It's this time of the year again. I made our homemade "Ume-shu" (so called plum wine...but, it's actually plum liqueur) last week.
The green plums ("ao-ume") were rinsed, dried under the sun, and the piths were carefully removed. About 2.5 pounds of the plums, 2.5-liter of shochu, and 1.5 pound of rock sugar ("kori-zato") were combined in the 5-liter jar. I made the layers of plum-sugar-plum-sugar-plum-sugar, then carefully poured the shochu over the layers.
Making ume-shu is very easy. You just need the patience until it's ready! Once the mixture is made, you need to keep it in the cool dark storage. You can start tasting it after 6 months, but the flavor is much nicer after 1-3 years.
We are going to taste last year's ume-shu soon. It's just over 1 year.
