Umeshu (梅酒) is a sweet Japanese alcohol that’s pretty easy to make at home. The general set up is to toss ume, rock sugar, and alcohol in a container and let it sit for at least 6 months. You can put more alcohol into it after that 6 month period. Once the next ume season comes up, you can toss a new batch of ume into the container. When we put in new ume the following year, I’ll usually slowly eat the old ones. The older ones will have a caramel-brown color compared to the fresh green ones. Pop one in my mouth as I am making dinner. My mother-in-law suggested that you could even make a jam out of them. We’re on our second refresh of the ume in our jar. So, far we haven’t added any more sugar, but we have added more alcohol and ume.
Ume is in season around June, this is when you’ll see bags of them in the grocery stores in Japan. Usually not far away is rock sugar and white liquor.
Ingredients
For a 4L jar:
- 1kg of ume
- 500-800g of rock sugar
- 1.8L of shochu.
- Other alcohols can be used. A high alcohol liquor (~40%+) will help prevent mold growth.
Once you have a batch going, you can keep adding more ume and alcohols to it.
Preparation
To prepare the ume, wash them, remove the stems, and dry the ume well (we tend to leave them to dry overnight). Toothpicks can be used to pop out the stems.
Put the ume in a jar, add the rock sugar, and then pour the alcohol in. Seal the jar and let it sit for at least 6 months. You can shake the jar every so often to help dissolve the sugar. Keep in a cool dark place.