Wednesday, 10 April 2019
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
4hr drive to Avery Island. Flat, featureless and straight interstate most of the way. Cross the state line from Texas into Louisiana. Quite a few police cars after the state line by the roadside, reminding people of their presence.
It’s like a scene out of Smokey and the Bandit.
Starting to get a bit swampy now.
Turn off to Avery Island and drive along back roads. There are no winding country lanes here. Just straight roads. Houses dotted about built on stone piers a couple of feet high. Assume it’s to save the house from flooding. Many adverts for fresh crawfish (crayfish) and a few fields are flooded, they look like paddy fields, but see a small boat on one with a fisherman pulling cages out so assume it’s a crawfish farm.
Arrive Avery Island where there’s a toll booth (but free to enter). Big bloke sitting inside his kiosk like Jabba the Hutt gives me my ticket to pass through the barrier. Ticket is passed through my passenger window attached to a clothes peg. Clothes peg is attached to a long bean pole. He just slides the bean pole to me so he doesn’t have to move.
You’re probably thinking what the significance of Avery Island is.
Well.
For those that love Tabasco Sauce (me) you will note on the label that it’s made here.
Avery Island isn’t a real island, it’s more a raised bit of land about 50m elevation above the surrounding flat lands. Why? I hear you ask. Is it raised above the flat lands. Well, it sits atop an ancient salt dome. The salt from which is used in the process of sauce making. (and where was the first salt dome I visited on this A2A trip??)
Named after the Avery family that owned it in the 19th century, the young Miss Avery married Edmund McIlhenny, who had started growing Tabasco chillies and created a homemade sauce to pep up bland food, at the end of the American Civil War. He sold it to family and friends and was later approached by a businessman to expand the operation and agreed to sell 10,000 bottles of his sauce to a grocery distributor.
And from those humble beginnings, a bottle of Tabasco can always be found in my kitchen cupboard.
After the American Civil War, there was a surplus of small cologne bottles, so McIlhenny used them to bottle his sauce. To prevent contamination, he sealed the bottles with green wax. There’s a nod to that history even now, as they still remain small with a long neck and have a green label around the neck. Still learning on this blog aren’t you. There will be a quiz at the end of this trip. So stay awake.
They now grow tabasco chillies all around the world and they’re mashed with salt the day they’re picked. The mash is then transported to Avery Island where they strain the skin and seeds out and then mix it with vinegar. Sauce is then placed in white oak barrels, covered with a layer of salt to prevent contamination and stored for three years. Bottled and distributed in the processing plant in the factory, which you can see from the visitor walkways.
It’s like an episode of ‘Inside the Factory’ isn’t it. But without Greg Wallace.
The mixing vats are in a large hall and you can push a button to extract air from the hall. For someone that loves Tabasco (particularly liberal with it on pizzas and lasagne), it’s a wonderful warm, spicy smell. I love it. Unlike the old women that were standing next to me. They soon scarpered when they smelt the chillies.
Part of the self guided tour takes you to the barrel store and greenhouses for new chilli plants but am alarmed by a warning sign enroute to said warehouse.
It says, “Bear frequenting area – warning – do not feed or approach”.
Erm.
Thought bears didn’t like heat and humidity. Only thought they lived up in the Rockies.
Oh ‘eck.
Quick drive around the ‘Jungle Drive’. Am told I can walk but beware of the alligators.
Erm.
Again.
There’s a lot of wildlife that can kill down here.
Drive instead but only see small alligators lurking in the water. Plus some turtles.
2-3hr drive into New Orleans and have found a real little gem of a hotel. The Peter & Paul Hotel (https://hotelpeterandpaul.com/), in Marigny suburb, a few blocks from the French Quarter. A former school, church and convent recently refurbished and converted to a very nice place to stay. Also has an excellent restaurant.
Quite a find.
If you ever find yourself in New Orleans, worth a look.
