GoKawiilTabasco traces its hot sauce roots to Avery Island pepper fields
A feature visit to Avery Island, Louisiana, shows how Tabasco peppers are grown, harvested, and turned into mash within hours of picking to preserve freshness before fermenting into the famous sauce. The company still sources seeds from Avery Island but now grows many peppers in Africa and South America to guard against crop failure. Fresh peppers can carry up to 50,000 Scoville units, far hotter than the bottled sauce.