... was developed as a tonic by Johann Gottlieb Benjamin Siegert (1796–1870), the German–born surgeon general in Simón Bolívar's army in Venezuela. Siegert began to sell it in 1824, and established a distillery for the purpose in 1830. He was based in the town of Angostura and used locally available ingredients, perhaps aided by botanical knowledge gleaned from the native people. The product was sold abroad from 1853, and in 1875 the plant was moved from Ciudad Bolivar to Port of Spain, Trinidad, where it remains today.
The exact formula is a closely guarded secret, passed from generation to generation. Reputedly, only one person knows the whole recipe at any one time.
Angostura bitters won a medal at the Weltausstellung (World Exhibition) of 1873, in Vienna. The medal is still depicted on its characteristic oversized label (which projects above the 'shoulder' of the bottle); the reverse depicts Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria in profile.
Despite what you may have heard, Angostura bitters is not named after the angostura tree and is not made from its bark. Like the tree, it's named after the town of Angostura, whose name means 'narrowing', in reference to a narrowing of the Orinoco river.
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