Umeshu
Japanese Plum Wine
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Umeshu (Japanese plum wine) is a delightful liqueur that's easy to make, but the ingredients can be hard to find outside of Japan. This adaptable recipe offers several variations, including the traditional ume and shochu, and adaptations for green apricots and different spirits.
Umeshu! A delicious, sweet Japanese liqueur, traditionally made at home with a handful of simple ingredients. I like the word umeshu because a) I think it rolls off the tongue quite nicely, and b) the alternative English translation - Japanese plum wine - has always bugged me. You see, 'Japanese plum wine' is not made with plums, and it's not wine.
Before I explain any further, I will pause a moment to appease those who might think me overly pedantic. I mean, you can still think I'm pedantic, but at least I get to make my case. This is an issue of how words are translated, and what meaning they truly take, and I am the first to admit that these are notoriously fuzzy and imprecise fields. But it turns out that know what umeshu really is can be quite helpful when it comes time to adapt a recipe.
Now then, why is 'plum wine' not a great name for umeshu? Let's tackle that plum bit first. Umeshu is actually made with unripe green fruits from a tree called Prunus mume. The Japanese name for this tree and its fruit is ume (梅). Umeshu (梅酒) takes that word and slaps it in front of the word for alcohol or liqueur (酒). Unfortunately, the common translations of both of these words introduce some confusion into matters. Regardless of whether you're starting from Chinese or Japanese, the word 梅 is generally translated to 'plum.' It's not a terrible translation per se; the purple, yellow, and red plums that most English speakers are familiar with are also in the genus Prunus. But Prunus is a big genus, covering nectarines, peaches, almonds, cherries, and apricots. But 'plum' is something of a poor translation because ume is actually much more closely related to apricot (Prunus armeniaca). Why does this matter? Well I'm glad you asked. It matters because outside of Japan, ume fruits can be exceedingly hard to come by, but apricots are much more commonly grown. The botanical similarity between ume and apricot translates into a broad culinary similarity - especially when it comes to the immature green fruits used to make umeshu. While you can make umeshu with green plums (and other fruits - more on that later), the best 'copycat' ingredient available to most people outside of East Asia will be green apricots.
But what about wine? Alcohol is an ancient part of human culture, and broad similarities can be found in many recipes, concoctions, and methodologies around the world. But the word 'wine' gets applied via translation in a fashion that doesn't always line up with it's endemic use in English. The word wine is typically used to describe a fermented alcoholic beverage, often (but not always) made from grapes. This can be differentiated from, say, a liquor, which is made by distilling an already fermented alcohol. Sweeten that liquor, add some flavour, and you've got a liqueur. But Chinese and Japanese alcohols typically use the aforementioned word 酒, meaning alcoholic beverage,1 along with other descriptive or modifying words used to specify the type and nature of the alcohol in question. For whatever reason,2 translations frequently use the word 'wine' in place of 酒, despite the English word's narrower and more specific meaning. Sometimes the translation is accurate; sake is often called rice wine, and it is indeed made from fermented, undistilled rice. But umeshu is not (in the Western/English sense) a wine, but a liqueur. It's made by infusing a distilled base alcohol with flavour (the ume) and adding sugar.
So should we start calling umeshu 'apricot liqueur' instead of plum wine? Maybe. Or not. As everybody's favourite Asgardian god pointed out in Avengers: Infinity War, all words are made up. Language is quirky, and translation is quirkier. But 'plum wine' is a little frustrating (to me, anyway), as it evokes a very different image from reality - both in terms of flavour, and preparation. Then again, 'apricot liqueur,' while closer, is still only truly accurate if you use true apricots, rather than ume. Perhaps, in the end, the word umeshu is the best. Sure, you have to find out what it means, but then that's true of... well, all words. And in this case, the learning experience happens to be particularly delicious.
- Jiǔ in Mandarin; sake or shu in Japanese, depending on whether the word is being used alone or appended to other words. The Japanese rice wine we commonly call sake in English is 日本酒 - nihonshu - literally "Japan(ese) liquor."
- I suspect the issue is largely vernacular. The word 'liquor' tends not to be used in casual, descriptive conversation the same way that we use words like beer or wine.
Recipe Notes
If you've got access to green ume and good shochu, there's not much to tell you - take a quick look at the technique notes, then just jump to the recipe and throw everything together (the sooner the better, as you're going to have to wait a while for your umeshu to mature). But, thanks to the patchy availability of those ingredients outside of Japan, there's a good chance you've found yourself here precisely because you can't get them both. Fret not, as there are some fantastic alternative umeshu making methods that we're going to explore in detail here.
If you want to read a bit about my (obviously subjective) thoughts on the tasting notes and variations between some of these different methods, jump ahead to here, or just keep scrolling.
Technique Notes
Umeshu is very, very easy to make. With no cooking, and basically zero prep beyond washing the fruit and removing any stems and bad bits, the only difficult part is the waiting. That being said, there are a couple of tips that are worth bearing in mind, especially if this if your first time making umeshu.
First of all, consider your container carefully. For small batches of umeshu, a large, sturdy glass mason jar with a tight-fitting lid will work nicely. Test to make sure your ume/apricots all fit in easily before you get too far into the process. For large batches, you can work in multiples, or you can seek out a large food-grade plastic container with a screw-top lid. You'll often encounter advice that recommends you sterilize your containers, but this isn't really necessary. You absolutely want your bottles to be clean of course, and steam sterilization can be a great way to do that, but with that much alcohol and sugar, nothing is going to start growing in your umeshu. You also don't need to worry about the contents fermenting (and exploding), as the alcohol content is already much too high to allow any stray yeast to digest any of the sugar. This means that there's no need for any kind of airlock fermentation setup, and you can go ahead and put the lids on tightly.
Maturing your umeshu is pretty straightforward - just leave it in a cool, dark spot. I use my garage. You can give it a careful shake every day or so for the first couple of weeks, but even this isn't really necessary if you leave your umeshu for at least 3 months. I personally like to leave my umeshu as long as possible (6 months or more), as the flavours mature more and more with age. You can't really over-infuse umeshu.
Once you're ready to serve your umeshu, you can do so directly from the container, or you can bottle it up. It makes a lovely Christmas or New Years gift, and the timing works out very nicely. If you do decide to bottle it, I recommend pouring the contents through several layers of cheesecloth in order to catch any bits of ume/apricot. I also pour mine through two ultra-fine mesh filters, because I'm finicky that way.
Ume, Apricots, & Alternatives
Fresh ume are pretty uncommon outside of East and Southeast Asia, and green/immature fruits are more uncommon still. If you do have an ume tree, or you know someone who does, you might be able to score enough green fruits in the early spring when the crop is being thinned.3 Try checking with a Japanese grocery store to see if they get any fresh ume in, but make sure to note that you're not looking for ripe fruit or pickled ume (umeboshi). While it can be done, I don't personally recommend using ripe ume (or other ripe stonefruit) to make umeshu. The sugar content is considerably higher in ripe fruits, and the flavour profile is quite different. If you do decide to try an umeshu-esque liqueur with ripe fruits, I suggest reducing the added sugar by about 1/2 in order to avoid a cloyingly sweet finished product.
If you can't get ume, there's a great alternative: green apricots. As mentioned above, apricots and ume are very closely related, and at the green fruit stage the two are virtually identical. Now, green apricots (shown above and below) aren't exactly a common grocery store item either, but they are quite a bit easier to find in North America (and, I would imagine, much of Europe). Here in British Columbia, Canada we have a fairly large stone fruit industry, and that means that green apricots are produced en masse every spring during crop thinning. I've routinely found them at my local farmers markets, though I have yet to see them in a conventional grocery store. I would recommend looking to see if there are any apricot growers near you, and if/when they thin their crops. Depending on where you live, you may also be able to find farmers willing to ship green apricots directly to you (for a fee, of course).
If you can't get apricots, other green stone fruit can be used too. While I haven't tried any of these myself, I've heard that green peaches and green plums work very nicely too. While I have written about green almonds here on Diversivore, I have no idea if they could be used to make something akin to umeshu. I'll have to experiment with that one. Let me know if you've tried any of these variations, and what you think of them!
3. Thinning is the practice of removing some of the young/green fruit from a tree in order to ensure that the tree is able to produce large, high quality fruits. Un-thinned stone fruit trees are often stressed by nutrient and water availability, lack of pollinators, disease, etc. This results in over-cropping and low fruit quality.
Alcohol Options
When it comes to the alcohol used to make umeshu there are a variety of options to explore, ranging from the traditional to the decidedly offbeat. They all have their merits, but I'm going to use this space to discuss the two main variations that I personally make: shochu-based umeshu, and my own "Western hybrid" sake/vodka umeshu. If you're curious about some off-the-beaten-path options, check out the "Off the Beaten Path" section below.
Shochu (& Soju)
Shochu is a clear, distilled Japanese alcohol commonly made from a base of rice, barley, or sweet potato. It is the generally considered the go-to alcohol for making umeshu, but it can be difficult to find in many markets outside of Japan. Sake's popularity has spread on a global level, but shochu remains comparatively little known (despite the fact that it outsells sake in Japan).
These days, inexpensive doubly-distilled shochu (焼酎甲類 - shōchū kōrui) is typically used to make umeshu. These shochus are generally 35% ABV (alcohol by volume) - about 5% lower than vodka. Singly-distilled shochu (焼酎乙類 - shōchū otsurui) has a lower alcohol content (generally 25% ABV) and a more complex flavour that reflects the base ingredients used. I personally prefer the flavour of singly-distilled shochu and umeshu made with it, which is why I like to use it (or the vodka/sake blend below). That being said, it is certainly more commonto make umeshu with doubly-distilled shochu in Japan these days, so there's nothing wrong with going that route either. The final alcohol content of your umeshu will vary depending on what you start with, so keep that in mind.
If you can find shochu in your local market, great! However, be aware that it may not be cheap. In Japan, inexpensive doubly-distilled shochu is often sold in cartons right alongside ume, but this product is largely domestic, and rarely exported. The shochu export market tends to focus a bit more on high-end, craft-distilled market for both kōrui and otsurui shochu, and these tend to command premium prices.
If you can't find shochu, you might want to try looking for the similar Korean alcohol called soju. Good soju with an alcohol content between 25-35% will work wonderfully for making umeshu, but make sure you know what you're buying. The soju market is huge, and there are many inexpensive varieties or soju made with added flavours. Avoid these. This article from the South China Morning Post goes into the shochu vs. soju issue in a bit more detail, so give it a read if you're thinking about using soju.
My Sake/Vodka Hybrid
If you can't find good shochu or soju to use, fear not! I've got a substitute that I've tried for a few years now, and I think it works beautifully - a combination of sake and vodka.
Many Western-adapted umeshu recipes call for substituting straight vodka for shochu, but I dislike this for a two key reasons. First, vodka contains more alcohol than shochu - and in some cases, quite a bit more. Singly-distilled shochu has an ABV (alcohol by volume) of about 25%, while the doubly-distilled stuff clocks in around 35%. Vodka, which is multiply distilled, is generally 40% ABV. Vodka-based umeshu will have a comparatively high alcohol volume (though the difference is less marked when comparing to multiply-distilled shochu). The second reason I don't like using straight vodka is the taste. Shochu is not a neutral spirit; it's meant to have complex tasting notes that will vary depending on the base, distillation method, aging, etc. In this respect, shochu has more in common with sake than with most modern purified vodkas.
Now, it is fair to say that umeshu isn't generally going to be made with the highest quality or most flavourful of shochu. After all, you're adding loads of sugar and fruit to it, and the comparatively mild tasting notes of the base spirit do get a little overwhelmed. But I still feel that the flavour of the spirit and the slight reduction in alcohol content make for a mellower and more enjoyable umeshu, which is why I experimented with a hybrid of sake and vodka. Vodka provides most of the alcohol while remaining neutral tasting, while sake adds fruity and floral notes that compliment the ume/apricots nicely.
I use a 50:50 combination of sake and vodka, which works out to an ABV of about 27% - roughly on par with singly-distilled shochu. If you want your umeshu to have a higher alcohol content (akin to using a multiply-distilled shochu), try a 75:25 or 80:20 ratio. This will give you an ABV between 33-36%. Note that regardless of the spirits you use, the alcohol content of the finished umeshu will be diluted further by the added sugar.
Sugar Options
Umeshu is typically made with crystalline rock sugar. I've experimented with yellow and white rock sugar, and both work very nicely. White rock sugar tends to be the kind found in Japanese grocery stores, while yellow rock sugar is easier to find in Chinese grocery stores.
Rock sugar (or rock candy) is less sweet than granulated white table sugar. This is largely thanks to the chemistry of rock sugar; while the big crystals certainly look and feel particularly solid, there is also water locked away in the crystalline matrix. This means that the sugar is, effectively, somewhat diluted to start with. You'll often see rock sugar touted as being 'healthier' because it's less sweet, but it's simply a matter of quantity; gram for gram, rock sugar contains a tiny bit less sugar and a tiny bit more water. There are also plenty of websites out there that will tell you that rock sugar is healthier than regular sugar because it's less processed and contains more vitamins and minerals. While rock sugar is less refined that granulated table sugar, it's not exactly health food. To prove this you need only look at a minimally processed sugar like jaggery; 100 grams of jaggery contains 88 grams of sugars, quite a lot of iron (around 50% of your daily intake), a moderate amount of potassium4 and negligible quantities of other vitamins and minerals. Even at this minimally processed stage, sugar isn't exact a vitamin packed powerhouse. Crystalline rock sugar is much more refined than jaggery (though less refined than table sugar), and retains very little of the already-underwhelming nutrient profile. Yellow rock sugar is perhaps slightly less processed than white, but we're splitting hairs when it comes to nutrition. And frankly, if you're making umeshu because you're worried about your iron intake, you're barking up the wrong apricot tree.
You can swap granulated (white table) sugar if you can't find rock sugar, but I would be cautious, as it is slightly sweeter tasting. It's difficult to find any hard data on the differences in actual sugar content,5 but I would suggest substituting 75-80% granulated sugar for rock sugar by weight.
I've seen some recipes that suggest swapping out the sugar for honey, but it should be noted that honey tastes quite a bit sweeter than an equal volume of sugar. I haven't tested honey and I don't plan to (it's an expensive choice, and I'm concerned that the finished umeshu will be cloying), but if you do choose to use it, try substituting 70-75% honey for rock sugar by weight.
One additional intriguing option that I've seen teased in a couple of places involves using Okinawan black sugar to make umeshu. This specialty brown sugar is made by boiling sugar cane juice, which is then allowed to solidify. The minimal processing gives it a dark, rich sweetness, and makes it nutritionally similar to jaggery. Expect some of those dark, molasses-like notes to come through in your umeshu.
4. While the potassium content of jaggery is not insignificant, this hardly qualifies it as a health food. The average adult requires about 2600-3400 mg of potassium per day. 100 grams of jaggery contains 1213 mg of potassium, or around 36-47% of the recommended daily intake. While this sounds pretty good at first glance, it's worth remembering that this quantity comes from a 100g serving - roughly equivalent to 5 tablespoons.
5. Experimental data demonstrates that 100 grams of granulated sugar is 385 calories, and is almost 100% pure sucrose. Unfortunately, experimentally verified data for rock sugar is much harder to come by, and what's available is probably not terribly accurate. Self-reported numbers provided to the USDA by brands vary, with many quoting 400 calories per 100 gram serving - almost certainly incorrect.
Off the Beaten Path: Umeshu Variations
I could write another article entirely to cover the various possibilities when it comes to umeshu variations and modifications, but I'll keep things fairly simple for now. If you've got an umeshu (or umeshu-esque) variation you're particularly fond of, I'd love to hear from you in the comments!
Brandy - Made by distilling wine, brandy is a popular base for making all kinds liqueurs and infusions. It is decidedly not neutral tasting, and would lend a distinctive brandy taste to your umeshu. If you do try this, option, be sure to use a relatively low proof brandy (somewhere in the ~35% ABV range).
Rum - Dry, white rum is neutral enough to act very much like vodka, and I see no reason that you couldn't make umeshu with it. That being said, even dry rum tends to have some sweetness to it that you don't find in vodka, so you might want to reduce the added sugar a little bit. It's also going to be fairly high in alcohol content (generally 40% ABV), which I prefer to avoid for umeshu. You could use a rum and sake combination, much like the vodka/sake combination given above. Like brandy, aged rums are considerably more complex, and are likely to alter the flavour of your umeshu quite a bit.
Gin - I quite want to try this one, as I'm a big fan of infusing gin. Gin is a complex spirit with diverse floral and botanical notes, so expect these to come through in your umeshu in a big way. You might want to try using a little less sugar too, though that's a matter of preference; I personally like gin-based drinks to be a little less sweet. And on that note...
"Dry" Umeshu - Umeshu is sweet stuff. But does it have to be? Sugar does help act as a preservative, but given that you're using a (minimum) 25% alcohol spirit base, there's no reason that you can't experiment with a dryer (i.e. less sweet) recipe. Decreasing the sweetness of your umeshu gives you options to use it in dry cocktails (e.g. a martini), but it does mean that you'll have to add sweetness back in (e.g. with simple syrup) at times. If your mind isn't entirely made up, try making a batch of half-sweet umeshu, with 50% less sugar.
Ume + (Spice) - If you're a fan of experimenting with spices, you could certainly consider adding them (judiciously!) to your umeshu. Star anise, cinnamon, cardamom, and citrus peel are all interesting accompaniments to ume, though I would caution against overdoing it with anything.
Ume + (Fruit) - Other fruits are sometimes added to umeshu to shake things up a bit, and the results can be quite lovely. I enjoyed a wonderful mikan (mandarin orange) umeshu a few years ago, for example. Pears, peaches, mangoes, guava, and citrus (especially yuzu) all pair very nicely ume. Do note, however, that if you're adding a sweet fruit that it will contribute more sugar to your umeshu. I would suggest decreasing the added rock sugar somewhat to account for this. If you've got a favourite combination, leave it in the comments!
Comparing Versions
To date, I've made green apricot umeshu with two alcohol bases (shochu and vodka/sake blend) and two types of rock sugar (yellow and white). No single version has been a standout favourite amongst my small group of taste-testers, but there are a few tasting notes to mention. Note that all of my umeshu was aged for a minimum of six months.
Alcohol: The umeshu made with shochu tended to taste a little bit sharper, with a somewhat more distinctive alcoholic bite. The vodka/sake blend was mellower overall, though the difference wasn't enormous. Note that I used a 25% ABV shochu; a stronger doubly-distilled shochu would, presumably, have a more distinctive alcohol taste.
Sugar: umeshu made with yellow rock sugar tasted a little sweeter and a bit more brash, while white rock sugar tasted a little brighter and sharper. Tasters who liked sweet liqueurs tended to prefer the yellow sugar by a very narrow margin. I like the white sugar version a bit better, as I prefer a crisper, less sweet taste.
Leftover Ume/Apricots
Once your umeshu has matured, you might be wondering what to do with all those leftover ume (or apricots). I know I was. You can use them to garnish drinks, though they are admittedly not the most attractive of things, looking rather like slightly fuzzy overgrown olives. One relatively popular option is to make sweet, floral, slightly boozy umeshu jam. Check out this lovely recipe from Just One Cookbook to get started!
Serving Suggestions
Umeshu can be enjoyed in a wide variety of fashions, either on its own or in a cocktail. If you like sweet sipping liqueurs, enjoy it straight-up. Many people like it on ice in the summer, or mixed with hot water (お湯割り - oyuwari) in the winter.
When it comes to mixed drinks, I think it's hard to beat an ume highball. I'm not big on overly sweet cocktails, and I love the way that this simple, crisp, refreshing combination of whisky, ume, ginger (my special ingredient) and soda water. If you don't want to go with whisky, try a simple umeshu sour or umeshu with soda water or club soda. Another interesting option that I haven't yet tried is umeshu ochawari (お茶割り) - with green tea.
Note: Nutritional Information is given for a single shot (1.5 US oz, or 45 ml), or 1/12 portion of the total recipe.
Nutritional Summary
The sweetness of umeshu means that it is, unsurprisingly, fairly high in added sugar. But, given that umeshu is generally enjoyed in small quantities for sipping and/or mixed with simple bases (e.g. soda water or tonic), it's overall nutritional impact is pretty minimal when enjoyed responsibly.
Ingredient Pages
No ingredient pages have been written yet for any of the ingredients in this recipe. Like to see one? Let me know in the comments below or by email.
Pantry Pages
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Umeshu (Japanese 'Plum' Liqueur)
Ingredients
- 500 g green apricots (or green ume, see note)
- 250 g rock sugar
- 500 ml shochu (or a 50:50 combination of vodka and sake) (see notes on varieties and variations below)
Instructions
- Thoroughly clean green ume or apricots and remove any bad spots with a sharp knife. Make sure to remove any bits of stem. Try not to expose the pits - discard any fruits that need that much trimming.
- Transfer the fruit to a clean jar. Add the sugar, then cover the mixture with shochu (or with the vodka/sake combination - see note).
- Shake the container gently to distribute the sugar and help it begin dissolving. Leave for 6 months (or longer), gently shake the mixture ever few days during the first week or two.
- Pour the finished liqueur through a filter to strain out any solids, then bottle. The finished umeshu can be consumed immediately or further aged in bottles.
Notes
Nutrition
Make this with your umeshu!
Ume Highball
More Cocktails & Liqueurs
Redcurrant Gin
Mezcalita del Ocaso
Night Heron
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Comments
Wow. This post is amazing! I love umeshu but it has never crossed my mind to make my own… and it turns out to be easy!! I’m saving this post for later and can’t wait to try it out, hopefully I can get my hands on some green ume. Such an informative post, great job!!! 🙌
Thank you for a very thorough article. I’m growing Prunus mume tree in my Maryland home garden. Made my first Umeshu a year ago, using Ume, vodka and regular sugar. It was surprisingly delicious. I’m growing many other fruits and vines. I experimented with adding Autumn Olive fruits to Umeshu and with adding Magnolia Vine (Schisandra chinesis) fruits. Schisandra chinesis is especially good, it has a very rich taste / aroma and stimulating ingredients similar to ginseng.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schisandra_chinensis
This year I already made the new butch using various types of alcohol. Will consider using Yuzu in a future.
You’re very welcome! Glad you enjoyed it. Your additions and ideas sound really interesting. Schisandra is something I haven’t been able to work with yet! And as for the yuzu idea – well, I’m VERY on board for that one! Cheers!
I didn’t realize shochu and soju were entirely different! Good to know. I remember a few years back I found green apricots and didn’t know what to do with them…now I do! This is a likely project for Shaun and I, as he has become quite the expert on Belgian candy syrup and I’m thinking it would be PERFECT in umeshu. Fingers crossed I find green apricots this year!
I hope you find them too! This is wonderfully easy to make. Also glad you got the info about shochu and soju! Truth be told, I haven’t found good soju around here – there’s a lot of the cheapo heavily flavoured stuff, but… yeah.
Sean your posts are always so detailed! I love plum wine and probably is the only alcohol bevy that will get me flushed. never made it myself, but maybe will give it a try now!
This is an extremely detailed post. Thank you for sharing and going shopping to make this on the weekend!
This would be a fun and interesting drink to make! Thanks for the alternatives, since it’s unlikely I can get access to green ume and good shochu! This makes me so excited about the trip we’re planning to Japan next summer (hopefully)! I’ll definitely getting lots of culinary advice from you before we go! 🙂
My pleasure Terri! And you’ll have an AMAZING time in Japan. It’s definitely a place for food lovers. Always happy to give advice too!
I have been using green plums and a variety of sugar/liquor combinations for about 8 years. I’ve found liquor with a higher ABV extracts the flavor of the unripe plums better. and that maybe different than using these with “real” ume. My 3 favorite combos are:
1. Mexican sugar (“piloncillo”), unripe plums and bourbon, aged about a year. I first did this with a cheap bourbon, and then went a little higher end, which was much better. The ratio of the sugar needs to be pretty low or this becomes too sweet.
2. Jaggery, Everclear and unripe plums, aged at least two years. This one takes longer to taste plummy, but once the alcohol taste is gone it’s really nice, and the jaggery isn’t cloyingly sweet.
3. “Ume-cello,” where I take limoncello and add a little bit of rock sugar and a ton of green plums, and age for about a year.
Thanks Tony! Love the suggested combinations. They all sound so different and tasty. The ume-cello sounds particularly interesting – though the bourbon and piloncillo idea sounds like it’d be really rich and mellow. Cheers!
Very detailed recipe and information! Thank you. I made mine a couple of weeks back, and this was my first try as I saw the plums in my local Japanese grocer.
I have to say – I think I overfilled it. I was pretty much right to the rim with the fruit. I went to give it a quick shake when I noticed it looked like a little had seeped out and dribbled down the side. So I went to wipe it off and twisted the lid a bit to get the stikiness off. Well, then a whole heap of the liquid bubbled right out and I just tightened the lid back on quickly! I smelt exactly as umeshu should (sooo nice) – but do you think I have compromised it by accidentally opening the jar a bit?
Also I went with the sake/vodka hybrid – did you mention the alchol percentage of sake? Anyway I was reflecting, the sake was, I think, 17% and my vodka is 37% . I would say it was roughly 60/40 vodka/sake respectively – this wouldn’t be too low, would it?
I guess overall I was wondering (beyond my filling to the brim) about the leakage – is my alcohol percentage too low… did it start to ferment… is it normal to expect a bit of air tension in the jar when I filled it so high? I don’t have a previous experience of making it to compare to, to know what’s normal I guess. Anyway, it smells perfect (and probably not the greatest idea when I’m uncertain of something, but I licked some of it off my hands and it tasted right too, hahaha).
Anyway – now it’s been two weeks and the sugar has dissolved I’ll just leave it be in the back of the cupboard. But I’m hoping my sake/vodka hybrid is okay, and that opening it slightly hasn’t compromised it. Interested to hear your thoughts (and also, how high do you usually fill your jar to?)
Hi Jennifer!
I wouldn’t worry too much about the spillage. There’s so much sugar and alcohol in this that it’s HIGHLY resistant to any kind of spoilage.
The sake/vodka method quantity you used should be totally fine. Definitely not too low!
As for fermenting – I doubt that would happen. Generally speaking, the yeasts that produce ethanol are killed off once the percentage gets around 10-15%. You should be well beyond that, even with any spillage issues. (And of course, spillage won’t lower your alcohol percentage, just your overall liquid volume). I suspect the tension in the container is just due to temperature change. If it was truly fermenting, the container would more or less blow up. Lol.
I think you’re going to be totally fine. The fact that it already smelled and tasted good is, honestly, all the proof you need. And I usually fill a jar fairly full too – maybe 90% of the way to the top?
Anyway, I hope that all helps. Love to hear from you again when the batch is all done – I hope it’s amazing!
Thank you for responding. You have put me at ease! It’s funny, I make lots of sauerkraut and kimchi and I’m not the most disciplined when I make it, but I’ve never had a spoiled batch – you would think I would have less fears with this recipe. I always learn better by doing, so once I’ve gone through the process once it will all be good.
I can’t wait for when it is complete – I’m so happy to have found that my Japanese grocer sells the plums. I will have to remember again around this time of year to look!
Thanks for sharing, and your website is so informative and the pictures are splendid!
Thank you for the very informative article. I started a basic batch today, and I’ll start a second as soon as I can get more glassware. I plan to add some kumquat or yuzu to the second, but how much would you recommend? E.g. 1000g of ume and ??? grams of yuzu?
Thanks again,
Adam
Hi Adam! Glad you enjoyed the article. Love the citrus idea. I am very, VERY partial to yuzu, so I’d personally be excited to try that. I’d be inclined to try 150-200 grams of yuzu with that quantity of ume. I think that would contribute an appreciable flavour without overwhelming. Yuzu is fairly unique among citrus fruits in that the white pith is not very bitter at all, so you can get away with using the whole fruit (or whole rind, if you want to save the juice for something else). I’d love to hear how it goes!
Hi there, I can only get hold of dried umeboshi plums. Will making the wine with these still work?
Hi Sarah! I haven’t tried making this with dried umeboshi, and I’m afraid I’m not sure how well it would work. Dried umeboshi are not just dried ume, but are in fact dried pickled ume. I suspect that they’d be too salty to use for making umeshu. If you’re feeling adventurous, you could try rehydrating them in several changes of water to draw out some of the salt and to rehydrate the ume. I can’t guarantee it will work, but it’s where I’d start!
Thank you so much for such a detailed post, all the explanations definitely make this page a gem to follow! I’ve been in love with Umeshu ever since I discovered it a couple of years back, and you finally made me jump the fence to try to make my own, following your recipe!…
I have just tasted my (now 6 months old) homemade Umeshu, unfortunately with ripe fruits as I couldn’t find green ones, but it’s still very interesting! I used actual plums (as it was all I had at that time), the red kind, and the result reaaaaally taste like plums ^^
I’d have a couple of questions that I’d love to have your opinion on:
– can I (and should you?) leave the fruits longer than 6 months, or should you remove them at that date and let the result age by itself? Or is it fine to keep the fruits in all the way until the moment you drink it?
– If my result taste a little bit drier than usual umeshu, is there a way to get it back and make it a bit more sweet without ruining it? For example adding a bit of rock sugar back and letting it dissolve for a few weeks? Or is that not advised?
Thank you so much once again, I can’t wait to try again, this time with the proper ingredients! 😀
Hi Bert! Glad you liked the recipe, and glad it helped you so much. Here are my thoughts on your questions:
1. You can leave the fruit longer. In my experience, it’s a general positive. The overall nature of the umeshu is more or less set after a few months, and leaving the fruit much longer isn’t going to massively change characteristics like the sweetness, for example. What it will do is allow the whole blend to extract more complex ingredients and (more importantly) “mellow” – i.e. reach something of an equilibrium point with the fruit. It is DEFINITELY fine to leave the fruit in until you want to drink the umeshu. My understanding is that this is actually a pretty common practice.
2. You can absolutely add more rock sugar to your umeshu if you find it too dry. The sugar isn’t really chemically transforming at any point, so adding a bit more later in the process is totally fine.
Good luck! I hope your current and future batches work out beautifully!
I am from Manchester UK. I found you by accident and was very intrigued. I can’t make this drink yet, as can’t get hold of green uma. so I just ordered Uma Plum tree as I like growing unusual fruit trees. I just had few fruits for red inside out apples i had grown. yum yum and white cherries
Hello again Sean!
Once again, thank you for the detailed explanations, I did an umeshu tasting recently with some friends where we compared store bought and the ones I made following your recipe, and my homemade ones were definitely among the best ones! (even when using ripe red plums or ripe white peaches 😀 as it’s hard to find ume, and even more some unripe ume in Europe ^^).
The one I had make using actual unripe ume (brought directly in my luggage from Asia ^^) is among my all-time favourite, it’s so good!
Since I am now expanding a bit and trying other fruits, a question occured to me: do you think umeshu is the kind of alcohol that would allow and benefit from maturing in a cask? Since I recently had the opportunity to get my hands on a small cask (and since aged alcohols are definitely even better :P), the thought occurred to me, any thoughts on that?
Thanks!
Hi again Bert!
GREAT questions, and thank you so much for the additional feedback. I’m thrilled your experiments have worked as well as they have!
Now, as for aging, I’ve got some ideas but they’re mostly just that. I find that bottled umeshu mellows and matures a bit. I feel that it improves with time, though not to the point where you notice gigantic differences. But that’s just in the bottle. In a cask… well, now we’re introducing some very interesting ideas. I think that barrels would probably bring some very interesting and complex flavours to umeshu. Smoky flavours are common with a lot of Chinese plum beverages (alcoholic and not), but I don’t believe you encounter this as much in Japan. Still, there’s precedent for bringing smoky, woody flavours in to play! I will give you a caveat though – I’m not at all familiar with how casking works with sweet liqueurs. I would recommend researching port production to figure out more on that subject. I would also want to be cognizant of the evaporation potential of the umeshu, as it will further concentrate the sweetness of the finished product.
So long story short… yeah, I think it sounds like a really cool idea! I hope you’ll come back and let me know how your further experiments go!
I like that you gave alot of substitutions you can use along the way but I have some questions still as well. Generally when I look up recipes for it somewhere around the 6 to 12 month mark they suggest removing the ume but I know that nigori umeshu is also a thing so is there really any need to ever remove it other than it being at a place your happen with? Additionally even though it would be a vastly different product, could I use aged shochu which is sometimes sold in the states as japanese whisky? I’d assume this would warrant doing a mix of aged shochu and sake as it is typically a higher abv. Realistically I have some other questions to so if you would be so inclined your opinions on the matter would be beneficial.
Hi Will. I have only ever done it with removing the ume, so unfortunately I can’t really say definitively, but I have no reason to believe you need to remove the fruit at any specific point. The fruit reaches a point where it’s pretty stable, and while small changes in flavour might be possible, I highly doubt you’re going to hit some magic point where things suddenly take a turn for the worse. As for the aged shochu, again I don’t see why you couldn’t go this route (taking into account ABV). A lot of aged shochu is barrel-aged, in which case you’d be entering into the smoky/oaky territory of flavour. But hey – nothing wrong with that, if it floats your boat. Personally I don’t really dig the mixture of sweet and smoky in alcohol, but that’s me. Hope that helps get you started (and sorry for the late reply!).