The company Jan Becher - Karlovarská Becherovka, a.s., dates back 200 years to the first decade of the 19th century.

[1] In 1807, Josef Becher [cs], a pharmacist from Karlovy Vary (then called Karlsbad), started selling bitters made to his own recipe as a medicinal tonic.

The name Becherovka was developed after World War I when Bohemia became part of Czechoslovakia, and the sole official language Czech.

After World War II, the company was nationalized under the Benes-Decrees that stripped local Germans and Magyars of property and citizenship.

In the early 1980s, though, competition increased, and in October 1985, Underberg and the Czech trade ministry made a contract.