This day, we rented a car and took a side trip out of New Orleans to Avery Island (w). Here's a map:
Avery Island is what's known as a salt dome. What that means is that there's a huge deposit of rock salt under the ground. It's about three miles long and two miles wide, and someone told us that the salt goes down deeper in the ground than Mt. Everest is tall. That's quite a claim, and I couldn't find any corroboration online, so you might want to take it with (ahem) a grain of salt, but that's what the man said. Anyway, while looking online, I did find this picture of the salt mine underneath the island:
But what Avery Island is really famous for is Tabasco Sauce (w). The official story is that the sauce was first created by Edmund McIlhenny in 1868. This is disputed, however; there is a claim that someone else first made it in 1849. In any case, it was the McIlhenny family that made it famous. The company, as well as Avery Island and its salt deposits, are still wholly owned by the McIlhenny family.
I happen to be quite fond of Tabasco sauce, and Terry and I visited Avery Island on our 2001 trip. The island offers a gift shop and restaurant, as well as a factory tour. This time, however, something new had been added - the Acadiana Culinary Experience. This is where we were offered samples of various Cajun foods - all of which we'd already had on the food tour earlier on the trip - and then we were invited to add a few drops of one of the various varieties of Tabasco products and see how the sauce enhanced the flavor of the food. We also were given a "Bloody Mary flight" - samples of three different varieties of Bloody Mary mix - as well as being offered to taste - carefully - the red pepper mash used to make the sauce.
Our "food guide" for this experience - alas, I've forgotten his name - was himself a native Cajun, and had just the faintest trace of an accent.
After the "experience," we went for a factory tour. This was a self guided tour which took us through the process of creating the sauce. Everything starts, of course, with the peppers. We walked through a greenhouse filled with pepper plants:
Of course, the main pepper farms are in other parts of the island, not open to tourists. Also, I found out that they also contract out the growing of the peppers to farms in other countries, using seed stock provided from the Island. Here's a closer view of some of the pepper plants:
After the peppers are picked, they're aged in wooden barrels:
Those barrels were just for show; here's a warehouse full of barrels where peppers are actually aging. Notice the layer of white at tops of the barrels - that's salt:
And again, this is just a sample; I'm sure there are many more warehouses tucked away from the tourists.
We were told how long the aging process lasts. I don't remember the exact numbers, but it's several years. Each barrel has a label, identifying the date it was filled:
On the walk back to the actual factory, we passed a small bamboo grove, and I went in and took a picture:
Inside the factory, we stood in a viewing area overlooking the blending room. This is where the ingredients of the sauce are blended together. In the case of the original sauce, the only ingredients are the peppers, vinegar and salt; other varieties have additional ingredients. In one corner of the viewing area is a button. When you push the button, a puff of air from the blending room is blown into the viewing area. The smell is powerful.
Another viewing area overlooks the room where the sauce is bottled and the bottles are boxed for shipment, but I didn't get a picture of that. I did, however, get a picture of this large chunk of rock salt:
After the factory comes the museum, with exhibits about the history of the company and the McIlhenny family, and the process of making the sauce. And then of course, the tour ends at the gift shop, where you can taste - and buy - any and all of the Tabasco product line. The store also contained a wide variety of Tabasco branded merchandise - hats, T-shirts, aprons, pens and pencils, playing cards, bottle openers, etcetera and etcetera.
On the drive back to New Orleans, I couldn't resist taking this picture of Kettle:
Much of the drive went through swampland. I took this picture to show the type of country we were driving through:
Here's an even better picture from the 2001 trip:
Back in New Orleans, we returned the rental car, and then took a Lyft to a French restaurant that had been recommended by the guide on the previous day's cruise. After dinner, we walked to a nearby bar for drinks, and eventually went back the hotel.