Louisiana Hot Sauce

In South Louisiana, many tourists proudly remember our state as one for the best cajun, creole food. Different cultures are attracted year around for our countless festivals and events.

For example the Great Chili Challenge, The famous Gumbo Cookoff, Breaux Bridge’s Crawfish festival, Cattle Festival in Abbeville, Cajun Hot Sauce Festival, and plenty more!

Avery Island, located approximately 9 miles from New Iberia, is identified for their Tabasco Pepper Sauce Factory. The Tabasco brand product is made by the Mcilhenny Company, who founded it 1868 on Avery Island. Today, the company is still up and ran by the family-owned business to carry on the legacy and traditions of the company’s creator. 

Edmund Mcilhenny was determined to create this pepper sauce to give food flavor and spice. He picked his reddest peppers from his plants, added the Avery Island Salt, mashed them together, and left it in barrels for at least 30 days. Mcilhenny advertised his product in commercials, and eventually sold his sauce throughout the U.S. and England. He called his product “Tabasco,” because that is the “place where the soil is humid” or the “place of the coral or oyster shell."

If the company would stop selling their product, not only would South Louisiana suffer, but many other states as well. Many people have become a custom of using Tabasco to season their food for taste and flavor. If we did not have this ingredient to spice up our food, the Louisiana culture would not be known as it is today!