Umeshu (plum wine) buying guide

The definitive, as I have time, umeshu (plum wine) buying guide.

But first, if anyone is interested in giving it a shot and writing some reviews for the blog let me know. Write a comment to me at the bottom of this post on how to reach you. Your information will not be posted as it goes through screening (so I'll still see it, nobody else will, and I can contact you privately - it will not get posted). Of course, you need to be living in the Yokosuka area. Thanks.

Umeshu is pronounced: oo may shew (oo as in "food")

Umeshu rack at AVE grocery store

Umeshu rack II at AVE grocery store

This guide will help you understand some of the different Umeshu's available and where to buy them.

If you'd like to make your own umeshu here are some posts:
- How to make umeshu 2012
- How to make umeshu 2013
- How to make plum sour or no-alcohol umeshu
- How to make plum juice

[***June 2013 note: Since this list has grown I'm going to provide my personal favorites up front:
- Yuzu Umeshu ゆず梅酒
- Oimatsu Umeshu (the one with the picture of the cherry tree and labeled (mellowed in a wooden cask))
- Jasmine Umeshu ジャスミン梅酒　(purple label)
- Tougarashi Umeshu (hot pepper)
- Suntory Umeshu matured in casks that used to hold Yamazaki whiskey***]

The pictures above shows the Umeshu rack at the AVE grocery store in Yokosuka. Not all of it is Umeshu but just about. Below I provide a guide to each one of the labels.

The first thing you need is to be able to identify plum wine. Other than the bottles that have the plums still in them, you won't be able to ID them unless you know the Kanji. Most  plum wine uses Kanji on the label.

The Kanji is:

梅　or Ume

酒  and Shu 

 

 In the tab "Learning and Remembering the Kanji" I introduce the App Imiwa. Shown on the right is the screenshot after I searched for Ume (うめ）using the hiragana keyboard.  



In "Remembering the Kanji" (the book) you'll learn this is made up from the "tree" primitive 木 and the word "every"　毎. The story to remember this kanji is "In Japan, I wish every tree was a plum tree." and that's how I remember the kanji for plum. The kanji for "every" also breaks down further and has a story of its own, but that's left for you to figure out.  

 The Imiwa page provides you a lesser used Kanji (in black) and then the Hiragana and Katakana readings.

 

 Lower down on the Imiwa page you'll get the meaning. From my post on How to Make Umeshu you found out that plum wine really isn't made from plums (it's also not a wine). It's made from the Japanese apricot. To really find out more do a search for the scientific name of Prunus Mume. It's also called the Chinese plum.

Famous plum wine maker Choya has a great discussion about this and even gets a bit scientific about it. Check out their website.

The Imiwa page ends with some examples and then a decomposition of the Kanji for Ume (not shown), where you can then get a list of nearly 80 compounds and related terms that use the kanji for ume. 


 The second kanji in Umeshu is 酒 "shu" which can mean sake or alcohol. I will not show the Imiwa screens for this.


That's all we need to start buying Umeshu. Just recognize those two characters since 95% of it will have them on the label. Now lets examine some bottles and some flavors. Many of the first ones listed are available at the AVE grocery store except the Yuzu. The ones listed about half way through the post  are found at various stores throughout Tokyo, Yokohama, and smaller grocers or specialty sake or liquor shops.

Daiei has a smaller selection, as does the shop at More's city above Yokosuka-Chuo train station. A more extensive collection can be found in the liquor section of the famous department store food basements such as Tokyu Food Show - which is where I picked up some yuzu umeshu and some yuzu sake at the Futako-Tamagawa branch.

If you'd like to taste some of the hundreds of brands and variants of Umeshu I recommend checking out the Bento.com website where they have a good article on where you can find all of these specialty umeshus at a Japanese bar. One bar alone has over 250 varieties or brands of umeshu.

The unsanctioned Umeshu Classification Tree

 So I've added the above tree to help demonstrate the possible ways the Umeshu can be made. Each branch would be repeated below the other boxes but that would make this very large so only one branch is shown.

Certainly it is not all inclusive and is meant to be a general guide. For instance, I've found one made with red wine (#44 below). The top three levels can always be found in the ingredient section of the bottles. The last three are usually put onto the front of the bottle somewhere, although flavorings (such as yuzu) will also be included in the ingredients.
Ingredients on a label is normally 原材料名
I'll add what the specific ingredients look like in Japanese slowly, as I get around to them.
Green Plums: 青梅
Ripe Plums: 完熟　or just ume (plum) 梅
Rock Sugar or sugar:  氷砂糖　-　砂糖
Honey:　はちみつ　-　蜂蜜　（Kanji)

Sochu: しょうちゅう - 焼酎
Brandy: ブランデー
Sake:　酒　or 日本酒 (Nihonshu)

Unfiltered 無濾過

Aged: 古酒

Below is an example umeshu label showing the ingredient section. After some practice you should be able to read these if so inclined.  

The baseline Umeshu with nothing special can be bought in those milk carton like containers at most any grocer around Japan including 7-11. They can be seen on the very right of the shelf picture above, but were not the focus of the shot. As a general rule, I'll not post information about the milk carton umeshus. I'm sure they are OK, since the only ingredients you need are plums, sugar, and alcohol and you can't go wrong with those.

Of the specialty flavors of Umeshu, I put Yuzu Umeshu on the top of the list. Sweet with a nice clean citrus-y bite. It's a very smooth and enjoyable drink. On a side note, once you learn the hiragana for yuzu (ゆず)you will start seeing it all over, from yuzu flavored chips, yuzu koshu, yuzu cake, yuzu ice cream, yuzu pretzels, etc. It's apparently good with anything, just not by itself.  There is also a liquor made only with yuzu and its label will look like this: ゆず酒　(Yuzu Shu).

Reading left to right:
1) 濃密 noumitsu (bottle on the left) - means rich in taste and further "research" shows that this is made with more mature plums. Most plum wine is made with green plums, but this is made with ripe ones. They are made from Kishuu plums as described below. The 20% on the bottle refers to 20% less calories than their normal plum wine. Besides being made with brewing alcohol (plain white alcohol) it also contains some brandy.
2) 黒糖 kokutou - means brown sugar. The hiragana on the right (torokeru) means "to be enchanted" or "charmed with" - see? marketing gimmicks just like the U.S. It's a bit heavier and even sweeter than the regular umeshu.
3) The one in the bottle with the green and yellow label is mellowed in a wooden cask but also seems to be made with barley shochu and ripe plums. Made by a company called Oimatsu and located near Kagoshima prefecture.  I've tasted it and it's very smooth. You can "taste" the wooden cask. Almost seems to have a hint of apple.  This is one that I'll have to try again. Very good.
4) Last one on the right is just your normal Choya umeshu but it is made with Kishuu plums. There are a few plums inside for you to try out.

Haven't tried any of these yet, but they all sound interesting

The company (Nakano Group) that makes these three above also makes the Yuzu Umeshu pictured above. If you look carefully at the Kanji on the right side (of all 4 bottles) you'll see 紀州 - or Kishuu. This is the type of plum that is grown in Wakayama prefecture. This prefecture accounts for 60% of the Japan national harvest of plums. It is considered a top quality plum in Japan to make plum wine or pickled plums.
It is also known as the "South High Plum - Kishuu" or 南高梅 紀州
Wakayama prefecture is also the location of Koyasan World Heritage site.  And to take this linkage a step further, you can see this Kanji (south high plum) on one of the onigiri rice balls in 7-11 in my post here.
Read more if you'd like about Wakayama prefecture.

Nakano group has a dedicated R&D staff that not only works to improve their current products but also to develop new flavors. I think they have a good thing going and trust their label.

Black tea on the left and jasmine on the right. The jasmine umeshu is very smooth and highly recommended.

Have not tried any of these. Not sure what the reference to grandma is, I think it is an aged umeshu as it does look darker than the rest. The kind that grandma has in her cabinet but perhaps has forgotten about it, as it ages to even greater perfection...

おばあちゃん = grandma
すっぱい = sour
濾過　= filtered and the scribble of a kanji above it is actually 無 which means not. So the one on the right is actually NOT filtered - just a "typo" on my photo edit.

If you drink the second one with collogen you will have nice skin.
You can make umeshu with brandy as well (see below), but I've seen cautions that it needs to be close to a 70 proof or more in order to have enough alcohol content so that it does not spoil. In my How to Make Umeshu, 2013 season I make umeshu with brandy specially made for fruit liqueurs. The alcohol, the sugar, and the Ume all interact and it will reduce the alcohol content as it ages. So it's important to start high. In fact I've learned that the Japanese have a law that it's illegal to make umeshu at home (or anywhere else) with alcohol that is less than 20%.  Some umeshu is made with Sake and it's very important that the sake be over 20% to start with. Most sake is less than 20% so if endeavoring to do this on your own, be careful with your sake selection.

This is one of Choya's specialty plum wines. Just under the Kanji for Plum Wine there is some katakana. It says French Brandy.
So this batch was made with French Brandy instead of the normal white alcohol.

Tougarashi Umeshu

Tougarashi or とうがらし means chili pepper. I recently found this at a nearby store and got an opportunity to taste a sample. It's a really unique combination and tastes great. This combination is similar to Tabasco brand spicy chocolate or other hot pepper chocolate. There is something about the spicy-sweet combo that is very appealing. This is made down in Tokushima prefecture and the company website is here. They make a wide variety of sake, shochu, liquors and plum wine.
It seems pretty easy to make, and perhaps I'll take some of the umeshu I'm making at home and make it into Tougarashi Umehsu. (Update: I did do this and if you click the link above there are some photos of the process. It turned out pretty good.  If you're in Yokosuka and want to buy some, you can buy it at the liquor store next the restaurant Tori no Su (see the blog map).

Typical Umeshu has an alcohol content of around 12%. This one is 5% and it boasts 55% less calories than the normal brand. It does not use Kishuu plums.

The next three were spotted in one of Tokyo's famous basement food halls.

Junmai Umeshu

 In the photo above you'll see Junmai Umeshu or 純米梅酒.  Junmai is a designation for sake and generally refers to a higher quality sake. As I mentioned above, Umeshu can be made with Brandy or Sake in addition to just brewers alcohol. This label even lists the Sake meter value which tells you its sweetness. Coming in at -80 means this is very sweet - but not surprising since the main ingredients are alcohol, plums, and sugar. You will never see a plain sake with much less than a minus 20 sake meter value. You can read more about the sake meter value and other sake notes in another post about sake. The other number "21" is the acidity. Normal sake is in the 1-2 range. So this is also quite high. But higher numbers also mask some of the sake sweetness, so the two values may tend to soften each other out. The brand name is Yoshikawa-Touji. The red dot tells you it's best to drink cold.

Choya Perilla Umeshu

 The above Choya Umeshu is flavored with red perilla or shiso leaves.

Another Umeshu made with Sake

This particular Umeshu is made at an old fashioned sake brewery in Chiba prefecture. The company is Koshigoi and their website here. Koshigoi makes a high quality sake. The one used for this Umeshu is a Junmai Dai Ginjo - the highest quality one can make and among the top 5% of all sake.  You can see the "Dai Ginjo" or 大吟　designation in the vertical Kanji on the right.

This is the only Umeshu I've come across so far that uses Hiragana instead of Kanji for "ume" or plum.

At the very bottom we see "25.2" telling us it was bottled in February of 25th year of the Heisei era. That is 2013.

4/22/13 new addition:

Tantakatan no Umeshu

Tantakatan Umeshu

In Japan there is a drink called Tantakatan or たんたかたん.  鍛高譚 in Kanji. It's a shochu made with Perilla or shiso leaves. Here they have used it to make Umeshu. I've tried it and it tastes a bit cough mediciny-ish (not as heavy though). But if you like shiso/perilla you might like it.

4/30/13 The above plum wine is matured in "toasted casks" that used to hold Suntory Yamazaki whiskey. It is a very smooth plum wine and will likely become a favorite. The charring or toasting of the cask generates a better flavor, it was discovered among whiskey brewers. The casks are "toasted oak casks" as opposed to charred oak casks. Their company website explains that the toasting process happens over a period of 30-40 minutes using an infrared heater. Charred casks, on the other hand, are made by actually torching the inside with a flame for about 30 seconds or so. The toasting brings out the "vanillin" in the wood. I've learned so many things writing this blog I tell you. Did you know there was such a thing as vanillin?
It's not as sweet as your run of the mill umeshu and is a bit on dry side. You can't detect any whiskey flavor from the cask, but there is a lot going on here in the flavor department.

5/8/13

Starting with the pink flower bottle...you see the plum wine kanji and to the right of that is 完熟  kanjuku. Kanjuku means completely ripe or mature (plums). On the far right the kanji says hand harvested Kishuu plum or "South High Plum".   In 2009 it took third place in a Japan umeshu competition in which they described it as having a "gorgeous fragrance and a luxury plum wine." Both of these were found in the food "basement" of Sogo department store at Yokohama Station (I think).

The one on the left says aragoshi  あらごし on the right side of the label which means crushed up/grinding or rough preparation. The pulp of the plum is just all blended in with the liquid. You also see the 完熟 (kanjuku) Kanji here so it's also made with ripe plums. It is made by Mercian  and called Makkoi Umeshu. On their website they say they only soak the stone of the plum in the alcohol which brings out a different taste.

Kaga Umeshu is a popular brand. It's aged another year or two after the plums are removed.  In English at the bottom of the label is says "Japanese Apricot Liquor." Just recently purchased a bottle and will post once I've tried it. Based on the price it should be a good one.

On Mother's Day (5/12/13) here is a special Mother's Day Umeshu....
Its made with plums, brandy, honey, and sugar. Written vertically on the left "It approaches the Mother's Day and gives the feeling of thanks."  Made in Saga Prefecture, Kashima City by Kinpa brewing.

#30  Banana Umeshu

Yep, it's banana umeshu. But it's made by Fukuoka Kobayashi Brewing Company, in a small town called Umi in Fukuoka Prefecture. The area is evidently pretty well known for bananas. It seems that back in the Meiji Era bananas were imported from Taiwan and landed in a port nearby, to be distributed in Japan.
It's not filtered as you can see the banana pulp in the bottom of the bottle. Its pretty good. The website is sakebandai.com. It's recommended to have it on the rocks and/or with some champagne or ginger ale.
I found this at Tajima-ya sake shop in Kanazawa Bunko. It's real close to the train station and easy to find. They have a great website where it seems they have their entire inventory listed.  I snapped some photos of some others and will be posting them soon.

#31 Kawaii Umeshu

Everything is kawaii in Japan even the umeshu. Cute and pretty. This one also has some lychee fruit juice added.

#32  Lemonade Umeshu

Lemonade Umeshu- Made from shochu, honey, lemon juice, and umeshu. 9% alcohol. More info on their website.

#33 No Alcohol umeshu

Above is Choya's non-alcoholic umeshu. "Drunk - not". Doesn't really taste like the real thing though as the ume flavor is very lite.

#34

#34  An actual Plum Wine

I guess you can call this plum "wine" since you can't argue with the label now can you. But their website says that it is not a liqueur and that there is fermentation involved. This is an Asahi (beer) product. 

Back of the plum wine bottle
little bit sweet, 6% alcohol

#35  Yuzu and Tomato shu

The above is not an umeshu but thought it was worth a mention. Yuzu and Tomato shu. Despite a fairly good web search I couldn't find who made this -  and I have not tasted it either.

#36

#36   Blueberry Umeshu

 This one above is from Honbo brewing in Kagoshima prefecture. Blueberry Umeshu. Very sweet as can be expected but tasted very good.
They also make a Yuzu Umeshu as shown below.  It's one of my favorites.
These were available in a small specialty food shop below JR Kamata station. We always take a browse through there after eating Vietnamese at My Le.

#37

# 37  Yuzu Umeshu

No alcohol ume juice

The above plum juice is mixed with apple juice. Basement of More's City at a natural foods outlet.

#38

#38  Umeshu and sake combo

The above picture is a recent find at Daiei market. It's a combination of umeshu and sake. Actually tasted quite good.

#39

#39 Rose Umeshu

The Rose Umeshu was "light and delicate." They use actual rose extract. Rose colored and not too sweet. Good as an aperitif.  Nakano Kunizakari Brand.

#40

# 40 Green Q

Green Q is a label of the Queen's Isetan grocery store. Queen's Isetan is a high end supermarket chain. Here we again see one of the few bottles using hiragana for ume.

#41:

#41 - Orange colored umeshu from http://www.shumurie.co.jp/

If I stop here it's because this took way too long to track down. Rare in that it was aged with no sugar. Later honey was added. They also use the flesh of ripe plums. Plums harvested nearby the Shikoku 88 temples area on Tokushima island.

#42:

#42 - Mercian Houjun Umeshu Select

Houjun 豊潤　(first two Kanji vertically in white) means rich, or luxuriant. Then we have the Umeshu kanji. On the bottom in gold letters we have 撰 which is "selection." It's made with brown sugar and aged for 3 years. You can see that in the red kanji at the bottom 三年.

#43:

#43 - Cat daughter umeshu

(above) From a company called Chiyomusubi. Cat daughter umehsu. Peel off the seal and the expression/picture will change.

#44

#44 - Made with Red Wine.

Another unusual one above labelled Umeshu Wine. A look at the label reveals it's made from plums, sugar, and red wine. I picked up a bottle and enjoyed every sip of my first glass. Really good and if I ever get back to Queen's Isetan will probably pick up another bottle.  Queen's Isetan (one of them at least) is located on the western side of Yokohama train station in the basement.

#45 - Lavender and Cranberry Umeshu

 #45 comes from Nakano Sake Brewery. They are the same makers of the Yuzu Umeshu (my personal favorite). They have a team of researchers always developing new flavors. Picked this up in AVE supermarket.

#46 - Sake lees umeshu

#46 Cont'd - Sake lees umeshu in the glass

#46 is umeshu from Kamakura sake comany with a brand name Baba umeshu. Baba is one way of saying "Grandmother."
It's made with the Kishu ripe plums, and blended with sake lees, then aged in storage.  Sake lees are supposedly good for your health and beauty.   The company makes quite a few varieties which can be viewed on their website. The taste is unusual and hard to describe. I picked up a bottle in one of the food basements (Depachika) at Yokohama station. My wife liked it a lot and I ended up getting another bottle.

#47 - Denbe Umeshu

#47 from Watakakeya brewery - who seem to have been around since 1699. Denbe Umeshu. Made from junmai sake.

#48 - Choya Royal Jelly Honey Umeshu

 #48 is Umeshu made by Choya from honey instead of sugar and has an added "supplement" of Royal Jelly. Royal Jelly is a secretion of honey bees that is said to be nutritious, strengthen the body, increase "performance" and ease stress levels.  It is made from Nankou Ume which I've described in my how to make plum wine posts.

#49 - yuzu umeshu

#49 is by Hamadasyuzou company. It's a yuzu umeshu made with potato shochu. It's really delicious. The yuzu is spelled out using Kanji. Usually you'll see it spelled out in Hiragana as ゆず on umeshu bottles, but in Kanji it's 柚子 which is pretty easy to remember. You can see that on the right hand side in red kanji. After "yuzu" is your normal umeshu kanji - 梅酒
This one I thank a friend for giving to me which means I got to taste. It has a bit of a more "mature" taste to it due to the base of potato shochu. Hamadasyuzou company has been around since 1868!

#50-54

#50 梅酒王 Umeshu King from Oimatsu brewing company. A very unusual base of aged sake (like 40 year sake), and 3-5 year oak barrel aged shochu. Other ingredients are sugar and the Nankai plum. It is unfiltered. Alcohol content at 18% makes it one of the stronger umeshus.

#51 角玉梅酒 Kakutama Plum Wine from Satasouji-Syouten Company. From Kogashima prefecture. Made from aged Shochu and Nankai plums. Said to be the first plum wine to be exported to the U.S. in 1958.

#52 信濃の梅酒 Shinanou Umeshu. Made from a dry sake base and sweetened with honey. Company website. The plum used is called the white Kaga which is grown in the Kaga region of Japan.

#53 Bungo Meijyo Umeshu - Shochu base. Often comes with flowers in a gift set, hence the label.

#54 梅みぞれ    Made from a dry sake and the white Kaga plum. Sweetness comes from both sugar and honey.　From Ueda City, Nagano Prefecture. Unfiltered.

#55 - Koizora Umeshu

#55 - 恋空 Koizora Umeshu made by Kita-ya company in Fukuoka Prefecture founded in 1818. Made with potato shochu, rock sugar, and plums from Fukuoka Prefecture. Supposedly the Umeshu in Japan Airlines executive class. Available locally in Yokosuka. It is not as sweet as most of the other umeshus.

#56 - Uji Tea Umeshu

#56 - Uji Tea Umeshu from Choya brand. Made with plums, brewers alcohol, sugar, and Uji tea. Uji is a city in Kyoto Prefecture between Kyoto and Nara. The tea is highly regarded and is said to be of superior quality.

#57 -Kimoto Umeshu.

#57 is made by the Daishichi Sake brewery. This is their first umeshu and they use one of their junmai sakes to make it. Also uses Nankou plums from the famous Wakayama plum growing region. You can read more about it at their English language website.

#58 Front

 #58 is from Nishi-Shozu company and called koujitsu umeshu. Made from plums, plum juice, sugar, shochu, and some special flavoring that they don't divulge. 13% alcohol.

#58 back 

#59

#59 Is made by Shimuri Company. Same as #41. It's a "nigori" plum wine, which, if you've been paying attention is unfiltered. This one uses only the pulp of the plum. The skin and the seed are discarded. Most plum wine uses the seed as a lot of flavor is extracted from it, however in this case they claim it produces a more mellow flavor, and it probably cuts way down on the production time. They also use sake and some brewer's alcohol. Honey is used instead of rock sugar. The plums come from the "88 Temples" area, same as #41.

#60

 #60 is from a company called Kitaoka-Honten from Yoshino-city in Nara prefecture. Nara prefecture is right next to Wakayama prefecture which is famous for it's plums. Both are to the south and east of Osaka. This is one of the unusual plum wines that is labeled in hiragana with うめ instead of the kanji for umeshu 梅酒. Some other things on the label - On the right side is says "yatagarasu." This is a mythical 3 legged bird with several meanings. It is also used in the emblem of the Japan Football League. The middle kanji is "Yashino Story." It's made with the pulp of the plum, whereas most plum wines do not do include the plum or its pulp. It's also unfiltered.

The company makes quite a few liqueurs including tomato, kiwi (shown below), strawberry, berry, lemon, yuzu, and persimmon just to name some. 

Kiwi-shu from the same brewer of #60

#61

#61 is a Passion-fruit Umeshu. It may be the farthest we've reached yet for an Umeshu in Japan. It is made by a brewery on Ishigaki Island in Okinawa prefecture. It's made with Passion fruit, plums, sugar, Awamori, and brown sugar. It is unfiltered and the directions say to shake it before drinking. I bet this is really good. This and a lot of other unusual umeshus were spotted in a liquor store a few blocks west of Oppama Station.

#62

#62 is Choya Black - The bottle is supposed to give the feel of "luxury." It is made with Brandy from France (see the classification tree!), Japanese plums, rock sugar. 14% alcohol.

#63

#63 is from Musashino-asahara Company which is just 40 km northwest of Tokyo. They make sake, shochu, liqueur and wine.  They make some really interesting plum wines like Chardonnay Umeshu Wine, Cabernet Sauvignon Umeshu, and others that can be viewed here. Their other products are equally interesting. Very much a craft beer like brewery.  Being a Yuzu Umeshu, my mouth is watering just looking at this picture. I did take this picture but left the poor bottle just sitting on the shelf and I left. I think I must return to rescue it.  I saw it at a nice little sake shop near Oppama station - same place as #61.

#64 and #65

#64 is a favorite umeshu flavor of mine - yuzu umeshu. Here yuzu is written in kanji as 柚子. It is made by Kyohime brewery in Fushimi ward of Kyoto. It's made with sake.

#65. Our friends at Nakano brewery are kind enough to put English on the label. Lemon and Ginger flavored umeshu. They also make a yuzu and ginger flavor as well. These two were spotted in the Sky Tree food market.

#66 Choya Premium Umeshu Limited Edition box

#66 Premium Umeshu Limited Edition

#66 is made with large Nankou plums from the famous Wakayama plum growing region of Japan. It is aged more than 3 years and comes in a box as you can see. A relatively high 17% alcohol content.

#67 Kuramoto Umeshu

#67  Made from Rice Shochu and plums from Ehime Prefecture. Made by Eikoh-Shuzo company. Made in Matsuyama City, Ehime prefecture.

#68 Ginjo Umeshu

英勲 吟醸梅酒

#68 Ginjo Umeshu. Is from a company called Eikun which is in the Fushimi part of Kyoto. Lots of history. If you know anything about sake, then you'll recognize the word "Ginjo." This is a sake term which indicates the degree of rice milling. As the company indicates below, the rice milling is important as it will result in fewer hangovers. So here we have a plum wine that is made from a high quality ginjo sake. These are unusual. It's made from a simple recipe of wakayama plums, ginjo sake, brewer's alcohol, and minimal sugar. Alcohol content 16%.

From www.eikun.com

#69 - Nigori Umeshu

 #69 - This is from a company names Kokonoesaika and is located in Wakayama prefecture. Wakayama prefecture is famous for its plums. From the label below, we see it's made from Japanese sake, plums, and sugar. Also, "Nigori" means unfiltered so the plum "meat" has settled to the bottom. Their website says they freeze the plums before hand, which allows extracting more of the essence. This technique is also used in my "how to make plum juice" link above. A hint on finding these companies on the web, just note their phone number from the label and then Google the phone number. It's like a fingerprint and will lead you right to the company.

#69 back label

#70 - Reisen Umeshu

 #70 - Reisen Premium Umeshu. This is made by a company that makes premium sake and shochu. The company is near Nagoya and has been around for over 200 years. The label says it's made from mirin, plums, and rice shochu. It was difficult to find information on this bottle. I haven't tasted it yet, but I was told it was a very special and unique plum wine. And you can see from the label it's aged 3 years.

#70 back label

Tatsumi Soy Sauce

Tatsumi Soy Sauce top label

Tatsumi Soy Sauce back label

I'm including this one soy sauce. Tatsumi soy sauce. It's hand made from a company that has been making soy sauce this way since 1804, passing the process down for over 30 generations. It is aged over 4 years as far as I can tell, some of it in cedar barrels. On the label top, you can see the number 62. They label the barrels, so it came from barrel #62. They carefully select all ingredients and there are no additives. This is as close to traditional soy sauce as you'll ever get. Their website is a bit difficult to navigate, but you can check it out here. They are located in Ehime prefecture on an island south of Hiroshima. If you can read Japanese, their history is here. I got it at the same sake shop in Oppama that I got plum wine #69 and 70.

 More to come as they are discovered.