TABASCO SAUCE FACTORY AND FOOD TOUR | Avery Island, Louisiana

Good morning from beautiful Avery Island in deep south Louisiana and today is a full day with Tabasco. If you didn't know this is the home of Tabasco. Tabasco was founded on Avery Island in the year 1868. Today we're going to the Tabasco Museum, we're gonna go to the pepper fields, we're gonna go to the barrel aging warehouse, we're gonna also see how they blend Tabasco at the factory. And lunch is at 1868 which is the restaurant here. We're gonna also do a Tabasco tasting with one of the owners of the company and then we're gonna go out in the bayou on an airboat ride. Alright follow me for an exciting day here on Avery Island. We're in Tabasco country. I believe they bottled the Tabasco from 1905 to 1980 there. Let's go, Tabasco Museum. Here we are on Avery Island going to the Tabasco Museum and let's see what's inside. Our first stop here in Avery Island is the Tabasco Museum. Here we're gonna learn how it all started back in 1868. Perfecto, Dave let's do it. Is this the whole group? The whole group. Why don't you come over here. I'm Shane. Shane, pleasure. So if you don't know the history of Tabasco, Tabasco sauce was founded by Edmund McKinney in 1868. So he married Maria Eliza Avery which was part of Louisiana's most notable families and her family owns this island. So they eventually moved here. He was a banker. During that time the Civil War broke out and he invented Tabasco sauce and he started selling it in New Orleans. So at his lifetime he sold around 300,000 Tabasco sauce bottles and they make roughly 750,000 per day right now. Going to the pepper fields to pick some peppers. Avery Island's about 2,200 acres. You guys know this already but it's not really an island it's just a high point in the marsh. You know when people say island I think they have this misconception that we're in some sort of tropical paradise. Well I think it's paradise. Certainly not like white sandy beaches and palm trees and all that kind of stuff. They've been called islands at least as far back as anybody around here knows. All of our production facilities here we're gonna go through everything today and talk about you know from seed to sauce. The process all told is about five years. All right take one. So right here we have the pepper fields. This is where most of the production happens here on Avery Island for Tabasco. You see these are the peppers. Carlos what'd you do? Carlos? I can barely hear you guys. He had a pepper. They're really hot though. They're hot. They're hot. Off to the barrel warehouse. What we sometimes call aging or the mash warehouse. It's over. That was hard man. Yeah I tried one. I didn't try it. I had a tiny bite. He had the whole thing. Three years old pepper mash right here. This is three years? Yep. Oh wow what a difference. So we're gonna taste them. We're actually gonna taste them both. Yeah a little more. So these didn't have to go with salt on them? Woo. Get the salt off before y'all eat it. Hot. Don't rub your eyes when you're breathing. I broke his. See if my taste buds work. Oh my god. This is nothing compared to that. Three years old. Much easier. I do this every day. I know I know. It's good. It's delicious. It's like wine. So everybody who tastes the mash gets a spoon. I love it. We should have some. I'm gonna get some more. That's sick. We got a spoon. Dave got a spoon. It is awesome. Yes. We're going now blending? Yes. Now we're going to learn how they blend Tabasco. Blending and bottling. This is the beard guard. Thank you. This is the beard guard. What is this? Oh that's beautiful. Cover it up. It turns out all we do here is blend. We take mash, we mix it with vinegar, we stir it, and we change the name to blending because that's more what we do here. We take where they mix the mash with the vinegar for 28 days and then they strain out all the pulp, the seeds, and the skin and then it goes to bottling. Oh my god. The pepper is just like it's taking over. I gotta get out of here. Going to bottling. Bottling. Let's go. This is the bottling process here at Tabasco. They bottle over 750,000 bottles of Tabasco every day and that is almost double what the original founder sold in his lifetime. They do that every day. 750,000. He sold about 300,000 in his lifetime. 22 years that he actually owned the company. Crazy. Over here they box it. So here they box the bottle. 185 countries, 22 languages. When we walk over to A16 we'll see an order pack for Australia which is really just good luck on my part. Germany, the UK, Japan, Mexico, Canada are going to be the largest export markets for Tabasco sauce. Mexico and Canada make sense close by. Obviously pepper sauce is huge in Mexico. Brazil is another really good customer but we have a global footprint. We're really proud of that. This is our export. This board represents what's over in this side of the warehouse. So this is all packed for export and everything for export is packed to order. Look at the sauce. So that was the export warehouse. Everything packed to order. This is a domestic warehouse. Everything in this building is going to turn over in about two weeks. So this is about two weeks worth of inventory of Tabasco brand pepper sauce. There's two weeks worth of Tabasco sauce in the United States. So at any given time around the U.S. we have about four weeks worth of sauce scattered around warehouses we work with. I think it's actually eight. This is around the country where we stage products. So almost everything here is prepared with Tabasco sauce. Some are different. I'm feeling going to Avery Island red beans and sausage that's prepared with Tabasco habanero. That's right. Oh my god. That sounds delicious but he was telling me to go with the crawfish nachos. I don't know. Somebody told me over there. I mean it looks good but. So right here we got two different dishes. I got the crawfish nachos the same and I got the Avery Island red beans with sausage made with Tabasco, habanero Tabasco. So what do you think of the crawfish nachos? Yeah I like them a lot. They're fire right? Crawfish if you don't know what crawfish are it's like tiny small little lobsters and it's local here in Louisiana. Next up we're going to the country store to try some Tabasco ice cream. That's right. Chipotle ice cream. Thank you. So you guys got some ice cream? Yes. Yes? Yes. As long as you're not recording. I'm not recording. Okay sure because you sure look like you're recording. I am recording. Here we have jalapeno Tabasco ice cream. Oh wow. That's delicious. I mean you can taste a little bit of jalapeno like a little bit you know. It's fantastic though. So here they also have chili. Really good. I like it. Lots of stuff. Oh yeah we're gonna get the Nice. That's so me right now. Oh yeah. Next up we're headed to a Tabasco tasting. We're gonna try all the Tabasco sauces. Oh I can't wait. Habanero was hot and they even have a hotter one called the scorpion. I don't know if I can handle that though. Will you try the scorpion Carlos? I already tried scorpion's dad. Good. Good. It's all good. The way I taste Tabasco is to put something on the back of his hand. Everything we make we put some Tabasco in. It's got a nice flavor. Not a lot of heat. A little bit. A little bit. Perfect barbecue. It'll kick really fast. This is the hottest one I got. Here we go. Seriously hot. Actually it sneaks up. It's really good though. It's nice. Next up we're going on an airboat ride through the bayou. Gators and turtles. Here we go. Rocking and rolling. So so Tonight we're going to Abbeville to Richard's and we're gonna eat crab with Tabasco. I can't wait I'm starving. It's pronounced Delcom and it's uh seafood heavy shrimp is the so this is a net place you know that two shards that's what they do they make nets for shrimp boats. So it's not Richard's it's Richards. It's Richards. Yeah mine too. What you drinking there buddy? Louisiana's biggest brewery. This brewery is located about one hour from New Orleans. It's crossing the lake basically. It's good. It's good. The beers are like really nice here. Yeah I feel like in all the places I go and they're like super heavy. I don't really like IPA. Super heavy IPA. Tabasco. Tabasco. So we're here in the back of Richard's and we're seeing them boil the crabs. I'm gonna get this. I'm gonna get boiled crab and boiled shrimp. Crab ball. Fire with tartar sauce. Crawfish roll-up and then what I did is I put Tabasco in my tartar sauce. It's basically like a spring roll you know. Oh my god. Six was right. This is fantastic. Everywhere there's meat. The hard thing is you're fighting to get it you know. And a first date? Never. I found a knife. You're sitting at a... So here we have the crab. The claws. Dive in. This is how you open it. There we go. Yeah right. Take off that. Crack this in half. Take all that meat and then you just put your teeth in. Just pull. A lot of stuff in here. I think the intestines is right here. And you went for it. That's actually pretty good. But I'm missing the secret sauce though. That's right. We drove 45 minutes. It's some good crab. Avery Allen was sick today. We had an incredible tour with Tabasco. We did so many things with Tabasco today. If you guys have a chance try the scorpion. Tabasco is super hot but worth a try. And yeah that crab was amazing and I'll see you guys tomorrow.