Photo: Kakidai, CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Liqueur · From Bladwijzer
Umeshu (Japanese plum liqueur)
- Makes: ± 2.5 litres
- Time: 1 hr + at least 3 months steeping
- From: Japanese apricot
Ingredients
- 1 kg green, hard, unblemished Japanese apricots
- 500 to 700 g white rock sugar
- 1.8 litres vodka or another neutral spirit (35–40 %)
- a 4 litre glass jar with a lid
- a cocktail stick
Method
- Only use full-sized, green, hard fruits without spots, cracks or bruises; throw the others away. Rinse them and soak them in cold water for 2 hours.
- Pat them dry one by one with a clean cloth and flick out the little brown stalk end with the cocktail stick, without piercing the fruit. Then leave them to dry on a cloth for another hour: water makes the liqueur cloudy.
- Scald the jar with boiling water and let it dry. Then rinse it with a splash of the spirit.
- Layer the fruits and rock sugar in the jar and pour over the spirit. Close the jar.
- Keep it in a cool, dark place. For the first few weeks, gently turn or tilt the jar now and then until the sugar has dissolved. Do not break or pierce the fruits.
- You can taste it after 3 months, but it is at its best after a year. Then lift out the fruits with a clean slotted spoon and pour the umeshu through a sieve into clean bottles.
Storing: Sealed, in a cool, dark place: years; it becomes smoother and rounder with time. Drink it in moderation, neat, on ice or topped up with sparkling water.