The Prunus mume is an East Asian tree that starts to flower around January until late February.
It can grow to 4–10 metres (13–33 ft) tall and the flowers have shades of white, pink, and red with a strong fragrant scent.

The tree is cultivated for its fruit and flowers which are known as the meihua in Chinese or Chinese plum, Japanese plum and Japanese apricot in English.

Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese cuisine use the flower to make juices, flavourings for alcohol, Pickle and sauces such as the meijiang or meizijiang translated as "plum sauce".
In Korea, both the flowers and the fruits are used to make tea, pancakes called "flower pancake" and anti-microbial syrups.

The Plum liquor, Umeshu is also known as plum wine, is a Japanese sweet and smooth liquor made by plums and is popular in Japan, Korea and China.
Japanese restaurants serve many different varieties of umeshu and also make cocktails with it such as the Umeshu on the Rocks, Umeshu Sour, Umeshu Tonic, Umeshu Soda and the Flaming Plum.
Umeshu can be served at different temperatures; cold, room temperature, or even hot.

Prunus mume is also used in traditional Chinese medicine.
A recent study has indicated that Prunus mume extract can control or prevent dental diseases, gastritis and gastric ulcers.

Because the Plum blossoms in the cold winter, it is regarded as one of the "Three Friends of Winter", along with pine, and bamboo and together with the orchid, chrysanthemum is considered one of the "Four Gentlemen" of flowers in Chinese art.

This spring experience the blossom of Prunus mume at Ginza Onodera and discover our Plumity White with sake Plum and our Plumity Black Plum liqueur!