Not Defining Umeshu by a Single Formula — Umeyoshi’s Choice of Four Base Spirits

KANPAI Makers’ Choices No.07

The character of umeshu is rarely defined solely by plum variety or level of sweetness. Shift the spirit in which the fruit is steeped, and the entire landscape of raw ingredients, heritage, and technique transforms along with it.

Based in Minabe, Wakayama Prefecture, Kishu Honjo Umeyoshi crafts its umeshu using fully ripened plums paired with four foundations: awamori, brandy, aged awamori known as kusu, and whisky.

Presented at KANPAI Thailand 2026, ICHI, ZEN, MISAO, and HIRAKU represent four expressions from a single house. Rather than incremental variations on a standard recipe, each bottle begins with its own combination of base spirit and fruit treatment—a deliberate choice to resist a single, fixed formula.

Fully Ripened Plums as a Common Starting Point

Umeyoshi’s story began as an agricultural plum farm in Minabe. Establishing its food processing division in 1971, incorporating in 1986, and securing a liqueur production license in 2009, the producer now oversees the process in-house—from orchard cultivation through processing and sales.

Where many traditional recipes call for green plums, Umeyoshi works with fully ripened Kishu Nanko plums. ICHI also incorporates a rare, vivid-red Kishu sumomo-ume. While ripe fruit serves as the shared thread, the choice of spirit and the treatment of the plums differ from one expression to the next. No.07 examines this central decision.

The Base Spirit Is More Than Just a Medium

A base spirit is far more than a neutral vessel for extraction. It brings its own lineage, raw materials, and distillation or brewing heritage into the resulting umeshu, shaping its final identity.

Brandy, awamori, and whisky are all distilled spirits, yet they begin from different raw materials and methods: fruit for brandy, rice and black koji for awamori, and grains for whisky. Within the awamori lineage, time adds another distinction when the spirit is matured as kusu. The name of each base therefore points back to the ingredients, technique, and—in the case of aged awamori—the maturation that precede the plums.

ICHI begins with awamori. Fully ripened Nanko plums and a rare, vivid-red Kishu sumomo-ume are steeped slowly with rock sugar. Umeyoshi describes the product as combining Kishu sumomo-ume with awamori and having a refreshing sweetness.

ZEN uses brandy as its base. Because brandy is distilled from fermented fruit, both the base spirit and the plums are fruit-derived.

MISAO uses aged Okinawan awamori (kusu) and is made in an aragōshi style that retains plum pulp.

HIRAKU uses whisky as its base. Umeyoshi describes it as fully ripened Nanko plums steeped in whisky.

The four foundations are awamori, brandy, aged awamori (kusu), and whisky. ICHI and MISAO both belong to the awamori lineage, yet the former uses awamori while the latter begins with a matured spirit. The quartet therefore reveals both contrast across spirit categories and variation within awamori itself.

Four Expressions, Not One Linear Scale

These four bottles are not ranked on a scale of quality, nor do they represent incremental steps in intensity. Each expression has a different production structure: ICHI also uses Kishu sumomo-ume, MISAO retains plum pulp, and the published descriptions identify their bases as awamori and aged awamori (kusu), respectively.

While the published materials do not specify the exact plum-to-base ratios, steeping periods, or complete production sequence for each expression, the overarching narrative is clear. Bound together by fully ripened plums, each bottle offers a distinct structural identity, shaped by its chosen spirit and treatment of the fruit.

Filtering the Clear Upper Layer by Hand

Umeyoshi explains that it uses no processing aids when removing fruit-derived sediment, known as ori. Instead, the clear upper layer is filtered by hand, little by little.

According to the company, this method is intended to remove sediment without diminishing the character of the plums. The individual filtration conditions for the four expressions are not publicly specified.

No.07 Records the Choice to Change the Base Spirit

KANPAI Makers’ Choices is not designed merely to list products, but to explore the deliberate decisions—and conscious omissions—that define modern craft beverage production.

Previous entries have examined critical decisions such as rice-polishing ratios, maturation periods, nakagumi pressing, ingredient timing, and the decision to forego charcoal filtration. For No.07, the focus turns to Umeyoshi’s decision to unbind umeshu from a single base alcohol.

By grounding all four expressions in fully ripened plums, the differences among awamori, brandy, aged awamori, and whisky come into view. Placing ICHI beside MISAO also reveals a distinction within the same awamori lineage: the former is described with awamori, the latter with aged awamori (kusu), and their handling of the fruit also differs. It is an approach that offers four entries into a single tradition—a signature perspective from a producer rooted in the orchard.

This article is intended solely to provide factual and cultural information about Kishu Honjo Umeyoshi and its 2026 KANPAI Thailand lineup, including its production design. It does not aim to promote or encourage the purchase or consumption of alcohol. It is intended for readers aged 20 and over.

บทความนี้จัดทำขึ้นเพื่อให้ข้อมูลเชิงข้อเท็จจริงและวัฒนธรรมเกี่ยวกับ Kishu Honjo Umeyoshi และผลิตภัณฑ์ที่นำเสนอในงาน KANPAI Thailand 2026 รวมถึงแนวคิดด้านการผลิตเท่านั้น มิได้มีเจตนาเพื่อส่งเสริมการซื้อหรือการบริโภคเครื่องดื่มแอลกอฮอล์ บทความนี้จัดทำขึ้นสำหรับผู้อ่านอายุ 20 ปีขึ้นไป

Related Products

ICHI Umeshu / ENISHI Umeshu / ZEN Umeshu / MISAO Umeshu / HIRAKU Umeshu

Related Reading

No.06: What “Unfiltered” Truly Means — The Pale Golden Hue of Born Gold / A Journey Restored: the background of aged awamori used for MISAO