Kalimotxo

I really resisted it for a long time. The very idea of kalimotxo -- the mix of red wine and Coca Cola I had always associated with groups of drunk-in-public teenagers -- just didn't appeal to me. I didn't want to like it. So I refused to try it.

And now I eat my words. One night, at a club, someone passed me their glass (sharing drinks with your friends at bars seems weird to North Americans, but I've found it quite common elsewhere), and as soon as I tasted it I knew that it had to be kalimotxo. It was a refreshing change from beer. And I didn't immediately revert to being 18 and swigging from a purple-tinged 2L Coke bottle on the metro or in the corner of a park with my friends.

Yesterday I ordered one in a bar for the first time. Though now popular all over the country, kalimotxo was invented in the Basque Country, after all, so I just tell myself I'm doing my part to sustain local culture, one katxi at a time.