Eddie The Wild's
Kalimotxo Home Page

Last update: April 26, 2017

Welcome to the very first webpage on kalimotxo, on the Web since the early 1995!!

Relevant events:

April 26, 2017 - Pepsi promotes its new drink 1893 as perfect to make... "cali-mocho"
May 31, 2016 - "I Ruta del Calimocho" (First Kalimotxo Tour), in Logroño (Spain), June 9-26, 2016, organized by bar owners from La Rioja and Coca-Cola.

March 15, 2015 - Today is a great day!! Kalimotxo has been on the Web for 20 years!!
On March 15, 1995 the very first webpage about kalimotxo was created; since then we (at least, I) have enjoyed countless gallons of kalimotxo. I would like to thank everybody who, along these 20 years, contributed to this website, shared a kalimotxo with me, emailed me about it, or just visited this site and smiled... and let's keep doing it for the next 20 years!!
November 15, 2014 - Added a new video in the "The origin of the name" section.
May 20, 2013 - The New York Times says: "Wine and Cola? It Works", by Rosie Schaap. Check out their video "Summer Drinks Recipe: Kalimotxo, a 'Poor Man's Sangria'"":
March 21, 2013 - Our favorite country & rockabilly band "The Sangriola's", releases its first CD called 'Radio Kalimotxo'
June 23, 2011 - I open a new section: Kalimotxo-based Food
December 11, 2010 - Kalimotxo enters Isle of Man!! see the details
May 10, 2010 - They open the "I Campeonato Profesional de Kalimotxo" (First Professional Kalimotxo Championship)
May 12, 2006 - I participate in a radio interview of Radio Popular (8.8MB).
October 3, 2002 - I am interviewed by the Radio Popular de Bilbao radio station, in October 3, 2002 (13 minutes, 6.2 MB).
March 2002 - Geocities misteriously deletes my files and I have to look for another home. Strange way to celebrate its 7th birthday. I decide to use the color or coke, red wine and lemon for the page.
February 1998 - Some journalists find out the page and publish a column about it. The day after people from Radio Bilbao, Radio Popular and other radio stations want to interview me. I decline the offer of Euskal Telebista (ETB-1) to appear in a TV program where "people that do strange things are invited".
November 29, 1996 - Some friends find a reference to this page in El Pais newspaper suplement.
March 1995 - The page is created in geocities just to practice HTML. The subject chosen is good, isn't it?

The origin of the name

Nobody knows who combined red wine and coke for the first time. But almost everybody agree that the name "kalimotxo" was invented in by the group of friends called "Antzarrak" during the festivities of Algorta in August 12, 1972, 17:00, by mixing the name of two of their friends , Kalimero and Motxongo (other sources say that their friend Kalimero was quite ugly (motxo, in Basque).

In July 2004, people from

invite me to write a chapter for their book "La Verdadera Historia del Kalimotxo" (The True Story of Kalimotxo). If you are interested, order your own copy of the book .

In May 11, 2006, the book was presented in an amazing event at Funky Projects, where journalists and many friends enjoyed kalimotxo, hot peppers, and salted anchovies; very funny. Tele7 TV broadcasts a video interview that evening.

In June 6, 2006 (the very day of the beast, and coinciding with my birthday), Euskal Telebista (ETB) (the basque TV) broadcasts a video about the famous book.

The same day (more birthday gifts!!) Martin Mugica sends me a copy of the book "The invention of the kalimotxo and anecdotes of public festivities" (3MB, in Spanish), with photos of Kepa Urquiza and edited by the Antzarrak group in 2001, a priceless document about the old but good festivities in Algorta.

Other references:

November 10, 2014: Meet some of the guys from Antxarrak group, the very first creators of the name "kalimotxo"
July 7, 2013: video ETB "El verdadero origen del kalimotxo"
July 11, 2012 - The digital edition of the newspaper "El Correo" (ElCorreo.com) published the video ¿"Quién inventó el kalimotxo?" (who invented kalimotxo?) in June 29, 2012
September 10, 2006 - Article on the newspaper "El Correo" entitled "En el nombre del kalimotxo" 1, 2, where Martin Mugica is interviewed. Thank you, Olatz, for the scanning.
August 18, 2006 - Article on the newspaper "El Pais" entitled "Kalimotxo, historia de un brebaje" about the book of Funky Projects.

How to pronounce it (and related songs)

I think the only thing you need to know is that "tx" is pronounced like "ch" in "much". Anyway, here you have an audio sample. If you did not get the picture, just listen some kalimotxo songs (in Spanish):

La Otxoa - Pasame el kalimotxo. A Bilbao semi-gay folk song, very good. Nesss and I think it should be the next summer song. See a video in YouTube.
JB Juerguistas y Borrachos - Kalimotxo (konsixtente). Alternative music for an alternative drink.
Josu Distorsion y los del Puente Romano - Kalimotxo
Los Borghia - Rock y Kalimotxo. In other words, rock and kalimotxo :-)
Gigatron - Viva el kalimotxo. A kalimotxo version of "We will rock you". Wanna see their video (45.6 MB)? (parental discrection is advised)
Manolo Kabezabolo - Si Sid Vicius hubiera conocido el kalimotxo (if Sid Vicius would have known kalimotxo). A kalimotxo punk song. A contribution of Nesss.
Zapozain - Com'on C.K. edan kalimotxo, a kalimotxo version of a well-known folk-rock song.
BB Bino - Kalimotxo, a cool punky song absolutely dedicated to kalimotxo.
Porretas - Kalimotxo, a priceless pro-kalimotxo rock song.
Desfase - Kalimocho, another punk kalimotxo song.
Kalandrakas - Kalimotxo, cool tune about kalimotxo drinking.
Pablo Carbonel - El Kalimotxo de Mama, amazing videoclip to promote San Fermines 2007.
Eilen Jewell - Kalimotxo, a kalimotxo country style song. Being born in Boise, Idaho, home of the biggest basque community in the US, we can understand that Eilen loves kalimotxo, the mascot of her band, as she said in an interview in Spanish. In a live concert in Madrid she explains as introduction: "This drink is for teenagers, right? but we like it... a lot. We are young in our mind, in our heart, young forever, then we must play 'Kalimotxo' ".
The Pubcrawlers - Kalimotxo, New England celtic punk plus kalimotxo, the perfect mix.

Here you can find the interview of Radio Popular de Bilbao radio station, in October 3, 2002 (13 minutes, 6.2 MB)

Kalimotxo-based Food

	Fuelimotxo by Restaurante Los Fueros, in Bilbao (Spain) An original tapa made with foie and kalimotxo gelatin.
	Kalimotxo ice cream by ice cream shop Nossi-Bé, in Bilbao.
	Beef Neck and Kalimotxo Potjie by Vincent Maher A delicious beef neck stew cooked with kalimotxo and prepared outdoors in a traditional round, cast iron, three-legged pot (the potjie) which is found in the homes and villages of people throughout southern Africa. You can replace beef neck by tail or shin, as long as it has bones in it. Posted by its creator on June 16, 2011.
	Okela de alto voltage con kalimotxo (i.e. high voltage meat with kalimotxo), from Bar Okela (Bilbao) It became one of the finalists of the "XIII Campeonato de Pintxos Bilbao -Bizkaia" (13th Championship of Typical Basque Appetizers Bilbao -Bizkaia) on June 24, 2010. Okela also won the prize "Txapela Mejor Barra" (prize to the best bar, i.e., the place where you place pintxos).

Kalimotxo-related Places

	El mejor vino para hacer kalimotxo, Bodegas Otañón (La Rioja, Spain) They analized which of their wines was the best one to make kalimotxo.
	City O- City, Denver (USA) You can find kalimotxo as one of the "libations" of this restaurant in Downtown Denver, amazingly served with a straw across the limon slide on top of glass, nice!!!
	Restaurant "Casa del Bueno", Shibuya (Japan) You can find kalimotxo in this Spanish Bar in Japan.
	Restaurante Kalimotxo, in Ciudad de Mexico (Mexico) Definitely a nice name!!

The Making of

Basically, this famous basque drink is composed of red wine & coke, fifty/fifty (this is the most important thing). It is supposed to be served with ice if available and you can also add a slice of lemon. Don't forget to stir it well before drinking.

Variations

I'd like to notice that some of the information appearing below can be wrong due to people use different names in different places for the same drink; even more, the same name for different drinks.

"Pitilingorri" (Bizkaia) or "joxemari" (Gipuzkoa): use any lemon soda instead of coke.

"Txurrimuski": use any orange soda instead of coke.
"Kaligorri": use rose (pink wine) instead of red wine.
"Kalitxuri": use white wine instead of red wine.
In Larres (Huesca, Spain) and other towns around there, it is common to do kalimotxo with aged wine. And surprisinly, elder people are who drink it (!!!). This information was provided by Quinin, the psyco-bartender in "La Bodeguilla" (Zaragoza, Spain).
"Litrona" or "litro" of kalimotxo. This is easy: just get a one and half liter bottle of coke and mix it with one liter of red wine. Important: drink it directly from the bottle, and don't waste your time adding lemon and ice, basic ingredients and already in. It is portable, refillable, recycleable and shareable. Litrona is the key of the phenomenom called "botellón" where people buy drinks at supermarkets and drink in the streets.
"Katxi" or "mini", very popular!!! a litre of kalimotxo served in a big plastic glass.

But don't forget these are only some variations of the original and marvellous kalimotxo.

Also Known As...

Yeah, people drink kalimotxo everywhere. But they use different names. Help me to build this section and tell me how you call that drink made of Red Wine and Coke. Other names for variations and even new variations are also welcome.

Kalimotxo, in the Basque Country. We already knew that by now, right ?

Calimocho, in the rest of Spain. Weird !!!

Red Wine & Coke, in the USA. Well, at least it was the only way to ask for kalimotxo

Vadász; (which means 'hunter') and VBK (which stands for 'vörösboros kóla', i.e., red wine with coke) in Hungary. Source: Viktor Tron, who also sent a long list of other regional names (in Hungarian).
Kalimotxito, in Vitoria-Gasteiz. It is served in a half-size glass.
Half kalimotxo, in several late-night bars. In places where "kalimotxo" means "a glass with ice and red wine, and a whole bottle of coke", half kalimotxo means "I only want half bottle of coke". It is cheaper and you don´t drink more coke than wine.
Bambus, in Croatia (source V. Prenner) and in Slovenia (source Annabel Harrison, a sworn coke-hater who also told me that they sometimes confused it with txurrimuski). JCampos found out that the name Bambus is well-known .
Korea, in the southwest of Germany, according to the information provided by Stephan, from Stuttgart.
Tinticola, in Aragón (in the past), according to Isabel, the cool rasta-bartender of "Barrio Sur"
Rioja libre, in La Rioja in the 80's, according to José Gabriel.
Sangriola, in Belgium, according to Marc Luyten, member of the country & rockabilly band "The Sangriola's", visit their website, amazing clips and music!! and don't miss the funny story about the name of the band and presentation of its first CD 'Radio Kalimotxo'!!
Jote, in Chile, as explained by Lissette.
Katemba, in South Africa, according to Vincent Maher.

Great Kalimotxo drinkers

The order in which the pictures appear is not important. When we speak about kalimotxo the most important thing is not to drink the first one but to drink the last one.

Eduardo Mena. Well, this is me. I visited the Old Harbor in Algorta, the neighbourhood where the name "kalimotxo" was born on August 12, 1972, at 17:00 (See ref., page 8).
Alfredo Goñi. He is from Pamplona and he is the wildest fan of Sanfermines I've ever seen. Do I need to say anything else ?
Nesss, probably my most reliable kalimotxo partner.
Angel "El Txantreano". Another guy from Pamplona. As he is quite shy and he doesn't want to send a picture to me, I can only show him fighting against Pepe and Itziar (this is not his best photo).
Goio Lekuona, a friend from Ordizia (in the deep Basque Country). Damned, although he drinks a lot he never gets drunk (well perhaps once or twice).
New members of the kalimotxo guild during my stay in the USA in 1995:
- Ben, Ella & Anne
- Souvik
- Several guys in a Spring Break party. Special mention for that girl with glasses who tried it many times (perhaps too many times)
- Angie, John, Monica & Dave
- Devashish
- Joaquin & Robin
Chao-Chung Chang (Txao-Txung Txang in Basque), who was initiated by Alfredo in Sanfermines'95 and continued drinking kalimotxo in his following visits to the Basque Country. He also offered kalimotxo as a special drink in his '98 birthday party. You can see him and Alfredo in front of the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum right before kalimotxing once again.
Enrico Maria Orsi, who contributed with 10 litres of kalimotxo to a party in Turin (June 28, 1996)
The Mexico City Kalimotxo Drinkers, nice people that really love drinking kalimotxo and making it famous everywhere.
Kjetil Aamann, from Oslo (Norway), is a real fan of kalimotxo and other basque drinks. He says that, unfortunately, he and another lady are the only members in the norwegian kalimotxo movement. Hey you, vikings ! don't leave those nice people alone and try the drink !!!. I hope to meet him here in San Sebastian.
Paul Stewart and his friend Patrick "Kalimotxo Kid". They enjoyed it in San Fermines, Pamplona.
Christine Poydessus and friends. They have their own kalimotxo drinkers society in San Francisco, California.
Anders Rascal, from Sweden: "I've made kalimotxo the drink of drinks among my fellow swedes. We always drink it before we go out". Keep drinking, boy.
One of the best kalimotxo websites in the Web, FBC, the Federation of Kalimotxo Drinkers (in Spanish).
Paul Holder, from Crested Butte, CO, who learned of kalimotxo in Villena, Alicante (Spain).
Caleb, from Washington DC, who has a very funny page about kalimotxo.
José Gabriel, from La Rioja, who contributes with a cultural note about kalimotxo (in Spanish): "A los romanos les parecía vulgar el consumo de vino sin mezclar (merus), y preferían el mezclado con agua (mixtus). En los tiempos de Julio César no se habían inventado las burbujas, pero se admitía aromatizar la mezcla de agua y vino con otras sustancias. Así que este insigne personaje habría considerado vulgar al que se llena la copa con Marqués de Cáceres a palo seco, y civilizado al que la llena con un tinto de verano o un calimocho."
Eirik Askheim, from Norway, he likes very much the kalimotxo according to his friend Manuel Caballero
Dylan Smith, from Isle of Man . Just one month after he visited Zaragoza (Spain), where he drank kalimotxo for his first time, he sent me a picture of, as far as we know, the very first kalimotxo ever mixed at Isle of Man, and we think that this won't be the last one!! Let's spread kalimotxo through those 572 km²; even 4-horn Loaghtan sheeps are gonna love it!! :-))
Marlyse, who shows that girls from Cameroon also love our favourite drink.
Laura, rediscovering kalimotxo.
Two new kalimotxo drinkers from the Isle of Man.

Kalimotxo Stories

The Hordes of Louis: the Computer Science Faculty Holiday'95
Kalimotxo Drinker World Championship, by the Mexico City Kalimotxo Drinkers.

Do not forget to visit the Sagardo Bira Home Page, our chronicles when drinking cider.

Acknowledgments

I'd like to thank to Nerea "Bastrakine" and Fernando the valuable information they sent to me about some variations of kalimotxo. Thanks to Devashish for his suggestion about how to pronounce "kalimotxo". Special thanks to Enrico Maria for helping me in finding the first home for this web.

EddieTheWild@bigfoot.com
March. 15, 1995

Eddie The Wild's Kalimotxo Home Page