It’s easy to make my recipe for Plum Wine or Umeshu (梅酒) at home with fresh Japanese plums (ume) steeped in shochu/white liquor and sugar. The liqueur is delicious in mixed drinks thanks to its appealing fruity aroma and sweet and tart flavor. Inspired by the Japanese drama Midnight Diner.
It’s the Japanese plum (ume) season! I remember my grandma made plum wine or umeshu (梅酒) and stored it in the cool dark underground storage of her kitchen until they’re ready to be enjoyed. There were several big jars of umeshu from different years.
This sweet alcoholic drink was featured on the popular Japanese TV program called “Shinya Shokudo (深夜食堂)” or “Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories” which is available on Netflix.
Midnight Diner features dishes that are more representative of Japanese home-cooked recipes that you might not have seen in your local Japanese restaurants. “Sour Plum & Plum Wine” episode is Season 1, Episode 6 on Netflix.
Table of contents
What is Umeshu (Plum Wine)
From mid-May to early June, it’s ume (Japanese plum) season here in California. During this short period of time when fresh ume is available, the Japanese make plum wine, or what we call Umeshu (梅酒) with still unripe and green plums.
I’m not much of a drinker, but I do enjoy drinking homemade umeshu from time to time. Have you tried it before? If you visited Japan and stayed at a ryokan (Japanese-style inn), you might have tried this drink before your kaiseki meal (懐石料理) as an aperitif, or Shokuzen-shu (食前酒).
It’s SUPER easy to make this homemade fruit wine, in less than 15 minutes! Okay, I also should mention that you have to wait for at least 6 months (1 year is recommended) before you enjoy your homemade plum wine… but it’s SO worth it. Plus you get to share homemade umeshu with your guests when they come over. Let’s make it with me this year (share your photo with #justonecookbook on Instagram) so we can celebrate and enjoy ourselves together at this time next year! You and me!
3 Ingredients to Make Umeshu at Home
It’s just 3 simple ingredients to make umeshu at home. You can get all these ingredients at Japanese grocery stores. If they carry green plums, they also know that you’ll need the special rock sugar, liquor, and a glass jar.
1. Green Ume Plums
You have to use these tart and sour green plums to make the plum wine and not any other types of plums you see in the store. Both Japanese and Korean grocery stores sell these plums during this season, so keep an eye on these plums around early to mid-May.
These raw green plums are not edible as they are too tart and bitter (also if you eat too many of them, it is said you’ll likely have a stomachache). We only take the extract of the fruits by fermenting them with lots of sugar or salt.
Where to Get Ume Plums
You have to use tart, sour, and firm green ume plums to make the syrup and not any other types of plums you see in the store. Both Japanese and Korean grocery stores sell these plums around early to mid-May.
My friend John will be offering ume fruit again this year and has scaled back to local sales only. If you are in the SF Bay Area, please write to: fortheloveofume@gmail.com. He will be harvesting ume beginning April 30, 2023. Fruit will be sold with a 10-pound minimum.
You can also find them at specialty fruit producers online.
- Nicholas Family Farms (Text or call Penny at 559-393-3009)
- Good Eggs (SF Bay Area)
- GreatPlentifulShopCA (They also sell semi-ripe ones)
Substitute Ume
- Turkish sour plums – A reader in Europe got them from a Turkish market and used them in this recipe. He said his umeshu tasted as good as the one he had in Japan!
2. White Rock Sugar/Candy
Instead of regular white sugar, we use white rock sugar/candy to make plum wine. Rock sugar takes time to dissolve, which helps to extract the flavors and fragrance from the plums at a slower pace. You can buy it on Amazon if your local Japanese/Asian grocery stores don’t carry it. You could also use white granulated sugar but remember that it’ll not taste as good. I would encourage you to find rock sugar as you invest your time (once a year) to make this drink.
3. Distilled Spirits/Liquor
To make plum wine, we need neutral, colorless, near-flavorless distilled spirits/liquor such as shochu (焼酎) and vodka. Make sure it is at least 35% ABV (alcohol by volume) or 70 proof. The plum wine could become spoiled when alcohol percentage go down being diluted by the fruit juice from the plum.
In Japan, we have a liquor called “White Liquor” (ホワイトリカー), which we use for making plum wine or fruit wine. If you can’t find it, don’t sweat it and use shochu or vodka.
Shochu is a Japanese distilled beverage with less than 45% by alcohol by volume. It’s typically distilled from rice, barley, sweet potatoes, buckwheat, or brown sugar.
How About Glass Jar?
You can get this on Amazon or Japanese grocery stores during the green plum season.
How To Enjoy Umeshu
After a year, you can finally get to enjoy your plum wine. The flavor and fragrance of the plum wine ripen as it ages, so make sure to store in a cool, dark place for years to come! You might want to start making two batches if you can’t stop drinking it. 😉
Umeshu can be served at different temperatures; chilled or with ice, room temperature, or even hot in the winter.
- Umeshu On the Rocks (梅酒ロック): Put a big ice cube in a glass and pour the plum wine.
- Umeshu Sour (梅酒サワー): Mix the plum wine with ume-flavor shochu and soda water.
- Umeshu Tonic (梅酒トニック) Mix 30 ml plum wine with 90 ml tonic water.
- Umeshu Soda (梅酒ソーダ割り): Mix one part plum wine with one part carbonated water.
- Umeshu Oyuwari (梅酒お湯割り): Mix one part plum wine with one part warm water.
- Umeshu Ochawari (梅酒お茶割り): Mixed one part plum wine with one part hot/cold black or green tea.
Non-Alcoholic Ume Syrup
You can enjoy making ume drinks without alcohol. My kids and I love making Ume Cider (梅サイダー) in the summer months. Make this Ume Plum Syrup and store it in the pantry to enjoy later.
One Year Umeshu Diary
What To Do with the Spent Plums in the Umeshu?
After 12 months of making delicious plum wine, the plums are ready to retire. Your plums did a tremendous job making your delicious plum wine for a year. Now that their job is done, it doesn’t mean it’s time to toss them away. This amazing stone fruit is the fruit that never stops giving.
You can totally eat the ume plums from the wine! Serve them with your plum wine so you can nibble them while you drink, but if you’re looking into other ways to utilize those used plums, here are some ideas on how to consume them.
- Make jams for your breakfast toasts, yogurt, gelatin dessert
- Bake a cake with plums (just like other fruit cakes)
- Make cocktails with crushed plums
- Use in savory dishes
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Plum Wine (Umeshu)
Video
Ingredients
- 2.2 lb green ume plums
- 1.8 lb white rock sugar
- 7½ cups shochu (3 750-ml bottles with 450 ml leftover; or substitute vodka, Japanese “white liquor,” or any distilled spirit/liquor above 35% ABV “alcohol by volume“)
For Version B with 2 Shochu Bottles—750 ml x 2 and a 3-L glass jar (optional)
- 1.8 lb green ume plums
- 1.5 lb white rock sugar
- 6.3 cups shochu (2 bottles with no leftover)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. You will need a 4-L glass jar (you can buy one in a Japanese or Korean grocery store).
- Rinse the jar thoroughly with soap and hot water and wipe dry with a clean towel. Dampen the clean towel with shochu (or your choice of liquor) and wipe inside the jar.
- Wash and dry 2.2 lb green ume plums thoroughly. (Use 1.8 lb green ume plums for version B.)
- Remove all the stem from the plums with a bamboo skewer or toothpick. Discard any plums with brown or blemished spots.
- Measure 1.8 lb white rock sugar (or 1.5 lb white rock sugar for version B). I recommend a sugar amount of between half the weight of the plums (1.1 lb, 500 g) to equal the weight (2.2 lb, 1 kg). You just have to try it out to learn your preference (which you will find out after a year). For one batch, I like to use 800 g. The best part is that it’s easy to remember, too—1 kg plums, 800 g sugar, and 1.8 L liquor per batch.
- In the clean jar, put the plums in a single layer. Then, cover the plums with a layer of rock sugar.
- Then, add more plums in a single layer again, followed by the rock sugar. Repeat this process until you’re done with the plums and sugar.
- Pour 7½ cups shochu or your choice of liquor (or 6.3 cups shochu for version B). This bottle of shochu is 750 ml, so you’ll need 2 bottles plus an additional 300 ml. If you have leftover shochu, you can make a yuzu cocktail.
- After pouring the shochu, it looks like this.
- Seal, write today‘s date on the jar, and store in a cool, dark place (not in the refrigerator) for 365 days. See you in a year! You can start drinking from 6 months, but I recommend to wait for a whole year.
1 Year Later…
- Remove the plums from the jar and use them for other recipes. You can leave them in the jar for 2–3 years as long as you used green plums (firm and not ripened) and 35% alcohol. (The liquid in the jar is a bit less in the photo because I had to pour some out for filming the video.)
To Use the Spent Plums
- You can make Plum Jam by cooking the plum and sugar. Spread it on toast, add in yogurt, make a gelatin dessert. Or you can bake a cake with the spent plums, make cocktails with crushed plums, or use them in savory dishes.
Nutrition
Editor’s Note: The post was originally published on May 25, 2017. The video and new images are added to the post in May 2018.
Hey hey!
Made some umeshu a couple days ago. What kind of sugar ratios would you use for other fruits? Saw you can do it with pretty much anything on the white liquor box. But I also noticed the amount of sugar the box recipe recommended was less then Nami uses so I thought of asking for other fruits.
my wife and I are thinking of making some smaller batches to try first with Yuzu, strawberries, lemon, probably apple or pineapple as well. But the sugar within these fruits feels like it’s wildly different.
ps. The knife you gave me is great even after all this time.
Hello, Albert! Thank you so much for taking the time to read Nami’s post and try her recipe!
Sugar ratios are typically 50-80%.
As you can see, Nami’s Plum Wine has an 80% ratio, and this is totally up to personal choice. Some people may like less sweetness.😉
Yes, you may use less sugar with different fruits. For the other, the popular ratio is around 50 percent.
We hope this was helpful!
Hello!!
I was inspired to try making my own Umeshu after coming back from my first trip to Japan and I did have some amazing Umeshu while staying at a Ryokan one of the nights. Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe and write-up!
I had a quick question; I started a batch yesterday and I notice that today, the ume plums are floating towards the top of the liquor, is that normal? I used slightly modified proportions (didn’t have a large enough jar) so I used:
650 g of Ume plums
400 g of rock sugar
1050 ml of 43% alcohol Barley Shochu.
I used 1050 ml because it looked like your recipe used the same volume to weight of the plums and sugar. Will this still work? Do I need to find something to weight the plums down or will they eventually sink on their own?
Thank you again!!!
Hello, Jeff! Thank you so much for taking the time to read Nami’s post and try her dish!
There is no need to add weight for the floating Ume, but you may move the jar to mix the sugar and Shochu once in a while.
As for ingredient proportions, yours will have more Ume taste and be less sweet than Nami’s Umeshu, but it should work. It’s so much fun to experiment with different ratios and even different liquors to discover new flavors. Cheers!
Hello, my umeshu that I made last year will be done soon. Do you put the finished umeshu in a different container? I was thinking about making more this year but I’d like to reuse those jars.
Hi Mary! Thank you so much for trying Nami’s recipe!
Usually, we do not change the container. If you transfer to a different container, make sure to start with step 2 and clean the other container.😉 We hope this helps!
Just found out I’ve made this Umeshu last summer by your recipe. But, in my country is impossible to get ume, so I used wild plums what they grow almost everywhere “Prunus cerasifera”. I picked them when they were pale green. The wine is delicious, even it is not the same. Thank you!
Hi Lucie! Thank you so much for taking the time to tell us about your experience!
We are delighted to hear that the recipe worked well for your wine. Cheers! 🥂
Konnichiwa, Nami-san! I’m currently experimenting with this recipe- my first batch will be ready in May of this year! I just love the beautiful little wine glasses shown in the photos here, but I can’t find anything like them anywhere! Do you know what they are called or where I might find something similar? Arigatou-gozaimasu!
Hi Christine! How exciting! Hope you enjoy your homemade Umeshu in May! I got these glasses from a local thrift store (and it was like $3-5 each). I’m not sure what it is called, but during fancy dining, some drink is often served in this kind of small glass between dishes as a palate cleanser. In Japan, it’s used as a pre-meal alcohol (shokuzenshu 食前酒). Hope this helps a little bit.
I just came across this online store Maesilhood (while researching a Korean recipe) where you can buy fresh ume when they are in season. It’s located in Southern CA so I’m not sure how far they will ship but it is an option for those who cannot find them in a nearby store. The umeshu I made in 2019, continues to age in its cold dark corner – haha.
https://maesilhood.com/products/maesil-fruit
Hi Karen! Thank you for reading Nami’s post and sharing the information! 🙂
hi Nami. I was wondering if it is possible to make umeshu with with rum, gin or even brandy, instead of shochu, vodka or sake? Am trying to use what is available on hand. Will love to hear your view in these variations please. Thanks!
Hi Diana! Thank you for reading Nami’s post and trying her recipes!
Yes! You can try exploring different alcohol and sugar balances. Last year, I tried Whiskey. It came out great too.
We hope you enjoy making many different ones! Cheers! 🥂
Hi Nami,
After one year we finally opened ours and it tastes great! We poured it straight out from the jar. How do you store it afterwards? In the fridge? Or could we just close it back and return it to a cold dark place?
Hi D K, Thank you for trying Nami’s recipe!
We are so happy to hear you enjoyed the homemade Plum wine!
For the rest of the plume wine, you can keep it in the same condition, a cold dark place.
Enjoy!
Hello! I made my first umeshu last week but I made a mistake of placing less sugar rocks. I was wondering if it’s fine to open the jar again and add more sugar rock so that it follow the recipe.
I realized I did it correctly the first time and now my umeshu has twice the amount of sugar rock than the original recipe.
Hi John, Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and for your update! We are glad to hear it worked out well.
We hope you enjoy homemade Umesh!
P.S If it was less sugar, it was okay to open it and add the rock sugar.😉
i love it
Hi Nguyen van tuan, We are so happy to hear you enjoyed homemade Umeshu!
Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe!
Hi,
Wondering if it is alright to use plastic (PET) bottle to make umeshu? Bought from Japan where the website states it’s for making umeshu. It is hard to find large glass bottle in Singapore. And I made one batch from last year, and just opened to drink it. It is delicious! Many thanks for your recipe!
Hi Jo! We are glad to hear you are enjoying homemade Umesh!
We recommend using a glass jar, but if the bottle said safe for making Umesh, it should be fine.
How about you transfer the last year’s Umesh to the PET bottle and make the new batch with the last year’s jar?
Yes, that sounds like a very good idea. Thank you!
You are welcome! We hope you enjoy making a delicious Umeshu!
So delicious, thank you!
Thank you! I just separated the ume from the umeshu and put the umeshu on quart jars. Now, how to keep the ume for later? Should I keep them in jars in the refrigerator? Since they are full of alcohol is it ok to keep them in jars unrefrigerated? ( I have a LOT!) I will make some compote, but not with all of them. Can you suggest a recipe for making them into a refreshing summer drink (like lemonade)?
Hi Janet! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe!
We are so happy to hear you enjoyed homemade Plum Wine!
We recommend keeping the used plums in the refrigerator. 😉
As for making them into a summer drink, you can follow Nami’s Ume Plum Compote recipe and make the syrup. Then use the syrup to make a drink.
https://www.justonecookbook.com/ume-plum-compote/
We hope this helps!
Konichiwa Nami-san, I just moved to Japan a few months ago (though have been reading and cooking from your website for much longer)! I was so excited to chance on your umeshu recipe because I kept seeing the unripe green plums in my local grocery stores!
Unfortunately, the bag of plums I bought have some that are already ripening – turning yellow/pink. Should I still include them? Or should I pick them out and only use the green ones (and reduce the sugar and alchol accordingly)? I know you replied to some earlier comments to say that ripe plum can also be used. But I’m assuming that it’s referring to an entire batch of ripe plums, while I’m wondering if a few ripe plums with the unripe will be fine. よろしくお願いします
Hi Marianne! Thank you very much for using the JOC website and trying Nami’s recipes!
If the ripe plums are not soft, mixing a few of them with unripe ones should be okay.
We hope you start making it soon!🥂
Appreciate the speed reply! Thank you for the help. I’ll do that as soon as I can find a 4L container! All the stores in my area seem to have run out of that size, I’m guessing it’s the most popular one. Looking forward to it!
Hi Marianne, My pleasure!
If you can’t find 4L, you can also use a couple of small jars if you follow the same ratio of Plum, sugar, and Shochu. Good luck!
Hey Nami,
I don’t own a big jar, would it be possible to make several small jars?
Example: 12x250mL jars
Hi Youjia, Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe! You can use small jars to make Umeshu, but make sure to have a room for at least one Ume, sugar, and shochu. We hope this helps!
Hi Nami! I have just tried making a batch, and the jar I used is less than half full because it was bigger than I expected. it has been a few days and the plums are turning brown. Is this a bad sign?
Hi Connie! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe!
Sometimes it gets brown after the process begins depending on the batch of Ume plum. But it’s normal, and you do not need to worry about it.
We hope this helps!