The True History of Tabasco Sauce.¹

This is really one of those rags-to-riches, American success stories. To get to the beginning of the story, let’s start at the end, and then march backwards. First, some family history …

My mother is Laura Bullitt Burgiss,
whose father was Hugh Kennedy Bullitt,
whose mother was Heloise Kennedy Bullitt ²,
whose mother was Anne White Kennedy,
whose father was Maunsel White,

and the guy that invented Tabasco Sauce.

I guess that makes him not granddad, but great-great-great-grandad.

Maunsel was born in Tipperary, Ireland in 1784. Orphaned at the age of 13, he emigrated to the “colonies” in the late 1700’s, settling first in Louisville, Ky. where he worked as a clerk in the shipping industry. Commerce was primarily river based goods at that time, and eventually he relocated down-river to New Orleans. He quickly did quite well for himself in various business ventures, becoming wealthy, eventually owning several plantations, including the “Deer Range” plantation (near New Orleans), where he hosted such notables as Andrew Jackson, and Lady Wilde (Oscar’s mom). By the time of the War of 1812 he was well established, captained and financed the “Lousiana Blues” regiment.

The principal crop of his plantations was sugar cane, but Maunsel dabbled in various other horticultural interests, including a failed attempt at marketing a fermented beverage made from oranges. He also had a taste for peppers.

A sea-captain friend, who traveled the Caribbean, returned one day with a handful of pepper seeds from the “Tobasco” region of Mexico, which were unknown in Louisiana at that time. Maunsel began cultivating these peppers. As was the custom of the day, these were called “Tabasco” peppers (variously spelled “Tobasco”) for their native region.

The traditional method of preserving peppers was to dry them. Tabasco peppers are unusually oily, and Maunsel found they did not dry well in the heat and humidity of south Louisiana. Not to give in easily, he experimented with sauces made from the peppers which he bottled, and was known to give freely as gifts to friends and neighbors. He eventually settled on a vinegar based sauce. “Maunsel White’s Tabasco Sauce”, as it was known in its day, was well known in the area prior to 1850, and the successful marketing of THE TABASCO® Sauce in the late 1860’s by the McIlhenny family of nearby Avery Island, Louisiana.

The McIlhenny family (founders of THE Tabasco Sauce) were neighbors and acquaintances of Maunsel White, and undoubtedly knew of his sauce, which pre-dated their own concoction (despite their apparent denials). Though well known locally, Maunsel never marketed his own Tabasco sauce. Family members did market several sauces bearing his name after his death. He died well before the commercialization of the product that he inspired.

Hal Burgiss