Becherovka – Liqueur

Chance seems to stand at the head of many a great historical event. One such piece of luck brought the Imperial Count Plettenberg-Mietingen on a visit to Karlovy Vary in 1805, bringing with him an eccentric English doctor by the name of Frobrig. It must have been coincidence that the count and his personal physician Frobrig put up at the House of the Three Skylarks, which, by another piece of fortune, belonged to our Josef Becher, Karlovy-Vary pharmacist. Becher and the easily bored Dr Frobig soon became close friends united by a common passion: inventing blends of herbs, aromatic oils, and alcohol. Taking his leave of Karlovy Vary a while later, Dr Frobig gave his companion a piece of paper. ‘This preoccupied me somewhat,’ said the Englishman with the cool composure his fellow countrymen are famous for, before disappearing from Josef Becher’s sight for all eternity. There was an inkling of something truly inspired in Frobrig’s blend of herbs and alcohol, and over the next two years Josef Becher went on to spend all his spare moments experimenting with the secret recipe. Then, in 1807, Josef Becher started selling cordial drops at his pharmacy according to his own recipe. Initially, his liqueur bore the names Carlsbad English Bitter, Carlsbad Bitter, English Bitter, and even the German name Original Karlsbader Becherbitter. In short, Karlovy Vary Becherovka had seen the light of the world.