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This Is My South

A travel guide to the Southern USA

Visiting the Tabasco Factory in Avery Island

August 4, 2021 By Caroline Eubanks 2 Comments

Tabasco is one of the world’s most well-known brands of hot sauce, but that wasn’t always the case. Located on rural Avery Island, a trip to the Tabasco Factory is a popular day trip from New Orleans or Lafayette . From New Orleans, it’s a 2.5 hour drive and from Lafayette it’s only 45 minutes away. It’s the best place to learn about the unique process in creating the sauce.

The History of Tabasco Hot Sauce

The Tabasco company started with the bland food during the Reconstruction Era. New Orleans banker Edward McIllhenny invented the pepper sauce 1868 using the Tabasco pepper variety from Latin America. It quickly gained popularity, especially abroad. The company created recipes to distribute with the sauce, showing people how to use it in dishes with the flavors of Louisiana .

The location on Avery Island was beneficial because it’s considered to be a salt reserve, a product used in the completion of the sauce. A company town developed around the factory with employees buying groceries at the Tabasco store.

Looking for more information about the history of Tabasco? Check out this article from HowStuffWorks .

Touring the Tabasco Factory

Tabasco is still family-run, carrying on the tradition. The famous bottles can be seen in countless television shows and movies as well as in restaurants in 195 countries. It’s even been included in military rations and served to the British royal family and NASA astronauts .

Something unique about Tabasco is the process they use to determine peppers are ready to harvest. A small red stick, or petite baton rouge, is used to confirm the correct shade of red. From there, the peppers are cooked down into a mash.

The mash is aged in white oak barrels for three years, similar to bourbon or whiskey , and the barrels are topped in salt. This mash, which is ten times hotter than the finished sauce, is sampled by an expert. Distilled vinegar is added and the liquid is strained and bottled.

There are also now eight varieties of the sauce, including sriracha and buffalo sauces. On the Tabasco Factory Tour, visitors will learn about the history and process. In the gift shop, you’ll find unique Tabasco products like Tabasco ice cream and jelly beans.

Eating at Tabasco

The Tabasco Factory also has an onsite restaurant, Restaurant 1868 . It’s named for the year of the company’s founding and serves classic Louisiana fare a la carte. Offerings include gumbo, po boys, crawfish etouffee, and bread pudding. There’s also a bloody mary bar, complete with Tabasco. You can even enjoy cooking classes by reservation.

What to See on Avery Island and Nearby

But your tour of the Tabasco Factory won’t take up your entire day. The other place to visit on Avery Island is Jungle Gardens . The 170-acre botanical garden and bird sanctuary was created by McIllhenny’s son Ned in 1895 to protect the area’s snowy egrets. It opened to the public in 1935 and has a number of animals and sculptures, including a famous Buddha.

On your way back to Lafayette, stop by town of New Iberia. The Bayou Teche Museum has exhibits on the bayou that surrounds the parish including its notable residents, history, and food. You’ll find traditional Mardi Gras costumes and zydeco instruments in the exhibits.

Shadows on the Teche is a preserved sugar plantation that covers its history, including the lives of the enslaved people that lived there. In addition to tours of the home, visitors can wander throguh the gardens. You can also tour the Conrad Rice Mill , the oldest operating rice mill in America.

On nearby Jefferson Island, Rip Van Winkle Gardens was built in 1870 by actor Joseph Jefferson, who played “Rip Van Winkle” in a stage production of the Washington Irving tale. It is believed that the cypress wood included in the house was originally planted by Jean Lafitte. There’s also an onsite cafe and a bed and breakfast.

Where to Stay Near Avery Island

There are no accommodations in Avery Island proper. DoubleTree by Hilton Lafayette is the closest full-service hotel, located on the southern end of the city. It has a restaurant and bar, an outdoor pool, and an airport shuttle.

In New Iberia, the Holiday Inn Express & Suites New Iberia-Avery Island is the top-rated property, with daily hot breakfast, an outdoor pool, and in-rom microwaves and refrigerators. Rip Van Winkle Gardens has onsite cottages . There’s even an RV park at Conrad Rice Mill.

Tips for Visiting the Tabasco Factory

The Tabasco Factory is located at Highway 329, Avery Island, Louisiana 70513. It’s open daily from 9 am to 4 pm. Tickets are $12.50 for adults, $9.50 for children, and free for children under 4. Discounts are offered for seniors and veterans with proof of ID.

About Caroline Eubanks

Caroline Eubanks is the editor of this website, a Lowell Thomas award-winning travel writer, and the author of This Is My South: The Essential Travel Guide to the Southern States. Her stories from the South have appeared in National Geographic Traveler, Afar, Thrillist, Roads and Kingdoms, and BBC Travel.

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• Things to Do

Have you ever wondered where TABASCO sauce is made? This TABASCO tour will show you. Learn about the McIlheeny family that has made TABASCO sauce on Avery Island for over five generations. The factory tour includes 10 stops that take you from seed to sauce. Then head over to Avery Island’s Jungle Gardens and explore the ancient oaks and abundant wildlife. up to 4 hrs 1 or more people

Good To Know

• This is a self-guided tour.
• Most visitors spend between 2 to 4 hours.
• The Tabasco Factory Tour includes 10 stops that take you from seed to sauce.
• Explore ancient oaks and abundant wildlife along a 3-mile garden trail in Jungle Gardens. Visitors can walk, bike or hike.
• Cash is currently not accepted.
• Wheelchair and stroller accessible.
• Includes a complimentary mini-bottle of TABASCO.
• Free parking.

Description

TABASCO® Factory Tour & Avery Island Experience Reviews

TABASCO® Factory Tour & Avery Island Experience is located at HWY 329 Avery Island Road • Avery Island , LA 70513

Frequently Asked Questions about TABASCO® Factory Tour & Avery Island Experience

What are the hours of operation.

Open daily from 9:00am - 4:00pm (CST). Days and hours are subject to change.

Is parking provided?

Yes, free parking is available.

Where is it located?

TABASCO® Visitor's Center, 329 Avery Island Rd, New Iberia, LA 70560. Visitors will check in at the Tabasco Visitor Center ticketing booth located at stop 1, the museum.

Is the tour wheelchair/stroller accessible?

Yes, the tour is wheelchair and stroller accessible.

Can I bring my camera?

Yes, great photo opportunities.

How long is the tour?

The tour is approximately 2 hours long.

What’s included in my ticket/experience?

The tour includes a complimentary Mini TABASCO Bottle, Entry, and admission to Avery Island and Jungle Gardens.

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The Tabasco Factory Tour: Louisiana’s Hottest Attraction

May 2, 2021

Simply put, the Tabasco Factory tour is one of the best things to do in Avery Island. Here’s how a visit to this island reveals the secret to success.

The Tabasco Factory Tour Review

Recommended reading: 27 Ways Food and Travel Go Together (Not just for “Foodies”)

Avery Island gets people guessing from the start.

First, it’s not an island, at least not in the conventional sense.

It’s a 2.5 mile wide peak of salt that rises, island-like, from the surrounding swamps and bayous of the  Deep American South .

Second, it’s the home of Tabasco, the most famous hot pepper sauce in the world.

Today, the Tabasco Factory runs a slick operation beneath the Louisiana sun. Tabasco bottles line up for photo ops while glassy miniatures wait in the gift shop and Avery Island gumbo comes with no fewer than six different Tabasco versions.

And if hot sauce golf bags, key rings and clothes are all that’s been missing from your life, you’ll find them all here.

But a Tabasco factory tour also reveals a lot more. It talks about the mystery that is the secret to success.

Tabasco Factory Tour: Need to Knows

The Tabasco Factory tour is self-guided through pretty big grounds. It’s indoors and outdoors and the sun is fierce in Louisiana, so bring hats and water and try to avoid the outdoor portions during the midday heat.

The Tabasco Factory tour takes in the TABASCO ® Museum, Pepper Greenhouse, Barrel Warehouse, Blending and Bottling exhibition, Avery Island Conservation Area, Salt Mine diorama, TABASCO ® Country Store, and the 1868! Restaurant.

The food is unpretentious, traditional Louisiana fare. With a LOT of hot sauce available.

It’s great fun and easily one of the best things to do on Avery Island.

TABASCO AND THE SECRET TO SUCCESS

Today, Tabasco retails in over 185 countries, in over 20 languages and dialects and has even appeared in the world of James Bond. The business generates over $100 million dollars each year – and every single bottle is filled in the Tabasco Factory here on Avery Island Louisiana.

Yet, the story began back in 1868 with a young man who had lost everything in America’s Civil War.

Edmund McIlhenny dreamed of putting “a bottle of Tabasco on every table” and he and his heirs have arguably achieved just that.

The recipe is largely unchanged and the bottle reads like a history book.

But how did McIlhenny do it?

Why this hot sauce, why here?

What is Tabasco made of?

Tabasco is a hot sauce mash of capsicum frutescens peppers aged, strained and mixed with vinegar and local rock salt.

WHY WAS TABASCO SO SUCCESSFUL?

Was it his business partner, the less well known John. C. Henshaw, who opened up sales to the prosperous north east?

Was it the company’s devotion to family, with a 5 th generation CEO today?

Or was it the company’s approach to marketing and embracing new technology while keeping the basics of the product the same?

The first ever newspaper advertisement in New Orleans in 1869 was for Tabasco.

They made an early move to radio. And were one of the first food companies to get online.

And then there was that pioneering product placement involving  The Man with the Golden Gun.

Yes, the Tabasco factory tour reveals that they were the masters of marketing. Keeping up with the new. Retaining the old. 

The shape of the bottle hasn’t changed. McIlhenny initially forged them from recycled cologne bottles as that was all that was available in the post-war years. A green top replaces the wax seal but the label remains the same: Tabasco, Avery Island, McIlhenny.

Does the Tabasco Factory Tour reveal this as the secret to success?

Is the secret to success simply committing to one thing and then trying any and everything to make that thing work?

And when it comes to earning a living through our own creativity, does it pay to create different works or to focus on one thing and one thing only and market the hell out of that?

Creatively.

That’s a lot of introspection to wrangle out of a Louisiana hot sauce tour.

But the Tabasco Factory tour seems to invite thought, time, reflection.

Other Things to do on Avery Island

Avery island jungle gardens: a safari rather than a garden.

And if you didn’t get that side of things during the bright blaze of the factory, the neighbouring Jungle Gardens provide a soothing journey through Avery Island Louisiana.

Along the self-drive safari, the water ripples, the sun slides by.

Even the alligators seem languid, lovely even, as the wheels roll over tarmac in this semi-tropical garden. One hundred and seventy acres of the Louisiana state: wild and free yet also dotted with McIlhenny’s ancestors eco-passion projects.

Buddhist Statues

Buddhist statues, wild deer, bamboo and live oaks stretch along the Bayou Petite Anse, home to the world’s largest collection of camellias.

Birdwatchers can look out for roseate spoonbills, white ibises and the occasional great blue heron in this sanctuary that attracts terns and blue-winged teals.

Snowy Egrets

But it’s the snowy egrets that dominate this part of Avery Island Louisiana: the result of a McIlhenny bid to save the birds from extinction when fashion found their feathers fruitful for female hats.

And for all the reflection on what underpins the secret of success, perhaps the better point lives among the egrets.

It’s not so much the reach of success; it’s what you do with it that counts.

You can find Bird City within the Jungle Gardens on Avery Island, Iberia Parish.

Avery Island to New Orleans: can I visit Avery Island as a day trip?

Avery Island Louisiana is a two hour drive from New Orleans so can be done in an ambitious day trip from the city. Alternatively, weave it into a road trip through Louisiana and visit nearby Lafayette and learn all about Cajun history.

How long should I spend at the Tabasco factory on Avery Island?

The weather is hot here and there’s plenty to do. I’d suggest a morning visiting the Tabasco Factory and the afternoon driving around the Jungle Gardens (it makes sense to have a car here – you won’t be allowed to walk through because of the alligators.)

Shelter from the sun over lunch; the cafe offers a surprisingly decent range of Cajun classics like gumbo.

And of course plenty of Tabasco.

How to Arrange a Tabasco Factory Tour

Both the Tabasco Factory and Avery Island are open all year round but, as ever, double check the details before you set off. And the best place to do that is on the website itself:   how to visit Avery Island.

Avery Island Things To Do

Obviously, the Tabasco Factory tops the list for things to do on Avery Island but don’t miss driving around the Jungle Gardens.

Nearby attractions include the living m useum of Acadian history at Vermilionville and the arts centre of the closest city of Lafayette. 

More on Travel in New Orleans and Through Louisiana

• The difference between a swamp and a bayou
• Your perfect 3 days in New Orleans Itinerary
• The best road trip from New Orleans
• The story behind What a Wonderful World
• Sugary beignets at Cafe du Monde
• Driving the Great River Road

Disclosure – I travelled through Louisiana with assistance from Flight Centre, Hertz UK, Louisiana Travel and TTM World. As ever as always, I kept the right to write what I like. Otherwise, what is the point?!

2 thoughts on “The Tabasco Factory Tour: Louisiana’s Hottest Attraction”

I have so often wondered how it is that Tabasco is the hot sauce sold round the world. While it is no where near my fave, it has certainly come in handy in areas that are less spice obsessed than I, and the clever moves you describe in your article sure explain their success!

Marketing. It almost always comes down to that!

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Avery Island Home of TABASCO ®

Where is TABASCO ® Sauce made? The McIlhenny family has made TABASCO ® Sauce on Avery Island, Louisiana for over 5 generations. Built on a salt dome, it's a mysteriously beautiful place where the red peppers grow, the factory hums, and abundant wildlife can be seen in Jungle Gardens.

TABASCO ® Brand Factory Tour & Museum

Tabasco ® restaurant 1868, avery island transportation.

Tabasco Tour — An Awesome Experience on Avery Island Louisiana

By: Author Ginny Vail

Posted on Published: 29 Dec 2022  - Last updated: 2 Apr 2023

Spice up your travels with a Tabasco Tour on Louisiana’s Avery Island. Tours include the Tabasco Museum, Tabasco Factory, and Jungle Garden plus options for a great Cajun food experience.

Tabasco is one of the many sauces that enhance the Cajun and Creole dishes that separate Louisiana’s cuisine from the rest of the nation.

There’s a lot to love about visiting Avery Island and taking a Tabasco Tour. The island’s four tour options offer a variety of places to see and experience. Depending on your choices, you can visit the museum and factory, drive or walk through the Jungle Garden, have an Acadiana Culinary Experience, or attend a cooking demonstration.

The McIlhenny Company has been producing Tabasco Sauce on Avery Island since Edmund McIlhenny first perfected the recipe and formed the company in 1868. The sauce is popular worldwide, and all of it is processed here. They produce an astounding 700,000 bottles a day.

The Tabasco Tour is reason enough to visit this part of Louisiana, but there’s more. We were staying in nearby Lafayette and discovered several fun and interesting things to do there . We also took a few swamp tours and absolutely loved them.

What’s in this post?

• Tour Options : Tabasco Museum, Factory, and Jungle Garden and/or add other options like a Culinary Experience or a Cooking Demo
• Tabasco Flavors and Tasting
• Tabasco Peppers

About Avery Island Louisiana

Getting to avery island, best time to visit avery island, mcilhenny family and company history.

Tabasco Tour Options

McIlhenny Company offers four tour options, and you can purchase tickets on their Tabasco website:

• Tabasco — the   Avery Island Experience:  Self-guided tour through the museum and factory and drive or walk through the Jungle Garden (Daily except major holidays — allow about 2-hours)
• Acadiana Culinary Experience:  Sample the food of Acadiana, learn bits of history, and taste test Tabasco mash with a flight of Bloody Mary’s (Mondays and Wednesdays only — 1-hour)
• Cooking Demo Experience:  Experience the demo; then enjoy the food (Tuesdays and Thursdays only — 1-hour)
• Private guided tour  of the factory

We took a specially arranged tour and did a combination of 1, 2, and 4. It was a great tour and a great day.

Tabasco Museum

The museum has displays with artifacts, old photos and lots of interpretive signage covering the evolution of Avery Island, the history of the McIlhenny/Avery family, and the creation of Tabasco Sauce.

Tabasco Factory

There are both guided and self-guided versions of the factory tour. The tour route includes lots of signage explaining the stages, which is very helpful, especially if you take the self guided option. Both options take you through the various stages of sauce production including:

• the mash warehouse where white oak barrels are prepared and filled with pepper mash, and then stacked and left to ferment
• the blending room where enormous wooden vats blend the mash with vinegar
• the bottling operation where the sauce is bottled, labeled, and packed for shipping

Avery Island Jungle Garden

Walk or drive through the wonderfully preserved 170-acre garden sanctuary:

• Flora: We were not there at the right time of year to see it, but the garden has a huge area with camellia plants. They bloom mostly during winter and spring.
• Fauna: Alligators, deer, lots of Snowy Egrets, and more. the McIlhenny family even added a raised platform in one of the island’s lagoons so the egrets could safely nest.
• Chinese Temple: The garden also includes a Statue of Buddha located in a tiny Chinese Temple on top of a small rocky hill. It was a gift to McIlhenny from friends.

Tabasco Flavors and Tasting the Pepper Mash

During the Acadiana Culinary Experience, we were seated at a bar in a private room. We each got a flight of glasses with tomato juice to use to sample the Tabasco flavors, and were offered vodka to add if we wanted to create Bloody Marys. We also tasted two vintages of pepper mash.

Next George, our host, served three different Cajun dishes for us to test the Tabasco flavors on food. We sampled sauces on red beans and rice, crawfish étouffée, and boudin (boo-dahn), a sausage made with seasoned meat and rice. George said just use a small amount of Tabasco to punch up the flavor but not so much that’s it’s hot. The purpose of the sauce is to enhance the flavor of food, not to set your mouth on fire.

Tabasco comes in 7 flavors: Original Red Pepper, Green Pepper, Chipotle, Buffalo Style, Habanero, Garlic, and Sweet & Spicy. We also tasted an additional flavor that is historically reserved for the McIlhenny family. The pepper mash for Tabasco Family Reserve is aged a lot longer and is really smooth. You won’t find it in stores, but it can be ordered from the Tabasco online store.

Does Tabasco Go Bad?

Tabasco Sauce does not need to be refrigerated , and it’s good for 3-years.

Tabasco Pepper Plants

The peppers grown on Avery Island are heirloom and are only used for seed stock. Most of peppers used for the sauce are grown in South America or Africa. After raising the peppers, the growers harvest and mash them and send the mash to the Tabasco Factory on Avery Island where all the rest of the process, from fermentation to shipping, takes place.

The scientific name for the peppers is  capsicum frutescens , but they are commonly called Tabasco. The Workers who pick the peppers carry a red stick to check the color, and they only pick those that are the perfect shade of red. After picking, the growers quickly crush the peppers and send the mash to the factory where it’s mixed with salt and aged for up to 3 years in white oak barrels.

Driving or hiring a car and driver seem to be the only options. Avery Island is 138 miles (222 km) from New Orleans and 29 miles (47 km) from Lafayette. We were attending a travel writers conference in Lafayette and took a specially arranged day tour.

Avery Island is open every day except for major holidays and the museum and factory tours are indoors. You could go anytime, rain or shine. The Jungle Garden would be best in Spring when the flora is greener, the camellias are blooming, and the snowy egrets are nesting. Our October visit to the Jungle Garden was certainly well worth the time, although Spring would have been better, especially for photography.

The Culinary Experience is available on Mondays and Wednesdays. The Cooking Demo is available on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Can You Eat on Avery Island?

Yes, the onsite Restaurant 1868 serves local Cajun cuisine , and you will get food if you take either the Acadiana Culinary Experience, which we did, or the food demo. You can also sample the sauce at the tasting bar in the Tabasco Country Store.

If you love discovering regional food, checkout our food bucket list post featuring favorite foods from around the country.

Avery is a 2200-acre island in Iberia Parish, Louisiana. The island is actually a large salt dome surrounded by wetlands. The dome is solid rock salt pushed up from the Earth’s interior and is believed to be “deeper than Mt. Everest is high.” The salt used to produce Tabasco Sauce comes from the salt dome. (Source: Island Geology signage in the Museum)

In 2018, Avery Island was added to the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places. The National Register listing acknowledges that the island is worthy of preservation and confirms it’s importance in local, state and national history. ( Source )

Native Americans

The island was an important source of food and salt for Native Americans. They visited the island to hunt and gather food, and also collected briny water from springs and boiled the water off to harvest the salt. They traded the salt for other goods from other tribes. Workers still find Native American pottery shards and arrow and spear heads on the Island.

The evolution from swampy wetlands to a sugar plantation to a world famous pepper sauce company stems from two fortunate marriages. In 1818, John Craig Marsh purchased land on what is now Avery Island and created a sugar plantation. His daughter (Sarah) married a jurist from Baton Rouge named Daniel Dudley Avery. In 1855, Daniel took over as owner and the island became known as Avery Island.

Shortly before the Civil War, Daniel and Sarah’s daughter (Mary Eliza Avery) married Edmund McIlhenny. McIlhenny acquired some very hot peppers from an acquaintance and planted the peppers’ seeds. He began experimenting with the peppers and learned how to make a great pepper sauce. In 1868, he founded McIlhenny Company and began producing Tabasco Sauce. Edmund McIlhenny’s descendants still own and operate the Company. ( Source )

Generations of Families Live and Work on Avery Island

What impressed and surprised me most during our tour was learning that the people working in the factory also live on or near Avery Island, and they and their families have done so for generations. Our tour guide, Keyna Amy, pointed to a large photo on the factory wall with three men and a boy. She explained that it was her great-grandfather, grandfather, father, and brother. Now she and her family work here too; this has been a way of life for five generations.

One More Reason to Admire McIlhenny Company

The McIlhenny Company and family not only produce the world’s most famous pepper sauce and provide good jobs, they also care enough about the island, it’s history, and it’s flora and fauna that that they have both a historian and botanist on the payroll. Both of them conduct portions of the tours, but they do way more than that:

• Shane K. Bernard, Ph.D. has been a historian and curator for McIlhenny for 30 years. He continues to find fossils and artifacts on the island and he’s located and searched through old records, handwritten notes and even recipes to document the history of the McIlhenny family and company. He published a book about it titled: TABASCO: An Illustrated History.
• Garrie Landry is a retired professor and professional botanist who works to identify and catalog the island’s flora and fauna. He discovered and uncovered gardens that were hidden by overgrowth, and he has made major improvements to the gardens and trails. He also has a wonderful blog about the garden with fantastic bird photos.

This is one of my all-time favorite tours because there is such a variety of interesting things to see and learn and do. We learned a bit of history about the island and the McIlhenny family. We toured the factory, sampled the pepper mash, and tested the various Tabasco flavors with great Cajun dishes. Then we walked through parts of the Jungle Garden and nearly stepped on a baby alligator hidden in leaves along the path. It was a great day and a great experience.

If you are interested in Cajun cooking, we also drove a little and took a lesson at Spuddy’s Cajun Cooking. We made gumbo, jambalaya, and we had tons of fun.

We’d love to thank our friends at TBEX and Lafayette Travel for sponsoring us on this incredible Tabasco tour.

About the Author

Ginny Vail is a travel writer who loves travel planning, sightseeing, photography, and videography. She’s visited all 50 states and traveled around the world. Her articles focus on discovering places to go, sights to see, and details about when and how to visit them.

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Why I Loved the Tabasco Factory Tour on Avery Island

If you love hot sauce, a Tabasco Factory tour on Avery Island is a must!

It’s no secret that I LOVE spicy food. I’ve even participated in a hot sauce challenge at a hot sauce factory that required waivers to try a dab of “The Source” on a toothpick that’s 7.1 million Scoville units in Kansas City, KS.

So of course I wanted to visit the “Home of Tabasco” while I was in Louisiana.

You could easily spend the entire day there between the tour, the shops, dining, and the beautiful grounds.

Who started the Tabasco Company?

The Tabasco Company was founded by Edmund McIhenny in 1868.

What’s incredible is that the McIhenny Company which owns Tabasco is still family-owned by the McIhenny family and operated at the original location on Avery Island.

Take the Self-Guided Tour of the Tabasco Factory

During the self-guided tour, you’ll learn about the history of Tabasco sauce and the process of making Tabasco sauce.

You can take as long or as little as you want in each building since you aren’t required to have an official tour guide.

The Tabasco tour helps you learn how pepper sauce is created from seed to sauce.

What Does the Avery Island Fan Experience Include?

The Avery Island Fan Experience includes:

• A self-guided tour of the TABASCO ®  Museum
• Pepper Greenhouse

Barrel Warehouse

• Avery Island Conservation
• Salt Mine diorama
• TABASCO Country Store ®
• TABASCO ®  Restaurant 1868!
• The 170-acre natural beauty of Jungle Gardens

You get a mini bottle of Tabasco sauce as an added bonus with your tour.

There is a virtual tour online if you want to know what to expect before you go.

Tabasco Factory Tour Tickets

Reservations are recommended for The Avery Island Fan Experience.

It’s a short walk between the numbered buildings on the factory grounds for the self-guided tour.

Start at the Tabasco Museum

I would recommend going to The Tabasco Museum as your first stop because it provides a great overview of the history of the company.

You can watch a short film to learn more about the Tabasco Company brand.

Be on the lookout for exhibits that share how the Civil War resulted in the founder’s relocation to Avery Island which was used as a sugar plantation, and more.

Many of the exhibits show the range of products that the beloved sauce has been branded on over the years.

Fun fact: The Original Tabasco was packaged in cologne bottles.

View the Pepper Greenhouse

The next stop on the tour is Pepper Greenhouse where you’ll learn more about Tabasco peppers. You’ll see red peppers and other varieties.

Tabasco sauce is made using only three ingredients, distilled vinegar, red pepper, and salt.

The original recipe from 1868 has stayed the same for the most part. The original pepper seeds of  Capsicum frutescens  peppers are traced back to South America.

I found this part of the tour really interesting because I didn’t know that Tabasco was stored in bourbon barrels. I loved the connection to Bourbon Country in Kentucky.

I’ve even visited a Cooperage to watch the barrel-making process.

The pepper mash is stored for up to three years in white oak barrels.

The island’s salt is placed on top of the barrels.

If you go inside the building with the mash vats, I recommend pushing the button that turns on a fan where you can smell the pepper mash.

Salt Mine Experience

You’ll learn more about the salt that was mined onsite during the tour.

Avery Island was home to the first salt mine in the country.

The salt mine is now permanently closed but there is a walk-through salt mine exhibit where you can have a greater understanding of its part in the legendary sauce.

View Different Parts of the Tabasco Factory

I thought it was really interesting to see where specific bottles of Tabasco were being shipped from North America to locations all over the world.

As the factory hums along in production look for the signs above the bottling lines telling you where it’s being shipped in the world.

Strike a Pose With the Giant Tabasco Bottles

The giant Tabasco bottles are perfect for a photo op during your tour.

Guests can stand by their preferred Tabasco sauce of choice.

Sample Flavors at Tabasco Tasting Bar

As an added bonus you can sample flavors of Tabasco for free at the Tabasco Tasting Bar.

One of the best things is tasting and trying different sauces after learning about the Tabasco sauce process.

Try Tabasco Ice Cream in the Tabasco Country Store

It sounds odd but Tabasco ice cream is sooo good!!!

During my visit, I ordered a cup of half jalapeno soft serve ice cream and half sweet and sour Tabasco-flavored ice cream.

If you have a soft serve machine at home I was told that you can recreate the ice cream at home with 1 gallon of Borden vanilla ice cream and 5 oz of your Tabasco sauce of choice.

You can try a sample size of Tabasco ice cream at the Tabasco Tasting Bar. If you decide that you want a larger portion you can purchase a cup from the gift shop cashier.

Find a Unique Souvenir in the Tabasco Country Store

This gift shop is filled with one-of-a-kind Tabasco-themed souvenirs and gifts. The Tabasco store has just about anything you could think of and more.

I purchased several mini travel bottles of Tabasco as gifts and also bought the barrel-aged Tabasco sauce because it was a little more unique.

If you’re feeling extra adventurous check out the Tabasco recipes for a build-your-own Bloody Mary bar to try at home.

Enjoy a Meal at TABASCO ®  Restaurant 1868

The restaurant located next door to the retail shop is casual and features authentic Cajun dishes.

You can’t go wrong with gumbo, red beans and rice, boudin egg rolls, and crawfish pie.

You order and pay for your food ahead of time with the cashier.

As an added bonus there is an assortment of Tabasco sauce on your table available to enhance your meal.

If you’re interested in taking your culinary adventure to the next level there are cooking classes at 1868.

Explore the Beauty of the Island on the Jungle Garden Tour

Jungle Gardens is a mysteriously beautiful place with a 14-stop tour through 170 acres that includes one of the oldest timber bamboo groves in America.

Guests can hike, bike, or drive the 3-mile trail.

Bayou Petite Anse Means “Little Cove” in Louisiana

Each stop along the way provides more history of the area. You can download an audio tour on your phone with the Travels Story app to enhance your visit even more.

Jungle Gardens is filled with exotic plants, beautiful flowers, and wildlife providing plenty of photo ops along the way.

Be on the lookout for alligators near the water’s edge.

The Buddha statue on the Jungle Gardens tour was a surprise gift to E. A. McIlhenny from two friends in New York City.

You can get a closer glance at the Buddha statue that’s believed to be over 900 years old by peeking through the window.

Admire The Cleveland Oak

The Cleveland Oak has the largest girth of any oak on Avery Island at almost 25 feet around.

The live oaks in Jungle Gardens are another work of art. The ancient oaks lean and twist and turn.

Visit Avery Island’s “Bird City” at Jungle Gardens

Avery Island known as “Bird City,” is a private bird sanctuary in Jungle Gardens on Avery Island.

There is abundant wildlife to observe on Avery Island including snowy egrets who visit each spring.

There are several platforms where visitors can observe the birds from a safe distance.

If you’re a birder, don’t forget to pack binoculars to get a better view of the egrets.

Jungle Gardens Gift Shop

I love to purchase art when I visit a destination. I found an assortment of prints to choose from in the gift shop.

I now have “Hot Peppers with Old Barn” by artist Steve Seneca displayed in my kitchen.

How Much Time Should You Allow for Your Visit to Avery Island?

I would budget at least 2 hours for a visit.

The Tabasco tour lasts around 45 minutes and the Jungle Gardens experience lasts around 1.25 minutes.

If you plan on eating and shopping you may want to allow more time for your visit.

When is the Tabasco Factory Closed?

The Tabasco Factory is closed on major holidays including:

• New Year’s Eve
• New Year’s Day
• Easter Sunday
• 4th of July
• Thanksgiving Day
• Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

Where is the Tabasco Factory Located?

The Tabasco Factory is located in Iberia Parish at 32 Wisteria Road, Avery Island, LA, only 10 miles from New Iberia, LA.

The Tabasco Factory is a Great Road Trip Stop

Distance to The Tabasco Factory:

• Houma, LA (87- miles – 1hr 29 minutes)
• Lake Charles, LA ( 104. 2 miles – 1 hr 50 minutes)
• New Orleans, LA (137.4 miles – 2 hrs 13 minutes)

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• Unique Experiences and Hidden Gems in Shreveport, LA
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Touring food factories can be a hit or miss venture. Some times you get a really hands on tour that gets you up close and personal to the action which can be pretty fun. Other times you’re stuck sitting in a room watching animatronic dolls tell you a companies history circa 1982. I’m here to tell you that taking a tour of the Tabasco Factory and then visiting Avery Island, is absolutely worth your time.

When planning your visit to tour the Tabasco factory you want to keep in mind that there are 3 distinct attractions to check out. If you want to do everything, plan on at least a half day visit if you are staying in Lafayette.

Touring the Tabasco Factory

The first part of our Tabasco Tour adventure began with the requisite factory tour. The tour is absolutely free and takes about 30 minutes. The tour guide takes you through a few different production areas, filling you in on interesting facts and details about the operation. For example:

Did you know EVERY bottle of Tabasco produced comes from this one factory?

Another cool fact I learned is that the peppers they use to make Tabasco sauce are packed into barrels mixed with vinegar and seasonings and then salt cured for up to  3 years !

The Tabasco Factory Store

If you aren’t into the Factory Tour, don’t worry you can skip it and head right over to the Tabasco Factory Store. Here you will find all the Tabasco merchandise that your little heart desires. You can also sample every sauce flavor available here along with Tabasco Ice Cream.

They also have gargantuan life time supply jugs for the guy or gal that puts Tabasco on EVERYTHING .

If you are a fan of BBQ, make sure to look for the bag of Tabasco wood chips. They are made of the used oak Tabasco aging barrels. I picked up a bag for a friend, and they added a super flavor to his smoker.

While at the Tabasco Factory Store you can also pick up a bite to eat. The menu is super simple and changes regularly. While we were there we had some chili sloppy joe’s and corn. It was simple, delish, and hit the spot.

Touring Avery Island and Jungle Garden

While checking out the factory and store was cool, my favorite part of touring Tabasco had to be Avery Island and Jungle Gardens. You see, the Tabasco Factory was built on an island that is home to North America’s first ever salt rock mine in 1862. However in the 1890’s Mr. McIlhenny decided to preserve 170 acres of the island and named it Bird City.

Over the years the preserve has become home to thousands of Egrets and other animals. Additionally exotic plants were brought in making the whole area even more lush. You can take a self-guided driving tour of the island that takes you through all of it.

Of course this is Louisiana, so there are plenty of little gators and other critters to be found.

The strangest find on the island is this neat area designed to house the giant Buddah statue given to Mr. McIlhenney as a gift in the 1930’s.

Overall our Tabasco Factory Tour was a fun-filled little adventure that had a mix of something for everyone. If you are in Louisiana driving the Craft Brew Trail or just visiting Lafayette to try out some of their amazing food , a stop at the Tabasco Factory deserves a spot on your itinerary.

Details for the Tabasco Factory Tour

Hours and Admission: There is a $1 to access the Island. Factory Tours are free of charge and run all week from 9a -4p. Jungle Island is open 9a – 5p and charges adults $8 and Children $5 More Info Call: 337.365.8173 or visit their Official Site

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Share this:, 11 thoughts on “ touring tabasco and avery island’s jungle gardens ”.

Oh my goodness, this is amazing. I am obsessed with Tabasco, and visiting this place would be a dream lol. Added to my list of things to do when I am back stateside next!

It was really cool, especially if you are a Tabasco nut :-)

Great post. Tabasco is so good on pizza and just about anything for that matter. Sounds like this was one of the good tours.

the wino’s fiance would love this tour! aaand can they ship those big bottles up north for christmas??

Funny you should ask. I did a little digging and apparently you CAN personalize them and have them shipped anywhere in the USA. Check it out. – http://countrystore.tabasco.com/Personalized-TABASCO-Gallon-Jugs/productinfo/00061/

Question: How many gallon jugs can I fit in my suitcase? :)

Seriously, I would love to try all these varieties, which one was your favorite?

It’s probably a tie between Original and the new Sriracha one.

Despite my Louisiana lineage, I’m not a Tabasco nut, but I still think the tour and the island seem really cool. I heard some of their story for the first time on 60 Minutes awhile back and was really intrigued.

How interesting – I had no idea that Tabasco was made Louisiana. Sounds like a neat visit!

I’ve never thought about where Tabasco is made, but I do love it on my scrambled eggs! A mini bottle would be amazing. I rarely see Tabasco here in Italy.

The family was recently interviewed on 60 Minutes. Really amazed at what they have and how unique their sauce is and how they prepare it. No wonder I won’t use any other hot sauce! Would be great to get an actual tour of the factory and island as you did. Great post and photos, thanks!

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Hot Stuff: Taking The Tabasco Factory Tour On Avery Island, Louisiana

February 24, 2020 By stephen 8 Comments

After checking out of our hotel in Lafayette , it was time to head to New Orleans for the first of our two visits there during February 2020. We had an important stop to make along the way though – the Tabasco Factory on Avery Island.

We first heard about it last year when visiting the Old Mill Museum in Lindsborg, Kansas as our tour guides Sheila and Jim suggested it to us. It was only a short diversion down to Avery Island along the way, so we figured it would be a fun place to stop along the route.

Shae called ahead of time to make sure they were pet-friendly as we’d have Truffles with us. They said they were and, to a certain extent, they are. Dogs are allowed in the Tabasco Country Store and outside at Restaurant 1868!, but aren’t allowed on the self-guided tour itself which isn’t what we expected based on the phone call. The nice thing though is that you can leave your pup with the employees in the Country Store and they’ll keep an eye on them out the back of the store. They made sure Truffles had water, they took her outside to use the restroom, etc., so she seemed well taken care of.

Before dropping Truffles off, we bought our tickets for the tour as you buy your tickets just outside of the museum.

Tabasco Factory Tours are only $5.50 per person which is very reasonable and comes with six mini bottles of Tabasco sauce (or perhaps three mini bottles per person). You can also buy separate tickets to Jungle Gardens which is a 170 acre semitropical garden that’s next door, or you can save a dollar by buying tickets for both attractions at the same time. Seeing as we still had to drive a couple of hours to New Orleans, we decided to only do the Tabasco Factory tour.

Stop 1 – Tabasco Musuem

There are ten places to visit on the self-guided Tabasco Factory Tour, with the first stop being the Tabasco Museum where you buy your tickets.

Inside the museum there’s information about the history of Tabasco Sauce and all kinds of memorabilia, including a Tabasco bottle guitar played by Van Halen’s bassist Michael Anthony.

After you’ve checked out everything in the museum, the tour continues outside where you’ll see a signpost clearly marking where you need to go next.

You’ll want to keep an eye out on your way to the Greenhouse as apparently there are sometimes bear sightings.

The fact that this sign is near a bamboo grove made us wonder if it was panda bears we should be looking out for 😉 The Tabasco Factory has this bamboo growing there because the company’s third president – E.A. McIlhenny – volunteered to be an experimental grower for the US Department of Agriculture. He planted 65 different types of bamboo on Avery Island, about 35 of which are still growing there.

While walking to the greenhouse, be sure to also keep an eye out for their fun bridge which is painted a little like bottles of Tabasco sauce.

Stop 2 – Tabasco Greenhouse

The Tabasco Greenhouse is the second stop on the tour and is where you can see a few different types of peppers being grown.

The one that’s obviously of most interest is the Tabasco pepper. It’s thought to have originated in Mexico or Central America, but no one knows exactly where it came from. It scores between 30,000-50,000 on the Scoville heat scale which, while hot, is nothing compared to the Ghost Pepper (1,041,427 on the Scoville heat scale) and Carolina Reaper (1,569,300 on the Scoville heat scale).

Something random we learned in the greenhouse is that this variety grows with the pod pointing up towards the sky. Heat rises after all 😉

Stop 3 – Barrel Aging Cooperage

As you leave the greenhouse, you’ll see another building which is the Tabasco Barrel Museum.

Inside you’ll find exhibits explaining the barrel aging process of Tabasco peppers, including a video showing how it’s aged and artifacts from the last couple of centuries.

Just outside of the museum area is the cooperage where you can see hundreds of barrels of Tabasco peppers being aged. The tops of the barrels are covered with a layer of salt to help prevent impurities from getting in the barrel.

Stop 4 – Blending Building

The fourth stop on the tour is the blending building.

Inside you’ll learn about the blending process where the Tabasco peppers that have been aged for up to three years in the cooperage are blended with distilled vinegar and stirred periodically for two to three weeks in 1,800 gallon vats made of wood.

Before the sauce is bottled, the seeds and skins from the peppers are removed and both scientific and taste testing is done to ensure it meets their quality expectations.

Stop 5 – Avery Island Experience

The fifth stop on the tour is the Avery Island Experience. This is where you’ll learn more about Avery Island, such as the fact that it’s not an island. It’s actually a salt dome covering 2,200 acres. With hills, valleys and water surrounding much of it, it certainly gives the appearance of an island.

Stop 6 – Salt Mine Experience

The sixth part of the Tabasco Factory tour is the Salt Mine Experience. To be honest, this section is a little hokey and doesn’t really add anything to the tour. All it consists of is a couple of mannequins dressed up as salt miners. You walk past them while dynamite sounds are played over speakers and…that’s it.

Stop 7 – Bottling Line

The short walk through the Salt Mine Experience leads you through to the bottling line.

They’d already bottled more than a quarter of a million bottles of Tabasco sauce that day, with the latest batch being chipotle flavored that was being shipped off to Belgium.

Stop 8 – Food & Flavors Of Tabasco Today

The eighth stop on the Tabasco Factory tour provides information about Tabasco sauce nowadays from its flavors to its iconic bottle to all the countries where you can find it worldwide to recipes and more. One fascinating tidbit is that Tabasco sauce was originally bottled in used cologne bottles!

This part of the tour also provides opportunities to get some cool pictures.

Seeing as our last name is Pepper, this photo op had to be taken advantage of.

Stop 9 – Tabasco Country Store

The ninth stop of the tour took us back to the Tabasco Country Store where we picked up Truffles.

It’s a gift shop packed full of Tabasco sauce and Tabasco-themed goodies.

One of my favorite items I saw was this baby blanket:

Cutest photo of the day goes to Truffles though who rocked her pepper beads like Flava Flav.

Be sure to head to the back of the Tabasco Country Store as there’s a bar where you can taste-test about two dozen Tabasco sauces, mustards, etc. The raspberry chipotle Tabasco sauce was one of our favorites and I also bought a bottle of their garlic grilling marinade as it was incredibly flavorful. Beware though – a couple of the sauces are very hot!

They even had Tabasco soda pop and Tabasco ice creams to try.

Stop 10 – Restaurant 1868!

It was about 2:30pm by this point, so we decided to have lunch at Restaurant 1868! seeing as they had pet-friendly seating on their porch and it was a nice day. 1868 is the year that Edmund McIlhenny founded the Tabasco company, hence the restaurant’s name.

Their menu had all kinds of tasty-sounding options, so as usual I had a hard time choosing what to get.

I’d enjoyed trying boudin in Lafayette a few days before, so I ended up ordering the Boudin Po Boy, while Shae got the Fiesta Nacho Supreme. Both our meals were tasty and reasonably priced.

Restaurant 1868! also offers a make-your-own Bloody Mary bar, so Shae took advantage of that being available seeing as I would be the one driving us to New Orleans that afternoon.

Final Thoughts

Despite not being big Tabasco sauce eaters, Shae and I had a great time going on the Tabasco Factory tour. It was surprisingly fun, interestingly and well-priced. Getting to try a bunch of different Tabasco sauces in the Tabasco Country Store was an added bonus and gave me a new appreciation for their products.

If you’ll be in or near Lafayette, Louisiana, I’d highly recommend taking a trip out to Avery Island to visit the Tabasco Factory.

Tabasco Factory Tours, 32 Wisteria Rd, Avery Island, LA 70513

Reader Interactions

February 25, 2020 at 2:56 pm

I really enjoyed this blog post! What a neat place and your pictures and comments were so great. I’m sold and if I’m ever anywhere near there, I’d go! Cheers, Lauren

February 25, 2020 at 3:31 pm

Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙂

February 25, 2020 at 7:29 pm

This looks great – we are big Tabasco fans in my family!

But you failed to tell us – which one of you is sweet and which is spicy? 😀

February 25, 2020 at 11:22 pm

We’re each pointing to the appropriate description 😉

February 28, 2020 at 9:09 am

Oh I missed that! 😀

March 5, 2020 at 8:00 am

Hi! I loved this post and it sounds like a great place! Our three little chihuahua babies would just love the restaurant Lol……Very great writing and love to read about your adventures. Look forward to your trip posts from Tucson. Be safe!

March 5, 2020 at 3:34 pm

Thanks! Truffles loved getting to try the boudin at the restaurant 🙂

June 22, 2020 at 2:14 pm

I live down the road in New Iberia and grew up going to Avery Island. Haven’t been in quite awhile and look forward to making it back there as soon as COVID is gone. The island is closed to visitors because of the virus.

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TABASCO Country Store ® Avery Island

Tabasco country store^® avery island.

McIlhenny Company 329 Avery Island Rd Avery Island, LA 70513

1-800-634-9599

HOURS OF OPERATION:

Monday - Sunday from 9 A.M. – 4 P.M. CST

Welcome to Avery Island’s TABASCO Country Store^®

No other location does it quite like the original. It was here, on Avery Island, where Edmund McIlhenny first developed his world-famous recipe for TABASCO ® Original Red Pepper Sauce. And it was also here that the first TABASCO Country Store ® came to life.

Still thriving to this day, our unique location offers visitors the ultimate access to TABASCO ® fan gear and collectibles. From Avery Island exclusives and limited release products to interactive activities and more, you won’t want to miss this stop on your next South Louisiana trip.

Take a TABASCO^® Taste Tour

Bring home the ultimate bragging rights by trying all seven of our TABASCO ® Family of Flavors.

Taste Avery Island Exclusives

Dive into a top-notch taste adventure with flavorful TABASCO ® takes on ice cream, soda and more.

Experience the Magic of Avery Island

Take in all the majestic sights, smells and sounds of the place TABASCO ®  sauce calls home.

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Visiting the Tabasco Factory Tour and Museum – Avery Island, Louisiana

One of the places I was most looking forward to on our road trip from Atlanta to Galveston last November was the Tabasco Factory and Museum which is located on Avery Island in Louisiana. I love Tabasco and usually have several bottles of the holy grail of hot sauces in the kitchen cupboard at home – the Garlic Pepper one being my favourite. When we were planning our road trip, we decided to stay in Lafayette the evening before our visit as it was not only close to the I-10 but also only a short forty minute drive to Avery Island itself. Avery Island is not actually a real island but a salt dome which is three miles long and two and a half miles wide and located three miles inland from the Louisiana coastline. As well as the Tabasco Factory, Avery Island is also home to Jungle Gardens as well as being the home of the McIlhenny family and their employees. Tabasco has been produced at Avery Island since the 1860’s. It was very easy to find Avery Island from Highway 90 as all we needed to do was to look out for the signs with the giant bottles of Tabasco on them. There was a small toll gate at the entrance to Avery Island but we did not need to pay a toll despite having money ready to do so – the gentleman instead just handed us a pass for the car to place on the dashboard and told us the direction we needed to go. We were only planning to do the factory tour whilst we were there as we were limited on time as we still had to drive to Galveston in Texas that day all ready to board our cruise the following morning .

We arrived at the factory and parked the car just before 10:00am. The first thing that is immediately noticeable is the smell of Tabasco in the air all around you. It hit me as soon as I got out of the car! It was also incredibly quiet and there was no one else to be seen – a great benefit of visiting midweek in November. We purchased our tickets which were $5.50 each and also at this time, we were each given three free miniature bottles of Tabasco Sauce – the original Red Pepper Sauce, the Green Pepper sauce and the Chipotle Pepper Sauce.

The Self-Guided tour starts in the Tabasco Museum which is the same building where you buy your tickets from. I loved reading about the McIlhenny family and Avery Island, the history of Tabasco Sauce and seeing all the different memorabilia displayed from across the years. I also found it interesting to find out there are only three ingredients that make up Tabasco Sauce – peppers, vinegar and salt.

The Self-Guided tour around the grounds is easy to do as there are plenty of numbered signs pointing you in the right direction.

Our next stop was the Greenhouse although the majority of the peppers used for Tabasco Sauce are now grown overseas in Central and South America and Africa using seeds from Avery Island. All of the peppers are picked by hand when they match the precise shade of red on a small painted stick that each picker has to determine if the pepper is ripe enough. The peppers are then mixed with salt and ground into a pulp called mash.

Once the pepper mash arrives at Avery Island, it is placed into barrels and topped with a thick layer of salt to protect it from impurities and stored in the Barrel Warehouse. The mash ages in the barrels for three years (I had no idea it was this long) to allow the flavours to evolve and the raw pepper mash to gradually mellow.

Once the pepper mash has aged for three years, a member of the McIlhenny family inspects each batch for flavour and heat before it is approved for blending. Vinegar is added to the mash and is mixed intermittently for two to three weeks before being strained of skin and seeds and sent for bottling.

The next two stops showed information about Avery Island and Jungle Gardens as well as the salt mine and salt dome.

At the Bottling Line approximately 700,000 bottles of Tabasco Sauce are produced every day – all the Tabasco Sauce you see all around the world will have come from this factory at Avery Island. The bottling line is only open Monday to Thursday so make sure to visit on one of those days and not at the weekend – it is fascinating to watch.

Our final stop on the tour was the Flavor Lab where as well as being able to get your photo taken with your favourite giant bottle of Tabasco, we also taste tested some of the Chipotle Pepper sauce and learnt how the flavour can change depending on what you eat it with. We also found out that Tabasco had just released their hottest sauce ever and we could try it if we wanted to at the Country Store.

At the back of the brilliant Tabasco Country Store is the tasting bar where you can try all of the different Tabasco products. After trying most of the sauces available, we both really wanted to try the new Scorpion sauce which is twenty times hotter than the original Red Pepper sauce just to see how hot it really was. We both dipped a pretzel into the dish of it and tried it and oh my god, I have never had anything as hot as that before. The burning was like nothing else and it just got worse and worse and we’d only had a dot of it on the end of a pretzel stick! My boyfriend turned bright red and was sweating and I think I had tears in my eyes at one point. There was ice cream and honey available to help with the burning which thankfully eventually subsided. Even after that, I still wanted to buy a bottle of the Scorpion sauce just to have one but stopped myself as I knew that I would never try it again. The Country Store also contains every bit of Tabasco merchandise you could think of and more. I seriously had to stop myself from buying half of the shop but I did get a Christmas tree decoration as well as several bottles of different Tabasco Sauces which I had not seen before including Roasted Red Pepper and Raspberry Chipotle – both of which were delicious. Thankfully all of our bottles of Tabasco Sauce made it home in one piece but only just. Despite wrapping each of them carefully in bubble wrap to protect them, my suitcase was opened and the bottles were unwrapped and inspected twice by the TSA at both Atlanta Airport and Boston Airport before being thrown back into my suitcase. I would have been heartbroken if one or more of them had been smashed.

Altogether we spent just under an hour and a half at the Tabasco Factory and I loved every minute of it. I’m so glad that we planned it into our road trip as it is definitely worth a visit and at $5.50 each for the tour, it is not expensive either and a great bargain. If you love Tabasco, you have to go! I visited Avery Island in December 2017. All prices and information were correct at time of publication. Pin this Blog Post on Pinterest Follow Me on Instagram Follow Me on Bloglovin’

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5 thoughts on “ Visiting the Tabasco Factory Tour and Museum – Avery Island, Louisiana ”

Plan on visiting soon. Live in Pensacola Florida

It’s a great way to spend an hour or two! Send my love to Florida Joe 🙂

My wife and I are in our eighties and while still active, long walks and prolonged standing are not our favorite things. Will this be a problem at Avery Island.

Hi Eric. Absolutely not – the Tabasco Factory is very small and there are no long walks or periods of standing so there should hopefully not be an issue and you can park right outside too 🙂

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Every promotional code displayed on this table has been hand-verified by multiple members of our community. We show you this table so you have a complete record of Tabasco promo codes , including older promotions that you can test yourself on Tabasco's website. (In some cases, Tabasco may have reactivated older codes, which may still work for discounts at tabasco.com).

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