This time of year, the grocery stores set up whole displays devoted to the do-it-yourselfers in Japan. They sell all the necessary items for making umeshu and umeboshi - liquor, rock sugar, glass containers, pickling containers, salt, and akashiso (perilla). My Facebook was full of proud posts by moonshine making English teachers. Naturally I had to get in on the action.
This year I have tried making two kinds of umeshu, aka plum wine (or fruit liqueur): one without sugar (not sure how this will work or taste...) and one with some sugar. Both batches will be flavoured and coloured with akashiso leaves. I must admit that I'm not very good at following recipes. I immediately begin to alter them as I read them. So in the case of my plum wine, they loosely followed recipes. Well the sugared one loosely followed a recipe, the sugarless one, not so much. So it remains a mystery as to whether they will work.
To make your own umeshu you need approximately 1 kg of unripened green plums, they recommend approximately 500 g of rock sugar, approximately 1.8 L white liquor (any tasteless one will do - usually it's vodka or shochu, I used 35% shochu that was sold right beside the plums), a 3-4 L airtight glass vessel, and anything else you want to throw in. I threw in akashiso as well. First you must sterilize your container, I did it with boiling water... The jury is out on whether it actually sterilized the thing. I should have just taken the easy route and used the liquor to sterilize it, but I digress. Also, you must remove the stems from the ume, they are "innie" rather than "outie" stems, so you need something small and pointed to help dig them out. I used a tiny fork. You also must wash and dry the plums taking care not to use any blemished plums. At this point I washed and dried my akashiso as well.
** warning ** apparently you shouldn't eat the unripened plums because they are acutely toxic. I found out the hard way. They are very astringent little buggers. They will most definitely cause you to feel as though your intestines are drying up and dying. I assure you the discomfort is temporary and not too bad. It just hurt. Perhaps if I had eaten more, I would be in worse shape. Anyway, now you know.
Having prepped the vessel and the fruit, it is time to layer the ume in the vessel. Since I didn't use sugar the first time, I layered plums with akashiso until the vessel was half full. Then I poured the liquor on it until it was an inch (2.54 cm) above the fruit. With the second batch I did add some sugar, so I alternated plums, akashiso, and rock sugar. Then after pouring seal the vessel and hide somewhere dark and cool for 2-3 months (longer is better, especially if lower sugar was used... I think I'll have to age the sugarless one a year or two).
Of course after I did all of that, I had to post it on Facebook ;) Hopefully my experiments will workout. We shall see in at least 6 months!
It's worth noting that most households make their own umeshu and umeboshi. I didn't bother with umeboshi because it is more intricate and much more can go wrong with it. Plus I haven't ever eaten umeboshi before, I don't even know if I like 'em! Umeshu on the other hand... The nectar of the gods. It's delicious. This is all part of the curious drinking culture that Japan has. Often it seems that people cannot show their true selves or say what they really think unless they are drinking. Work places all have enkais (work parties), girls have joshikais (girls' night parties), and at Christmas or New Year, there are extra fancy enkais called bonenkais. In addition there are welcome parties, goodbye parties, transfer parties, etc. And at each party there are second or third parties. It's nuts. I've seen fights break out at enkais, apparently it's normal because this is the only time that people will address their problems or frustrations. The next day, no one talks about it. What goes on at an enkai and its afterparties is sacred and it seems to serve as a release for people. I've also heard that if a boy wants to confess his love for a girl, they have to go drinking together, so the true feelings can come out. Crazy. Umeshu is ever present during these frequent yet special occasions. :)
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