The Benedictine Monks of Glenstal Abbey, Co Limerick, have gone into the hand-made chocolate business with a range of dessert and liqueur chocolate truffles to delight the taste buds. The move will pit God's finest chocolatiers against other luxury chocolate makers such as Butlers, who are Ireland's market leader and the oldest handmade-chocolate company in the country.
According to Brother Fintan Lyons: "Only a few retail shops in Ireland sell them. They are mostly an export item and they sell in Germany and America. They sell very well in the monastery.
"Preparing liqueurs from herbs is a very ancient monastic tradition deriving from herbal medicine. Monastic liqueurs were intended to be drunk in small quantities as an elixir to aid digestion.
"Seven monastic liqueurs from throughout Europe are used to flavour dark, white and milk chocolate truffles.
"These include the well-known Benedictine liqueur, the very special Chartreuse, which is made from a secret formula, a mandarin-flavoured liqueur which comes from the ancient monastic island of Lerins, and Glenstal's own liqueurs, made from lemon verbena and other plants and herbs grown at Glenstal Abbey.
"Other truffles derived from favourite desserts are included in the 12-chocolate box. With chartreuse there are over 100 different herbs and only two different monks know the recipe at any given time," added Brother Lyons.
The Glenstal chocolates retail for €9.95 per box.
Glenstal Abbey is home to a community of 40 monks. The mystical Abbey, which is located in the lush rolling plains of Murroe, Co Limerick, is famed for its centuries-old ecclesiastical traditions.
Benedictine life emphasises beauty and harmony as well as care for creation, and it also celebrates God's presence in the community and in the natural world.
However, when it comes to launching a new product the Benedictines of Glenstal could teach the rest of the world a thing or two.
The Glenstal Book of Prayer, which was launched in 2000, went on to break all known Irish book-publishing records when it sold a staggering 150,000 copies in Ireland in less than six months.
SIC: II