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
To make umeshu at home, you need just three simple ingredients.
- Green ume plums
- White rock sugar/candy
- Distilled spirits/liquor
You can get all these ingredients at Japanese grocery stores. If they carry green plums, they usually carry rock sugar, liquor, and a glass jar around the same area.
Where to Get 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.
To make the syrup, you have to use tart, sour, and firm green ume plums, 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.
You can also find them at specialty fruit producers online.
- Nicholas Family Farms (Text or call Penny at 559-393-3009)
- Kudo Farms (organic ume 10 lb per box; ship within the 48 states)
- Good Eggs (SF Bay Area)
- GreatPlentifulShopCA (They also sell semi-ripe ones)
Ume Substitution
- 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!
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.
Where Can I Get a Large 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.
Hi Nami ! : )
Do you think the alcohol percentage reduces with time if you keep the jar sealed or does it stay the same as the initial percentage of the original spirit used at the beginning? Thank you !
Hello, Guillaume. Thank you for reading Nami’s post.
If sealing prevents evaporation and is correctly sealed and stored in a cool, dark place, it should be fine, although we have never tried to compare the alcohol level.
We hope this helps!
I am planning to make Umeshu, I am thinking of adding ~35% alcohol Rum instead, would that still work? What is the ratio of alcohol to plum & sugar weight be? Does it need to be air tight? What should I do if there is gas build up?
Thank you for your advice.
Hi, Epic! Thank you for reading Nami’s post.
You can use the same ratio if you like. The sweetness can be adjusted, as Nami mentions in her recipe card.🙂
Regarding the container, we recommend using an airtight container. If the gas has built up, you can open it to let it out. But we’ve never needed it to do that.
We hope you enjoy making it!
Thank you for this. This has been my go to recipe every summer. Ume wasn’t available where I live until recently so I’ve used Spanish plum (Sinaguelas) and occasionally added Vietnamese hot peppers for spice. It is delicious!
Hi Phil! Thank you so much for trying Nami’s recipe and sharing your experience with us!
Wow! Your drink sounds wonderful as well! Cheers! 🫶🏻
Hi Nami
For the adventurous I am wondering is there a batch or continuous plum wine, liquor or syrup. After 100 days or 1 year or 2 years have you experimented on adding more sugar, sochu, fresh plum so that it becomes fusion, intense + adding tangerine or fruit pieces to make jam, pickle, jelly or dessert?
Hello, Odelia! Thank you for taking the time to read Nami’s post and try her recipe!
We never attempted adding extra components once it turned into wine. We did, however, leave the jar with the plum inside the wine for much longer. After a few years, the plum and plum seed flavors develop into more bitter and more complex flavors in the wine.
There are recipes for compote and jam using the leftover plums from this recipe. If you’re interested, you can look at this recipe.
https://www.justonecookbook.com/ume-plum-compote/
https://www.justonecookbook.com/plum-jam/
We hope you enjoy this recipe!
I forgot about a jug of umeshu I made in May of 2021. Can I still drink it and eat the plums? It was in a dark cabinet, far from appliances.
Hi Jennifer! Yes! You can still enjoy the delicious Umeshu!😃 We hope you enjoy the flavor!
Thank you so much for trying Nami’s recipe.
Hi Naomi!
I hope you’re doing well 🙂 Thank you for the Umeshu recipe! I recently made my own a few weeks ago, and checked up on it yesterday – I gave it a shake and noticed that the lid was fizzing a little bit. Is it okay if I open the lid and reclose it? Or should I leave it as is?
Hi Rina! We appreciate you taking the time to read Nami’s post and give her recipe a try.
Yes. It’s perfectly fine to open the jar periodically to release any built-up gas. 😊
Hi Nami! Is the liquid level in your photo after 1 year a lot higher than when you started? I’m making it now and the liquid is like just covering the plums by a bit.. 😅
Hi Leslie, Thank you so much for trying Nami’s recipe.
The liquid level would rise somewhat after a year, but not much.
But don’t worry, as long as you follow the instructions and use the correct amount of Shochu, you should be alright. Sugar would quickly melt, and plums would sink to the bottom.
We hope this was helpful!
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! 🥂