| We had read a text panel at the Barcelona Chocolate Museum explaining that chocolate arrived in Spain in 1520, one year after Cortez arrived in Mexico. A Cistercian monk, Fray Aguilar, shipped chocolate with the recipe to the Monasterio de Piedra in Aragon and possibly also to the monastery at Poblet. Since then there has been a ‘Cistercian chocolate tradition.’
As we were driving to Belchite, we happened to notice a sign for the Cistercian monastery in Poblet. The tour includes the medieval monks’ chocolate room. The display case from the old kitchen at Poblet, exhibits a chocolate pot near what our guide described as the chocolate room (above). |
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