Tabasco sauce

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Tabasco is the trademarked brand name for a hot pepper sauce that is a well-known table condiment. It is made from Tabasco peppers (Capsicum frutescens var. tabasco), vinegar, and salt, and aged in white oak barrels. There are many other kinds of "hot pepper sauce" on the market, most of them similar to Tabasco, but Tabasco is by far the most famous. Although it is produced in Louisiana, United States, it acquired its name from the chile peppers named after the state of Tabasco in Mexico. It has a hot, spicy flavor and is popular in many parts of the world.

1 Production
2 Tabasco and the US military
3 NASCAR
4 Tabasco in space
5 External links
6 References

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Production

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Varieties

Tabasco has been produced by McIlhenny Company since 1868. Several new types of sauces are now produced under the name Tabasco Sauce, including jalapeño-based green, chipotle-based smoked, habanero, and garlic sauces.

The Habanero Sauce and Garlic Sauces both include the Tabasco Peppers blended with other peppers, whereas the jalapeño variety does not include Tabasco peppers.

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Heat

The original, classic red variety of Tabasco pepper sauce measures 2,500 to 5,000 shu on the Scoville scale. The Habanero is considerably hotter, rating 7,000-8,000 Scoville units blending habanero peppers with Tabascos. This sauce is comparable with many gourmet sauces and is hotter than Blair's Original Death Sauce. The Garlic variety, which blends milder peppers in with the Tabascos is milder at 1200 - 1800 Scovilles, but not as mild as the Green Pepper (jalapeño) Sauce.

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Agriculture

The peppers were traditionally grown on Avery Island, but the bulk of them are now grown in Central and South America, where the weather and the availability of more farmland allow a more predictable and larger year-round supply of the peppers.

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Packaging

It is sold in more than 160 countries and packaged in 22 languages and dialects. More than 700,000 bottles of Tabasco sauce are produced each day at the Tabasco factory on Avery Island, Louisiana (free factory tours are available; access to Avery Island requires 50 cents toll). These range in size from the common two-ounce and five-ounce (60 and 150 ml) bottles available in most grocery stores, up to a one US gallon (4 liter) jug for food service businesses, and down to a 1/8th-ounce miniature bottle.

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Merchandise

In addition, the company has cashed in on its brand name by licensing the production of branded merchandise, including neckties, hand towels, golf shirts, posters, Bloody Mary mix, and even slot machines in casinos featuring the trademarked diamond logo.

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Usage

Other foods that are advertised to contain Tabasco flavor include nuts, popcorn, olives, Slim Jim beef products, mustards, mayonnaises, and pickles. Tabasco sauce has a shelf life of five years when stored in a cool and dry place.

In Japan, Austria, Israel, Germany and parts of Ontario, Canada, Tabasco sauce is popular on pizza.

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Tabasco and the US military

Tabasco does not openly advertise its long and fascinating history with the U.S. Military. During the Spanish-American War, John Avery McIlhenny, son of Tabasco's inventor and the second president of McIlhenny Company, served in the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, better known as Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders. His son, Brigadier General Walter S. McIlhenny, USMCR, a World War II veteran and winner of the Navy Cross, presided over McIlhenny Company from 1949 until his death in 1985. During the Vietnam War, General McIlhenny issued the “The Charlie Ration Cookbook.” (Charlie ration is slang for the field meal given to troops.) This cookbook came wrapped around a two-ounce bottle of Tabasco sauce in a camouflaged, water-resistant container. It included instructions on how to mix C-rations to make such tasty concoctions as “Combat Canapés” or “Breast of Chicken under Bullets.”

During the 1980s the U.S. military began to include miniature bottles of Tabasco sauce in its MREs. Eventually, miniature bottles of Tabasco sauce were included in two-thirds of all MRE menus. During the same period, McIlhenny Company issued a new military-oriented cookbook, titled “The Unofficial MRE Cookbook," which it offered free of charge to U.S. Troops. In response to these gestures, service personnel wrote many letters of thanks to McIlhenny Company.

Most recently, U.S. troops in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom used miniature Tabasco bottles to decorate their Christmas trees. Some soldiers used the bottles to make chess sets, while others in the field put Tabasco sauce in their eyes to stay awake while on sentry duty (a use that is not recommended by the manufacturer). Many U.S. troops have returned miniature bottles to McIlhenny Company filled with soil from local camps and bases in Iraq and elsewhere.

McIlhenny Company's relationship with the military extends beyond combat situations. The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps list over 400 mess halls that offer Tabasco sauce on their tables. In fact, Tabasco sauce is found on the table of every Officer's Mess in the Marine Corps.

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NASCAR

McIlhenny Company, maker of Tabasco brand products, once sponsored a NASCAR Winston Cup team. The company announced in 1997 that it would sponsor the #35 Pontiac driven by Todd Bodine. The car would be owned by Bob Hancher. The team debuted on the weekend of the announcement at Lowe's Motor Speedway, with Bodine finishing 26th. Things looked promising for 1998.

That optimism soon disappeared as the team failed to qualify for the first three races of the season. Surprisingly, McIlhenny Company voiced no concerns, despite the high-pressure stakes of NASCAR racing.

At last, however, the team appeared ready to coalesce with a tenth-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway. But it missed the next race at Darlington Raceway, as well as three of the next four races, ranking 39th place in the one race in which it did appear.

A practice accident took Bodine out of the California 500, where Wally Dallenbach Jr. filled in as driver. Bodine would be back on board for the Coca-Cola 600 in late May, finishing 28th.

June 6th saw Bodine's last ride in the Tabasco Pontiac at Richmond International Raceway. In his brief tenure, Team Tabasco only managed to qualify in five of the first thirteen races (including the race during which Dallenbach drove). Without the sponsor's knowledge, ISM released Bodine after the race in an attempt to turn things around.

ISM replaced Bodine with Loy Allen Jr., and it scheduled Gary Bradberry and Jimmy Horton to drive for the team at future races. After running only one of the next three races, however, Hancher sold the operation to Tim Beverly and his driver Darrell Waltrip. The Beverly-Waltrip team drove Chevrolet Monte Carlos and intended to continue using the model. In their first race, the Brickyard 400, Waltrip started dead-last but climbed through the field to finish 13th. But the team's use of Chevrolets sparked outrage at McIlhenny Company because it had invested heavily in Pontiacs as part of its marketing program. Lawsuits ensued between Tabasco and Hancher, and McIlhenny Company forced the team to run Pontiacs. Waltrip's best finish that year was 18th at Richmond; otherwise, the team performed poorly and Tabasco left the sport at the end of the year.

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Tabasco in space

Through NASA's relation to the US Military, Tabasco has found its way into the space program. Tabasco Sauce was used on Skylab by NASA to address astronauts' complaints about bland rations. Tabasco is often used in space, both on the International Space Station and during shuttle missions.

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