ume syrup

If you have been following us on Instagram, you'll know we were making ume syrup and jam for the first time.

All these years I've seen it being sold at markets to be made into umeshu (liquor) & syrup, but never thought to try (thought it was too tedious)...I'm glad I finally tried because it was super easy.

1 kilogram ume
1 kilogram rock sugar
3 liter glass bottle

Wash the ume and gently dry with a paper towel or tea towel.
Using a toothpick, take the "belly button" thingy out of each ume (where the stem was), just gently "stab" it with the toothpick and it will come out
Freeze the ume for at least 24 hours

After the 24 hours, layer the ume with the rock sugar.
As the ume defrosts, it starts to melt the rock sugar and also starts the fruit to break down slowly.
Keep the bottle in a dark and cool place.
Every so often for the next 7 days, shake the bottle.

At the end of 7 days, remove the fruit (if not it will rot and may start to mold)
Transfer the liquid into a glass container and keep in the refrig.
The liquid is drinkable (diluted 1 syrup : 4 water or your favorite alcohol) after the 7 days but best after 1 month when all the rock sugar has melted.

Here are the jars when I first started.

I didn't have a 3 liter bottle but did have a 2 liter and 1 liter, so used that.

At the halfway point it looked like this.

At 7 days, I removed the ume.

When we opened the jar to remove the fruit, the aroma was so sweet and fruity!

I poured the liquid and rock sugar into an airtight jar and put it into the fridge.

So thankful I had my mom's jam funnel! (Thank you!)

Last night we mixed 2 tablespoons of syrup with 1/4 cup of awamori and filled the rest of the glass with carbonated water...so good!

From the fruit of the syrup, I turned it into jam...I'll post about this tomorrow...stay tuned.