Jump to: ume highball / umeshu mule / recipes
The scene
This is the final scene in the film that involves food or drink. It's not quite the end of the story but very close to it. You'll have to find out what happens afterwards yourself.
Sachi and Suzu are spending time in the house.
Suzu is making umeshu drinks. She asks if Sachi wants sour or sweet and light or dark umeshu. Sachi goes with the sour and dark option.
They sip their drinks sitting on the porch. Sachi remarks Suzu's first batch of umeshu turned out well. She offers her drink for Suzu to try, but the younger sister thinks it's much too sour. Sachi jokes that she is a child after all and Suzu fires back that sure, she is young - compared to Sachi!
The ume fruit in Sachi's glass has Suzu's first syllable, す (su), and Sachi takes revenge on her cheeky little sister by poking the fruit with her spoon. Suzu in turn notices a ち (chi) in her fruit and despite Sachi's protests that it must be Chika's fruit, Suzu stabs the fruit and Sachi recoils in pain.
The two sisters laugh as the sun shines on a bright summer day.
Ume highball
Our Little Sister is almost over so it's time for a couple more drinks - and one last bit of history and trivia.
During my first trip to Japan I was of course very curious to see what kinds of alcoholic drinks the fabled convenience stores had on offer. Alongside lager beer, various kinds of sake and booze and the infamous "gaijin killer" Strong Zero, something that was sold in various permutations and sizes was whisky highball - whisky with soda water in a can! I can't say I'm a whisky connoisseur (although I do enjoy it from time to time), but I did have to try this drink that seemed to be very popular, seeing as it could be bought at just about any street corner. Whisky highball then soon turned into one of my favourite drinks in Japan. Combining whisky with soda water turns the earthy whisky into a delightfully refreshing drink.
Whisky highballs became popular in Japan after the war when it was actually one of the cheapest ways to get your drink on for the people still suffering from the economical effects of the war.
I believe this is the first highball I ever had. Suntory Highball from a 7/11 near my accommodation in Okubo, Tokyo.
As Our Little Sister doesn't feature the whisky highball by itself, I wanted to see if anyone had made some kind of highball using umeshu instead. The answer was yes, because Sean Bromilow of Diversivore dreamed up exactly what I was looking after: the Ume Highball.
As mentioned in my previous umeshu post, I asked my bartender friend to help with these last umeshu drinks. As per the instructions, we filled our glasses with ice, a mixture of umeshu and whisky plus juice from freshly grated ginger and then topped it with soda water.
I would have to say that while the drink was certainly good, I didn't feel like it made the most out of the umeshu. Maybe you'd have to use a different, stronger kind of umeshu, but here the whisky and ginger juice in large part overpowered it. By all means give it a go if you have all the ingredients, though!
Umeshu mule
And finally, my friend spontaneously had an idea and came up with the "umeshu mule" - a Moscow mule that uses umeshu instead of vodka! It's a simple enough recipe: fill a highball glass with ice, add 4 cl of the umeshu of your choice and top up with ginger ale. Since the umeshu itself is already fruity and a bit sour too, you can decide if you want to add lime juice or not.
It turned out my friend's bartender instincts were right and umeshu with ginger ale is a fantastic combination! Definitely give this a try if you've got some umeshu and ginger ale. Unfortunately I seem to have forgotten to take a photo of the drink. Oh well.
Recipes used
Ume highball: Diversivore
Comments
Post a Comment