I’ve always been curious about the bottles of umeshu on the shelfs of my local Japanese market but this is my first experience with the drink. And CHOYA Umeshu is the perfect introduction since it’s one of the most popular brands in Japan.

“Ume” means plum and “shu” means wine in Japanese but umeshu is really closer to a liqueur than wine. It’s made by aging green, unripe ume in shochu and sugar. Shochu is a distilled Japanese spirit that shares some similarities to sake. The CHOYA website has more detailed information on the history of umeshu and the traditional Japanese ingredients.

A visually appealing aspect of Choya Umesue is the […]