Umeshu: Making Japanese Plum Wine

Ume, Japanese plums, are a great fruit in Japan. I’m going to show you how to make Umeshu (Japanese Plum Wine) at home. This method works for other fruit as well but ume is my favorite so far.
You also get to meet my little rascals along the way.
This is a link to my blog with the recipes and basic methods written out:
nomadicgaijin.com/2020/05/28/...
These are links to Japanese sites with information about umeshu:
www.kishu-baien.co.jp/recipe/...
www.kyounoryouri.jp/recipe/63...
This is one of the most famous brands of umeshu in stores, called Choya:
www.choya.com For English
www.choya.co.jp For Japanese
I post unique photos and stories about Japan on social media, so come have a look if you are interested!
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Have you ever made Umeshu before? I’d love to hear more about it in the comments below. Thanks for watch the video!
#umeshu #ume #Japan

[@welovethemallthesame1125]

The quality of the video is amazing! Thanks for sharing👍

[@NomadicGaijin]

Thank you 😊 I’m glad you enjoyed it

[@baronj1372]

This is pretty cool, and I'd love to make this someday. Getting ume in the US might be difficult. I did make something similar with ripe plums. I used 4.5 cups Vodka, 1.5 cups Sugar, and a bunch of plums cut in half and pitted. I only let it sit for about 3 months. The wine tasted great, but the plums fell apart, so they were kind of useless. Next time I'll keep them whole like you do here. Keep up the good work, and best of luck to you.

[@NomadicGaijin]

Thanks! I never thought it would work the way you made it, that’s really interesting. I guess if they were cut open 3 months is probably the right amount of time. Depending where in the US you are living, Japanese or Asian markets might carry them in May or June (maybe not during Covid though). If you do get a chance would love to hear how it goes 😁

[@dayla8634]

And Mexico. We have saladitos and chamoy back home.

[@NomadicGaijin]

I love saladitos! Never had chamoy but I would love to try

[@dayla8634]

@@NomadicGaijin You can find ume jam at donki. Kinda similar.

[@NomadicGaijin]

I have some homemade ume jam at home, great to know that is similar :) still interested in trying any kind of variety. I’m a huge ume fan

[@danronquillo]

Great work, bro!

[@NomadicGaijin]

Thanks!

[@fruitcasket]

Do you know what makes the ume plums safe to drink in the umeshu? Is it because the toxic amygdalin content is so low it's rendered safe? or does the alcohol actually destroy the toxin over time? I can't find an answer online, all the research papers are in Japanese which of course I can't read yet.

[@NomadicGaijin]

It seems that raw plum is toxic but when it’s made into umeshu or umeboshi, the amygdalin is broken down to safe level for consumption. Hope that helps 😊

[@fruitcasket]

@@NomadicGaijin yeye thank you!

[@NomadicGaijin]

Always happy to help if I can 😃