Our Little Sister: Getting drunk on umeshu

Jump to: the drink / umeshu on the rocks

The scene

Late at night a dejected-looking Sachi returns home from Dr. Kazuya's place. However, as she steps inside, she's alarmed to hear the sisters in another room asking Suzu if she's alright. In the kitchen Sachi finds a very drunk Suzu who's groggily calling his late father an idiot and saying she hates her stepmother. It turns out the sisters wanted to celebrate Suzu scoring a goal in her game earlier that day with some umeshu but Yoshino and Chika accidentally gave her some of the really strong stuff with added booze.

Suddenly Suzu bolts up and announces she's feeling sick and Chika drags her to the toilet to take care of her business. Sachi and Yoshino realise Suzu has been keeping all of her feelings bottled up inside. Sachi says the drunk Suzu reminds her of how Yoshino gets when she's drinking. 

A bit later Suzu is feeling better. She says she just wanted to try the homemade umeshu, and Sachi tells her they'll make a batch without alcohol just for her when the ume ripen next year. Suzu asks if they use the fruit from their own garden. She hadn't realised the big tree in the middle of the garden is an ume tree. She says she'd love to pick ume but that's still half a year away.

The old ume tree.

The drink

So, we know Suzu drinks some umeshu that's had some stronger alcohol added to it, and seeing as this is Japan, it's probably shōchū. However, I want to do something different with umeshu in this blog. The sisters' homemade umeshu is an important part of the story and pops up several times, and it'd be boring to just drink some umeshu every time. That's why I've decided to make umeshu cocktails for the rest of the umeshu-themed posts in this blog!

We'll start with a classic way of drinking umeshu.

Umeshu on the rocks

As mentioned before, umeshu is a Japanese liqueur made by steeping ume fruit in a spirit, usually shōchū, and sugar. Much like sake, It can also be served in various temperatures - room temperature, chilled or hot. But in my experience, umeshu on the rocks is what you generally get when you order it at a restaurant or a bar in Japan.

Before we pour the umeshu, let's have a look at the bottle.

Currently there are four varieties of umeshu available here in Finland, and while the basic stuff is also great, this is the bottle I'd been eyeing for a while. The Choya Extra years is on the more expensive side (around 30€) but has the added benefit of actual ume fruit in the bottle which is something the more affordable varieties lack.

Alko also sells two other bottles of Choya umeshu, one of which has added shiso (perilla) and a wonderful red color, somewhat like some of the stuff the sisters have in the film. However, I wanted to try the more normal kind of umeshu, and the third Choya option is in a carton which made me think it might not last as long as the bottled kind, which is why I went with the big green bottle.

I'd never seen a bottle like this before! 

As you can tell from the photos, it's a large one. Also, the bottle is covered with a unique cap. It has a small opening for when you just want the umeshu itself but the entire thing can be removed so you can get your hands on the fruit inside. There's a metal lid that has to be removed before the drink can be poured.

There's some information on the side, of course. As you can see, this umeshu only has ume fruit, sugar and spirit. There are even some serving suggestions.

For comparison's sake, here's the more affordable variety of umeshu that I've bought several times:

This is Ninki umeshu, it's around 22€ per bottle and doesn't have the ume fruit in it. It's still really nice and I'll be using it later.

Anyway - fill a glass with plenty of ice and add in the umeshu, and if you have them, throw in an ume fruit. You've got a classic umeshu on the rocks.

Umeshu's flavour is a fun one. If you haven't had it before, it's sweet (the degree of which depends on what kind of umeshu it is exactly) and slightly sour and might also have some of that bitter almond taste found in drinks such as amaretto. The Choya Extra Years is on the more bitter side in my experience, with for example the Ninki umeshu being distinctly sweeter. However, adding ice removes the strongest edge from the flavour and makes it a perfect, refreshing summer drink. 

The ume fruits themselves are a great addition to the drink. I've never had fresh ume so I'm not entirely sure how they normally taste, but they do indeed seem quite apricot-like in flavour and texture, perhaps a bit on the sourer side. That, of course, might also be a product of the fruit being immersed in booze for a number of years, though. Yeah, the ume do taste quite boozy. They also might still have the stone inside, so be careful when biting into one.

I really love umeshu and hope you give it a try if you can get a bottle!