Don’t Ass-ume
I love plum wine (umeshu). I always assumed it was made with, well, plums… but it’s actually made ume, which is actually a relative of (but not identical to) the plum most of us are familiar with. The things I learn while posting, amiright? I recently got my hands on an umeshu made with kokuto sugar. It’s a type of brown sugar made in Japan that minimizes the amount of processing, thereby leaving more of the sugarcane’s original nutrients intact. It gives the umeshu a really nice underlying funk that reminds me of a very distant cousin of rum.
This drink doesn’t have any rum (that will be my next round of experimenting); instead, this one lives somewhere between a pisco sour and a NY sour. Pisco’s funkiness works beautifully, but 2oz was overpowering so I split the base with gin. This helped highlight more of the fruity/floral qualities of the umeshu. The red wine helps to round the whole thing out with the dry tannins serving as a necessary balancing measure. It’s a really tasty sip!
Recipe
1oz Pisco (@caravedopisco)
1oz London dry gin (@beefeatergin)
0.75oz Kokuto Umeshu (@choya_usa)
0.75oz split lemon/lime juice
0.25oz apricot liqueur (simple syrup works too)
Large egg white
0.75oz dry red wine
Combine all ingredients besides wine and dry/wet shake (I have been doing the reverse dry shake lately). Fine strain into glass (+/- large ice cube). Gently layer red wine. Garnish with Peychaud’s bitters. Cheers!!
