Editing Tabasco sauce (section)

==History==
[[File:Tabad(ca1905).jpg|thumb|A Tabasco advertisement from {{circa|1905}}. Note the cork-top bottle and diamond logo label, which is similar to those in use today.]]
According to the company's official history, Tabasco was first produced in 1868 by [[Edmund McIlhenny]],<ref name="tabascohistory">{{Cite web |title=The History of Tabasco Brand |url=https://www.tabasco.com/tabasco-history/ |access-date=January 6, 2021 |website=Tabasco |language=en}}{{primary source inline|date=March 2022}}</ref> a [[Maryland]]-born former banker who moved to [[Louisiana]] around 1840. However, as Jeffrey Rothfeder's book ''McIlhenny's Gold'' points out, some of the McIlhenny Company's official history is disputed, and the politician [[Maunsel White]] was producing a [[tabasco pepper]] sauce two decades before McIlhenny.<ref name="wsj" /> A 2007 book review by Mark Robichaux of ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' quotes Rothfeder's book:<ref name="wsj">{{Cite news |last=Robichaux |first=Mark |date=October 10, 2007 |title=Ingredients of a Family Fortune |work=Wall Street Journal |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB119197321923754093 |access-date=July 1, 2018}}</ref>

{{blockquote|The story actually begins in the pre-Civil War era with a New Orleans plantation owner named Maunsel White, who was famous for the food served at his sumptuous dinner parties. Mr. White's table no doubt groaned with the region's varied fare—drawing inspiration from European, Caribbean, and Cajun sources—but one of his favorite sauces was of his own devising, made from a pepper named for its origins in the Mexican state of Tabasco. White added it to various dishes and bottled it for his guests. Although the McIlhennys have tried to dismiss the possibility, it seems clear now that in 1849, a full two decades before Edmund McIlhenny professed to discover the Tabasco pepper, White was already growing Tabasco chilies on his plantation.}}

Rothfeder cited January 26, 1850, letter to the ''New Orleans Daily Delta'' newspaper crediting White as having introduced "Tobasco red pepper" (sic) to the southern United States and asserting that the McIlhenny was at least inspired by White's recipe.<ref name="wsj" /> [[Jean Andrews]], in her book "Peppers: The Domesticated Capsicums", goes further to declare—citing United States Circuit Court testimony from 1922—that prior to his death in 1862, "White gave some [pepper] pods, along with his recipe, to his friend Edmund McIlhenny, during a visit to White's Deer Range Plantation."<ref name="andrews">{{Cite book |last=Andrews |first=Jean |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/31295102 |title=Peppers: The Domesticated Capsicums |date=1995 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=0-292-70467-4 |edition=New |location=Austin |oclc=31295102}}</ref> To distribute his, Edmund McIlhenny initially obtained unused [[Eau de Cologne|cologne]] bottles from a New Orleans glass supplier. On his death in 1890, McIlhenny was succeeded by his eldest son, [[John Avery McIlhenny]], who expanded and modernized the business, but resigned after only a few years to join [[Theodore Roosevelt]]'s 1st US Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, the [[Rough Riders]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=March 24, 2011 |title=Some Like It Avery Hot |newspaper=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/united-states/2011/03/24/some-like-it-avery-hot?story_id=18442091 |access-date=December 31, 2021 |issn=0013-0613}}</ref> On John's departure, brother [[Edward Avery McIlhenny]], a self-taught [[naturalist]] fresh from an Arctic adventure, assumed control of the company and also focused on expansion and modernization, running the business from 1898 until his death in 1949. [[Walter McIlhenny|Walter S. McIlhenny]] in turn succeeded his uncle Edward Avery McIlhenny, serving as president of McIlhenny Company from 1949 until his death in 1985. Edward McIlhenny Simmons then ran the company as president and CEO for several years, remaining as board chairman until his death in 2012.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Tabasco Company CEO–Chairman Ned Simmons dies at 83 |publisher=WWLTV Eyewitness News Report |url=http://www.wwltv.com/news/Former-Tabasco-company-CEO--chairman-Ned-Simmons-dies-at-83-138352934.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131228004051/http://www.wwltv.com/news/Former-Tabasco-company-CEO--chairman-Ned-Simmons-dies-at-83-138352934.html |archive-date=December 28, 2013}}</ref> [[Paul McIlhenny]] became company president in 1998 and was chairman until his death in 2013.<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 24, 2013 |title=Paul McIlhenny |url=http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/24/us/tabasco-ceo-dead |access-date=February 24, 2013 |website=CNN News}}</ref> In 2012 McIlhenny cousin Tony Simmons assumed the company's presidency and in June 2019 his cousin Harold Osborn was chosen as the next president and CEO.<ref name="katc1">{{Cite web |title=Lead Changes for Tabasco, McIlhenny Company |url=http://www.katc.com/news/lead-changes-for-tabasco-c-mcilhenny-company/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130709212841/http://www.katc.com/news/lead-changes-for-tabasco-c-mcilhenny-company/ |archive-date=July 9, 2013 |access-date=March 6, 2013 |publisher=KATC.com}}</ref><ref name="Osborn">{{Cite web |date=July 15, 2019 |title=Incoming Tabasco CEO Harold Osborn Embraces his Early Start |url=https://neworleanscitybusiness.com/blog/2019/07/15/incoming-tabasco-ceo-harold-osborn-embraces-his-early-start/ |access-date=July 24, 2019 |publisher=New Orleans City Business}}</ref> McIlhenny was one of just a few U.S. companies to have received a [[Royal Warrant of Appointment (United Kingdom)|royal warrant of appointment]] that certified the company as a supplier to [[Queen Elizabeth II]]. McIlhenny was one of the 850 companies around the world that have been officially designated as suppliers to the queen by such warrants. The warrant held was "Supplier of Tabasco HM The Queen&nbsp;— Master of the Household&nbsp;— Granted in 2009".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Search Members' Directory &#124; Royal Warrant Holders Association |url=https://www.royalwarrant.org/directory |website=www.royalwarrant.org}}</ref> In 2005, Avery Island was hit hard by [[Hurricane Rita]], and the family constructed a {{convert|17|ft|m|adj=on}}-high [[levee]] around the low side of the factory and invested in [[Standby generator|back-up generators]].<ref name="belson" />