Reply to "Tabasco island: Is this the hottest place in the world?"

McIlhenny created a "Tabasco bible" which the manufacturers continue to follow today.

The sauce is now sold in 187 countries and bottled in 22 languages and dialects, with its ingredients remaining much the same all these years later.

The only major difference is that the aging time has stretched from 30 days in jars to three years in used bourbon barrels.

Also, some of the pepper seeds are now shipped off to growing fields in Latin America and returned to the island for processing once they've sprouted.

The peppers are handpicked when they're about chest high level, with employees painstakingly checking the shade of each one with a color stick.

"We can only pick the brightest fully ripe red pepper because Tabasco is a natural product," Simmons explains.