The scene
Alone at home, Sachi is taking care of various household duties when she hears a noise from the front door. It's her mother. She's just about to go back home and has come to leave some presents for her daughters and didn't think anyone was home. Sachi, however, has a night shift at the hospital. Miyako hands Sachi several packages with presents for all four (including Suzu!) and says goodbye, but Sachi says she's coming too.
On the way to the graveyard Miyako says great-aunt Fumiyo chewed her out for the argument the other day. She hadn't realised how much the house meant to her daughters, as she always felt suffocated by it when she lived there and thought getting rid of the house would be doing them a favour. She asks Sachi to forget she ever mentioned the idea in the first place.
After visiting the grave Miyako says she's surprised the sisters are still making umeshu. She thought it was always such a chore but when it was done, she knew it was finally summer. Sachi tells her mother to meet her at the train station and runs back to the house to get some umeshu.
Sachi brings her two jars of umeshu, one from this year and the last drops of the stuff made by her grandmother. Miyako is amazed there is still some left and says she will savor her mother's final umeshu. As she turns to leave, Sachi asks her to come visit again, and Miyako also invites the sisters to Hokkaido.
Umeshu with gin
Choya's website has a couple of umeshu drink recipes, including one where umeshu is mixed with gin. I just happened to have some Japanese gin, so I figured I'd try the combination. I enlisted the help of a good friend of mine who is a bartender by trade to make the last few drinks for this blog.
Mix umeshu and gin with a 7:3 ratio according to the recipe on Choya's website. The recipe also says you can serve the drink over crushed ice but we just used some ice cubes.
And it's done!
It's a nice drink! What's especially fun here is that the lighter and fruitier umeshu made the stronger gin lose its most pungent herby note and tone down the flavour of alcohol, while the gin balanced out the sweetness of the umeshu. In a way these two spirits brought out each other's best sides.
Not a bad way at all to enjoy a bit of umeshu!
Recipes used
Umeshu with gin: Choya
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