Tabasco Is Celebrating 150 Years With a ‘Diamond Reserve’ Hot Sauce

Anyone remember when Tabasco was just Tabasaco, a perfectly tangy vinegar pepper sauce with enough kick to explode a mosquito?

Simpler times, then.

Now there are all kinds of Tabasco flavors, from Habanero to Garlic Pepper to Scorpion to its very own Sriracha sauce. But none of those flavors are more excessive than the company’s newly available 150th Anniversary Diamond Reserve Red Sauce.

Diamond Reserve. If that sounds fancy, rest easy knowing that this little black champagne-style bottle is probably the fanciest Tabasco will ever get.

The special edition sauce forgoes the typical three-year aging process of peppers for a much longer cure (up to 15 years) and comes from a choice selection of tabasco peppers on Avery Island, the place where Tabasco produces its wares.

But what truly justifies the Diamond Reserve placard is the fact that the finished aged pepper sauce is then blended with sparkling white wine vinegar, resulting in a pop of flavor with “exceptional complexity, while maintaining the signature flavor and vibrancy” of the original.

As excessive as it may seem (at $34 for a 6 fl. oz. bottle, it’s a healthy argument), we can’t think of a better way to top off 150 years than with a little dab of Diamond Reserve.