Avery Island, LA

It’s easy to take for granted what’s right around you. Traveling becomes something qualified by a plane tickets or a day in the car when in reality there’s likely so much unexplored within 50 miles of your home.

Brandi and I lived the first 22 years of our life an hour car ride from Avery Island without ever having visited. For a bit of context, Avery Island is home to the first (and only) TOBASCO plant in the world. If you see a bottle of TOBASCO in Florida or Montreal or Bangkok, it started its trip exiting the gravel roads of Avery Island, Louisiana.

They run a pretty tight ship on site, bottling and shipping nearly 200,000 units a day. The process starts with the TOBASCO pepper, to which the family owns exclusive rights, grown on the fields surrounding the facility. The peppers are harvested, processed, and stuck in casks to age and ferment. When ready, the pepper concoction goes through a series of secret steps and comes out the other end as the hot sauce known across the world.

So next time you see a bottle of TOBASCO hot sauce, take a second to appreciate how far it’s traveled. I know I will.