens. This is “The Cleveland Oak” which is over 20 feet in circumference and over 300 years old. From left: Sarah Oldfield, George Shaheen, Chris Wray, Maddy Payne. 

My friends and I worked through all nine of the sauces and finished with the hottest one, Scorpion Sauce. Suffice it to say, I was definitely hyperventilating after trying the Scorpion Sauce and, as my luck would have it, there was not a drop of water or tissues available in the shop. And so, I, along with my friends, made a scene in the shop for about 10 minutes until we were able to pull ourselves together. In conclusion, I would not recommend it for the faint-hearted.

The Scorpion Pepper is the world’s second-hottest pepper and is ranked on the Scoville heat scale, which measures the “hotness” of a chili pepper and sauces derived from chili peppers, at roughly 2 million Scoville units. In comparison, the standard jalapeño pepper is ranked 2,500-5,000 Scoville units. There was also a restaurant next to the gift shop, which serves many Cajun and Caribbean inspired dishes.

The self-guided tour, which takes you through the greenhouse, museum and factories, costs $5.50, and is open 9 a.m.-4 p.m. daily. Holidays may change these times.

A mural in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Friends (from left) Sarah Oldfield, Maddy Payne, George Shaheen and Chris Wray.

 

Also located on Avery Island are the Jungle Gardens, which are only a short, three-minute drive from the Tabasco museums and gift shop. In the Jungle Gardens, visitors drive through and have the option to stop at various attractions such as alligators, botanical gardens and Bird City - where hundreds of snowy egrets gather each year around June.

If you’d like to visit the Jungle Gardens, entry is $8 per vehicle, and the gardens are open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Holidays may change these times. Combined tickets for the Tabasco tour and the Jungle Gardens are also available for $12.50.