Recipe - Umeshu (Plum Wine) Jello Dessert

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Well I thought I was done with the umeshu posts...until desserts came to mind.

Umeshu jello is quite simple to make. The simplest recipe would be Umeshu, some water and gelatin. But of course aficionados are not satisfied with simple recipes that you can get anywhere on the internet. So we've added a few small twists to the baseline recipe.


I had no idea how it would turn out, but the end result was nothing but short of spectacular.  Alright it's hard to get excited about jello but it was really really good.

Umeshu's natural sweetness makes for a perfect dessert ingredient. The umeshu I've used in the recipe is yuzu umeshu which is my favorite. You might find umeshu jello recipes on the internet that add lemon juice or use lemon flavored jello, but there is no need for this when using yuzu umeshu. It also happens to be really good just by itself over some ice - or ロック (rokku) as the Japanese say.

Recipe option 1:
150 ml Yuzu Umeshu (or any umeshu)
150 ml Lychee Juice
200 ml of water
50-80g of sugar
10g of jello (I used jellice in 5g packages)
1 tablespoon Cointreau
The lychee juice here is optional.

(Note: for the sugar I used rock sugar that I had left over and didn't have a way to measure 80g. I just added about 5 or 6 "rocks")

1. Add the water to a small pan and heat to boiling. Add the sugar and dissolve.
2. Turn off the heat and add the jellice (gelatin) and dissolve.
3. While the water and gelatin are cooling a bit, combine the umeshu, lychee juice, and the Cointreau. 
4. Add the water/gelatin mixture to the umeshu/lychee juice. Stir. 
5. Add the mixture to your mold, glasses, etc. Place in the refrigerator for a few hours to set.

The special ingredients in this dessert are the Yuzu Umeshu and the Cointreau. Yuzu Umeshu I've explained a bit more in the umeshu buying guide. The Cointreau is a French Triple Sec.  I first learned about it from none other than my favorite Yakitori restaurant Maido. The chef there makes everything from scratch including his sherbert. The unique ingredient that he seemed to add to all of his sorbets was Cointreau. Only a tablespoon is needed.

You can vary the amount of water vs. juice vs. umeshu. You see there is a total of 500g of liquid. Therefore, if you reduce the umeshu by 50ml, you should increase the water or juice by 50ml. Same goes for the other way, increasing the umeshu.

 Recipe Option 2:
150 ml Yuzu Umeshu (or any umeshu)
150 ml Mitsuya Cider (optional - check your local Japanese store)
200 ml of water
50-80g of sugar
10g of jello (I used Jellice in 5g packages)
1 tablespoon Cointreau (optional)


Also, the recipes are scalable, using 5g gelatin to 250ml of liquid.

I use a product called "Jellice" for the jello since that is a typical Japanese gelatin product and the Japanese recipes I reviewed on the Jellice website all used the gelatin in 5g packages - which is how the Jellice comes in the box. It's shown on the right side in the photograph below.

Mitsuya cider, some Umeshu or plum wine, and jello (jellice)

Yuzu umeshu

melting the sugar in the water

In plastic cups - ready to party

By the way, I'm no longer living in Japan have stopped posting on the blog, except for this one. This was an old draft post I found that I never got around to posting. If you're interested in writing for the blog let me know.