If you’ve ever sat at a cocktail bar, you’ve seen it: a small, unassuming bottle with a paper label that looks like it was made for a much larger container. This is Angostura Aromatic Bitters. While it might look like a packaging mishap, that oversized label is a badge of history, representing a 200-year journey from a South American battlefield to the world’s most famous bars.

Created in 1916 by Hugo Enslin, a barternder at the Hotel Wallick in New York, the Aviation is a classic gin-based cocktail.