Chocolate with street cred in Barcelona, Spain

"Rajoles" chocolates by Enric Rovira in Barcelona. Image courtesy of TrendsLab.

Barcelona is becoming to chocolate lovers what Paris and Milan are to fashionistas. The Holy Grail, the place to shop.

Of course, it's hard to beat cities like Paris, Brussels or New York when you're talking serious chocolate. But Barcelona (and Spain for that matter) is home to extremely talented, creative and innovative chocolate artisans too - with people such as Oriol Balaguer (ex-El Bulli, great interview in the New York Times earlier this month), Enric Rovia (see another post here), Cacao Sampaka, Paco Torreblanca, Bubo's Carles Mampel and Yann Duytsche producing some of the very best chocolate in the world right now.

Anyway, one of the chocolates I liked best when I last visited Barcelona were these square "Rajoles" chocolate bars created by Enric Rovira and inspired by the famous street tiles of Barcelona.

“Rajoles” is a Catalan word that means “tiles”. These tiles were designed by famous Spanish architect Josep Puig i Cadalfalch and since the beginning of the last century were used to pave the sidewalks of Barcelona. Nowadays they're a symbol of Modernism or "Art Nouveau" in Barcelona.

Jean and I in Barcelona, checking out the famous "Rajoles" tiles

Really love this idea of 'architecture meets chocolate". Enric Rovira has a whole range of tiles-inspired chocolates - including some inspired by Gaudi's famous architecture - and the chocolate is delicious too. I mean, could you imagine chocolates designed after the tiles on the roof of the Sydney Opera House, or cobblestones in old Paris?!

So tell me dear reader, if you could design your chocolate bar after your favourite monuments or architecture icon, which one would you pick?

Comments

[JEAN CONRIE]

How fantastic was that trip! Love Barcelona, its food, tapas bar, restaurants, El Bulli and its chocolates of course. Great post.

[Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella]

I am dying to visit Barcelona! And I tried Oriol Balaguer chocolate at Qualia! one had pop rocks in it hehe ;)

[Orly Hotels]

I think Barcelona is a great destination. Thanks for sharing this post with us. Regards.