Tabasco sauce

Shortly after Edmund McIlhenny returned to Avery Island, Louisiana, from self-imposed exile during the Civil War, he obtained some hot pepper seeds from a traveler who had recently arrived in the US state from Central America. McIlhenny planted them on Avery Island, and then experimented with pepper sauces until he hit upon one he liked. 

In 1870, two years after he begun selling his creation, Edmund McIlhenny received a patent for his singular formula for processing peppers into a fiery red sauce. He created a brand name "Tabasco" for this new product. The name comes from the Mexican state of Tabasco. 

When Tabasco Sauce first hit the shelves in 1868, the price, when adjusted for inflation, of a single bottle was a massive $17.

A Tabasco advertisement from ca. 1905

Tabasco made its first mass appearance on the battlefield during the Vietnam War. Thousands of bottles were shipped to American troops who appreciated the taste of home. It  was introduced by McIlhenny’s great-grandson Walter, who'd become CEO of the family business in 1949. Walter Mcilhenny was a former general in the military during World War II.

A green sauce — made with a jalapeño pepper base — was the first new flavor. It debuted in 1993. 

Other Tabesco sauce flavors that are now manufactured include chipotle-based smoked, habanero, garlic, "sweet and spicy", and "Buffalo style" sauces. The habanero, chipotle, and garlic sauces include the tabasco peppers blended with other peppers, whereas the jalapeño variety does not include tabasco peppers. 

A few of the varieties of Tabasco sauce. The original on the far right. By DJM 

None of the new Tabesco sauces has the three-year aging process the flagship product uses.
Today, Tabasco brand pepper sauce is distributed in more than 185 countries. Labels are printed in 22 different languages and dialects.

The flagship Tabasco product has, and has always had, just three ingredients — Tabasco peppers, salt and high quality vinegar. The recipe hasn't changed since the sauce was manufactured in 1868.

The Tabasco bottle is still modeled after the cologne-style bottles used for the first batch of sauce in 1868. 

Every bottle of Tabasco starts its journey on Avery Island, an island that's about two-hours west of New Orleans. It is manufactured in one factory on Avery Island that has been owned by the McIlhenny family since 1869.

In 2005, Avery Island was hit hard by Hurricane Rita. As a result, the McIlhenny family constructed a 17-foot (5.2 m)-high levee around the low side of the factory and invested in back-up generators.

Originally all peppers used in Tabasco sauce were grown on Avery Island. Today peppers grown on the island are used to produce seed stock, which is then shipped to foreign growers primarily in Central and South America.

All peppers used in Tabasco sauce are picked by hand. The pepper pickers compare the color of the peppers to a small red stick; if the colors match, the peppers are ripe and will be used in the sauce production process.

Tabasco sauce is aged in barrels previously used for Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey.

Tabasco pepper mash aging in barrels on Avery Island, By Skb8721

Tabasco is the official hot sauce supplier to the British royal household. It's also served aboard Air Force One.

Saddam Hussein once pranked his guests by adding Tabasco to koftas he'd cooked for them. Some of the panicked guests initially fearing that the paranoid dictator had poisoned them.

The aliens on the show Roswell put Tabasco sauce on everything, but the actors actually used V8 Berry Splash to protect their mouths.

Sources Food For Thought by Ed Pearce, Today