History recounts that a Cistercian monk who travelled with Hernan Cortes to Mexico, Brother Jeronimo of Aguilar, sent the first cocoa beans ever seen in Europe to the Abbot at Monasterio de Piedra, Antonio de Alvaro, together with a recipe for chocolate.
The monks at this monastery were therefore the first people in Europe to taste this delicacy, explaining the long tradition of chocolate-making in the Cistercian order. Some monasteries even have a small room over the cloisters known as the chocolate room, where chocolate was made and tasted.
The LION & the CARDINAL