Umeboshi

Buy umeboshi plums | Japanese sour salted plums

Umeboshi, Japanese salted plums or Japanese pickled plums are a popular Japanese pickle with an intensely sour and salty tang. Made from Japanese ume plums - in fact a type of apricot - umeboshi taste uniquely tart due to the high levels of citric acid in the fruit.

The umeboshi plum is a centuries-old flavouring in Japanese cuisine, prized for its restorative and healing qualities. The months-long pickling process of these Japanese plums involves salt-drying and then adding vinegar, as well as red shiso for colour. The Japanese also use ume plums to make ume jam or plum wine (umeshu).

Enjoy the sour flavour of umeboshi flesh in bento boxes (traditionally nestled into the white rice), pickled ume rice balls, or with rice porridge. Japanese pickled plum - or the ume vinegar - also make excellent salad dressings when chopped finely. You need only a small amount for big flavour!

We stock premium Nanko Plums - considered the best salted ume in the world - as well as high-quality imported umeboshi paste.