Unusual Ingredients – Akashi-Tai Umeshu
Umeshu is the perfect way to resurrect my “unusual ingredients” category. Besides my review, I combined this Ginjo sake-based liqueur with more plum flavours and came up with a Manhattan variation. There is just some magic about adding plum flavours to a Manhattan template!
Umeshu is a traditional Japanese liqueur made from Ume plums and sake. The Akashi-Tai Shiraume Ginjo Umeshu uses dried white plums and Ginjo sake with a polishing ratio bellow 60 %. Akashi-Tai chose Yamadanishiki rice for the sake and macerate the plums for six months in the rice wine. Next the fruits are filtered out and the remaining liqueur is aged in enamel tanks for another two years. In the end, the Umeshu has an ABV of 14 %.
Fresh plums with marzipan
Surprisingly, the Akashi-Tai Umeshu starts with notes of fresh plums in combination with a classic sake taste. Next you will notice some distinct marzipan and bitter almond notes. The sweetness is noticeable, but not overwhelming and well-integrated. All in all, it is a pleasant Umeshu liqueur.
Manhattan with additional plum notes
As mentioned above, I like to add plum notes to Manhattans. So, this is exactly what I also did when creating a recipe using the Akashi-Tai Umeshu. However, I went for a Japanese whisky base and also used the exceptional Mancino Sakura Vermouth. There is no need to break out the expensive Japanese Single Malt here, a blend will do the trick, too.
1,5 cl Engel Wild Plum Eau de Vie
2,25 cl Akashi-Tai Umeshu
3 cl Mancino Sakura Vermouth
Stir – strain – chilled Cocktail glass;
Garnish: No garnish;
Song: Dustin Tebbutt – Silk (feat. Thelma Plum);
*Mix 50 % Peychaud’s Bitters and 50 % The Bitter Truth Creole Bitters – bottle in clean dripper bottle
This time the name of the drink says it all. The “Silk” really feels like sipping silk. The Japanese whisky just lingers on in the back, while it lets the other ingredients play. Obviously, the plum notes of the eau de vie work perfectly with the Umeshu, which in turn pairs nicely with the Sakura vermouth. Besides its relatively high ABV, the drink goes down way too easily which leaves you craving another one!
*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product. The liqueur was provided by Akashi-Tai and Schlumberger GmbH.
