This description is taken from "Culinaria Spain", Ed. Marion Trutter 1998

What is the origin of the Pimenton?

Christopher Columbus brought paprika back to Spain with him from his second voyage to America, and introduced it to their Catholic Majesties Ferdinand and Isabella in the monastery of Guadalupe. The biting sharpness of some peppers almost took the noble pair's breath away.

But that did not prevent the monks of the monastery from passing on the new vegetable to the brothers of their order, so that the peppers spread initially thorughout Extremadura and then over the entire country. However , it was not until the 17th century that pimenton, the crushed powder from the small red spicy pepper, began its triumphal progress through Spanish cuisine.

Today, the finest paprika powder in Spain is made in northern Extremadura, not far from the place where the first plants bloomed in the monastery garden 500 years ago. The home of the famous pimenton de La Vera is the delightful area around La Vera in northern Extremadura, the most fertile part of central Spain. The spicy peppers find ideal conditions on the low-lying alluvial soils around the Tietar River. The climate is mild and there is adequate precipitation. Here the farmers cultivate different varieties of the paprika genus Capsicum annum, each with varying degrees of pungency. This factor is determined by a substance known as capsaicin, which is absent in delicate, mild peppers and bell peppers grown as vegetables.