Homemade Umeshu

It's time to make some plum wine (梅酒). Here's what we need:

The plastic bag on the left contains rock sugar. The carton is filled with liqueur.

We live pretty close to Wakayama, which is famous for its fruits -- especially plums, which are used to make plum wine or are pickled into umeboshi. When Yuki spotted bags of plums from Wakayama at the local supermarket, we decided to make umeshu again. The last time we did this was 2001 (maybe 2002?) in Niigata. The results kicked major ass.

The directions we got with the big glass jar told us to put the plums and sugar in the jar in layers:


I don't remember if we did the same thing in Niigata. The directions also said that we can drink it after about a month. But from experience I know the longer you wait, the better it tastes. We kept the jar in Niigata for about two years before we drank all of it. Super tasty!

So, see ya guys next year...