Thursday, June 16, 2022

umeshu

1st time trying to make umeshu (plum wine).

The directions were similar to when I made ume syrup (5 years ago).

1kilogram ume
1 kilogram rock sugar
1800 milliliters liquor

Here is what I did:

Wash the ume.

Take out the “belly button” with a barbecue skewer.

Sanitize the jar with some sake.

Dry each ume with a cloth.

Layer the rock sugar, and ume 

Pour in the alcohol.

I used kokuto shochu (liquor made from black sugar)

Now to wait a year.

NOTES: the most frustrating thing was waiting for the ume to be delivered.

When I ordered the 1 kilogram of ume, I was told it would arrive between 5 to 15 days after ordering…

Since I ordered it on May 18, 15 days would have been around June 3rd.

The next day (May 19), I got an email that said harvesting would start from June 3rd and he would be sending orders out in the order he received them, so my order would be sent out sometime between June 3rd and 13th

well June 13 came and I had heard nothing from the farm...boo!

Since I noticed on Tabechoku that others were receiving their orders, I emailed the farm on the 13th and was told my order would arrive by the 16th…um I think they should have contacted me to tell me it would arrive later than the 13th…

I received the ume yesterday and they were huge! and was a little more than 1 kilogram.

The farm grows the ume naturally without pesticides, so there were some black spots on the fruit but the fruit itself was still firm.

Drama this morning...I checked on it and it had overflowed (eep!), so I had to scoop out some of the liquid and some ume so that the liquid would come up only up to the base of the neck of the big bottles

Glad I checked and now I know not to fill it to the top! (live and learn)

Crossing fingers this turns out good.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL. you must be turning into a obaachan. Read that this is the drink of the older generation.
who cares, it's so good!
v

K and S said...

ha that is funny V!

Take care!
Kat

jalna said...

The ume look huge!

K and S said...

they were huge Jalna!

Take care.
Kat

KirkK said...

Nice recipe Kat. I was thinking about making this at home for the Missus.

K and S said...

I hope the Missus will enjoy the umeshu you make for her Kirk :)

Take care.
Kat

Rowena said...

I know how frustrating it can be when a vendor is lax on communication....but anyway, look forward to the outcome in a year ^-^