Plum liqueur — green ume, rock sugar, white liquor or shochu, infused 6 months minimum. Sweet, almond-stone aromatic.
Recorded in the 1697 Honcho Shokkan as a household medicinal infusion. Wakayama's Kishu region — Minabe and Tanabe towns — has produced the Nanko ume cultivar since the Edo period, now 60% of Japan's ume crop.
Choya, founded 1914 in Osaka, sells over half of all commercial umeshu in Japan and still uses 100% Nanko ume in its Kishu line. Home recipes typically use 1 kg ume to 1 kg sugar to 1.8 L white liquor.
Amber, viscous, sweet first then a tart wake-up from undissolved citric acid in the plum. Stone-fruit nose with a hint of marzipan. Drunk on the rocks, with soda, or warmed in winter with a single plum left in the glass.
Green (unripe) ume is required — ripe yellow plums turn the infusion muddy and ferment uncontrollably. Rock sugar dissolves slowly, drawing plum juice out by osmosis over weeks rather than collapsing the fruit immediately.
Variations
Choya Kishu is the Wakayama Nanko style. Nakano BC's Bunraku-Ume in Wakayama uses honey instead of sugar. Kagoshima distilleries like Satsuma Shuzo make imo-shochu-based umeshu, earthier and drier.
On the Palate
Where Umeshu sits in the Japanese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8How it's made
4 steps · 25 min active + 180 days 3 min waiting
- 115 min
Wash 1 kg green ume plums; pierce stems to remove; pat dry.
Watch outUse only firm green ume and pat every plum bone-dry — a drop of water or a ripe soft plum turns the whole jar muddy and can ferment.
- 210 min
Layer ume with 1 kg rock sugar in a sterilized glass jar 4 L.
- 33 min
Pour 1.8 L white liquor (35% shochu) to cover completely; seal.
Watch outPour the shochu until every plum is fully submerged — any fruit poking above the liquor can mold over the long steep.
- 4259200 min
Store cool dark place 6+ months, shaking weekly; strain off plums after 1 year.
Watch outStore cool and dark and swirl weekly so the rock sugar keeps dissolving evenly — the plums should stay whole and slowly wrinkle, not collapse.
