Japanese Cookbook日本の台所 · The Japanese Kitchen

Umeshu

梅酒

Homemade plum liqueur from Wakayama's prized Nankō ume — green plums, rock sugar, white liquor, and a year of patience. Alcoholic; make it in June.

By Japanese Cookbook Kitchen · June 9, 2026

関西 KansaiEdo era, 1603–1868

Umeshu飲
Prep
40 min
Cook
0 min
Serves
20
Level
Beginner

Umeshu is a product of the Edo period (1603–1868), when domestically distilled shōchū and affordable sugar finally made steeping fruit in strong spirit something ordinary households could do. It took particular root in Kii — today's Wakayama Prefecture, at the southern edge of Kansai — which remains the heart of Japan's ume country. The prized Nankō variety, large and thick-fleshed, is picked hard and green in June, and for generations families there have marked early summer by putting up jars of plums, rock sugar, and white liquor to open the following year.

The method is almost aggressively simple, which is why the small disciplines matter. Dry every plum completely — the enemy is a stray droplet of water, which seeds the mold that can spoil a whole jar. Pick out each stem end so the long steep stays clean rather than grassy. Choose your sugar level for the umeshu you actually want: less for a dry, bracing pour, more for something round and mellow. Then do the hardest part, which is nothing at all.

Give it three months and it's drinkable; give it a year and it's yours. Serve it over a big rock of ice, with soda, or warmed in winter — and understand that this is alcohol, made stronger than it tastes and meant to be treated with respect. The best umeshu in the jar is always the batch you had the patience to leave alone.

Bone-dry the plums and the jar. A single bead of water on an ume is where mold starts, and mold means the whole batch goes down the drain — so dry, then dry again.

板前の一言 · A word from the kitchen

Ingredients材料

Serves 20

For a 4-litre jar

  • 1 kggreen ume (unripe Japanese plums) — Wakayama's Nankō variety is the benchmark — large, thick-fleshed, picked hard and green in June; use the firmest, unblemished fruit you can find
  • 500-800 grock sugar (kōri-zatō) — less sugar for a drier, sharper liqueur; more for a rounder one — rock sugar dissolves slowly, which is deliberate
  • 1.8 Lwhite liquor (shōchū, 35% abv) — the neutral, high-proof "white liquor" sold for pickling; the alcohol strength is what keeps the batch safe, so don't drop below 35%

Equipment

  • 14-litre glass jar with a tight lid — sterilised and, above all, completely dry
  • 1bamboo skewer or toothpick — for removing the stem ends

Method作り方

  1. Step 1: Soak, then dry the plums obsessively

    Rinse the ume and soak them in cold water 2 to 4 hours to remove bitterness, then spread them on a towel and dry every fruit completely — including the little dimple at the stem. Any surface water invites mold, which is the one thing that ruins umeshu.

  2. Step 2: Remove each stem end

    With a bamboo skewer, flick out the small black stem nub from each plum. Left in, they leach a harsh, grassy bitterness over the long steep. It's tedious for a kilo of fruit; do it anyway.

  3. Step 3: Layer fruit and sugar into the jar

    Sterilise the jar with a splash of the shōchū, then layer ume and rock sugar in alternating handfuls. The sugar sits mostly at the bottom and dissolves slowly over months as the fruit gives up its juice — that slow draw is the whole method.

  4. Step 4: Fill, seal, and wait

    Pour the shōchū over to cover everything, seal, and store somewhere cool and dark. Swirl the jar gently once a week for the first month to move the sugar. It's drinkable at three months, good at six, and genuinely fine at a year. Strain out the plums after a year if you want it to keep.

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Questions from the kitchen

Why unripe green plums instead of ripe ones?

Green ume are firm and high in the acids and aroma compounds that give umeshu its clean, tart backbone; they hold their shape over a long steep rather than turning to mush. Ripe yellow ume make a softer, sweeter, more perfumed liqueur — worth trying once, but green is the classic.

Can I use vodka or another spirit instead of shōchū?

Yes. Neutral vodka at 35 to 40 percent works well and is the common substitute where white liquor isn't sold; brandy makes a richer, Western- leaning version. The non-negotiable is the proof — you need at least 35 percent alcohol to steep raw fruit safely for months.

When should I take the plums out?

Around the one-year mark. Left indefinitely, the plums can start to throw a faint bitterness and cloud the liqueur. Fish them out after twelve months, and the strained umeshu will happily improve in the jar for years more.

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