Becherovka Liqueur 750ml

Becherovka traces its origins to 1805, when Josef Vitus Becher, a Karlovy Vary businessman who had been experimenting with distilling since 1794, received a recipe for an herbal liqueur from Christian Frobrig, an English physician traveling with a visiting nobleman seeking treatment at the town's mineral springs. Becher spent two years refining the formula before launching it in 1807 as English Bitter, marketed as a digestive remedy. His son Jan later took over the business, expanded production, and put his own name on the yellow labels that still identify the bottle today. The recipe remains a closely guarded secret, known in full to only two people within the company at any given time, and Pernod Ricard has owned the brand since 1997.

The liqueur is built from a proprietary blend of roughly twenty herbs and spices, internally referred to as the "Drogikamr" mixture, prepared weekly by its two custodians. These botanicals, believed to include ingredients such as cinnamon, cloves, anise, wormwood, and citrus peel, are macerated in high quality neutral spirit before being blended with local Karlovy Vary spring water and sugar. That spring water, long valued for its mineral character, is considered part of what gives the finished liqueur its distinctive softness.

The color is a warm, golden amber. The nose carries cinnamon, clove, and ginger alongside a bitter orange note. The palate is spicy and slightly tart, drying out toward a clean, fresh finish. Becherovka is traditionally served ice cold as a shot, mixed with tonic and lemon in a drink known locally as a Beton, or used as a base for cocktails.