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Alcoholic drinks from China

East Asian fruit wines (bayberry, mulberry, goji and plum)杨梅酒

In China the name yangmei jiu (bayberry wine) covers two different drinks. The fermented style is made like grape wine, by fermenting the fruit juice with added sugar and wine yeast for 10–15 days. The integrated style, in the study's recipe, mixes the juice with edible alcohol and involves no fermentation. The Korean maesil-ju and Japanese umeshu described here are plum drinks infused in spirit.

Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks9 days – 18 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe tested laboratory recipe for fermented bayberry wine in Miao et al. 2023, 3 kg of juice in a 4 L glass vessel. Mulberry wine follows the same pattern, with sugar added to about 20 °Brix.
Chinese bayberry juice, pitted, homogenised and filtered3 kg (one batch)12 °Brix, 101 g/L sugar, titratable acidity 10.3 g/L as citric acid, pH 2.90[miao2023]
SucroseTo 22 °Brix[miao2023]
Sulfur dioxide (as potassium metabisulfite)50 mg/L, twiceOnce before fermentation and once after pressing[miao2023]
Wine yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae)0.2 % (m/v)[miao2023]
Starterdefined-culture wine yeast for the fermented style; none for the steeped style

Total time across the recorded steps: 9 days – 18 days

Start
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What changes: The fruit is pitted, crushed and its juice strained through gauze

Step 1 of 5
Pit the fruit and press the juice
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Yeasts

Bayberries are pitted and homogenised and the juice filtered through gauze. For mulberry, the pulp can be kept, which holds more phenolics and anthocyanins. Output: fruit juice (or pulp, for mulberry).

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

In China the name yangmei jiu (bayberry wine) covers two different drinks. The fermented style is made like grape wine, by fermenting the fruit juice with added sugar and wine yeast for 10–15 days. The integrated style, in the study's recipe, mixes the juice with edible alcohol and involves no fermentation. The Korean maesil-ju and Japanese umeshu described here are plum drinks infused in spirit. Made in 5 steps over 9 days – 18 days. The longest step, ferment, takes 6–15 days (Miao Y 2023) and runs at 17–20 °C (Miao Y 2023). Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces cerevisiae do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step6–15 daysReported[miao2023][wang2026]Ferment
Temperature17–20 °CReported[miao2023][wang2026]Ferment
AciditypH 4.9 → 3.49Measured[wang2026]Ferment

What makes this one different

Bayberry wine covers two products. The fermented style makes alcohol from the fruit's own sugar plus added sugar, and tastes drier and more acidic, with a more complex set of alcohols and esters. The integrated style (called integrated bayberry wine in the study) mixes the juice with edible alcohol in the tested recipe; it keeps more sugar, more red pigment and more β-caryophyllene, the key bayberry flavour compound, and no fermentation takes place.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Steeped bayberry wine (integrated bayberry wine)Not a ferment: equal volumes of bayberry juice and 25 % edible alcohol, kept 2 weeks at 20 °C; 12.81 % alcohol, sweeter, with more β-caryophyllene and anthocyanin.
  • Mulberry wineFermented on the pulp or the juice; one study found 23 ± 1 °C and pH 3.5 ± 0.1 best, giving 9.1 % alcohol.
  • Gouqi jiu (goji wine)Made either by brewing or by steeping goji in spirit; brewed goji wine may also be distilled.
  • Umeshu and maesil-juUmeshu is a Japanese liqueur made by steeping unripe ume plums in shochu with sugar. The Korean maesil-ju infuses plums in soju, with sugar added after about 100 days. Both are infusions.

Safety

No safety limits specific to these wines were found. The tested bayberry recipe heats the juice to 85 °C for 15 min and adds sulfite before the yeast; the mulberry recipe uses sulfite and pectinase with no heating step.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Chinese bayberry ripens over only about 30 days in June and July and keeps two days at 20 °C, so much of it is processed, including into wine. Records of goji wine go back at least to the Han dynasty.

  1. [miao2023] Miao Y., Hu G., Sun X., Li Y., Huang H., Fu Y. 2023, Comparing the volatile and soluble profiles of fermented and integrated Chinese bayberry wine with HS-SPME GC-MS and UHPLC Q-TOF, Foods 12(7):1546paper
  2. [wang2026] Wang Y. et al. 2026, The influence of different raw material processing methods on the quality of mulberry fruit wine, Food Chemistry X 37:104128paper
  3. [ji2026] Ji M. et al. 2026, Multi-omics investigation of microbial community dynamics and metabolic regulation in mulberry wine fermentation under temperature and acid stress, Food Microbiology 137 (abstract)paper
  4. [gu2024] Gu Q. et al. 2024, Selecting autochthonous lactic acid bacteria for co-inoculation in Chinese bayberry wine production, Food Research International 178:113976 (abstract)paper
  5. [ZHWP:枸杞酒] Wikipedia (zh), 枸杞酒 (outline only)wiki
  6. [WP:Umeshu] Wikipedia, Umeshu (outline only)wiki
  7. [WP:Maesil-ju] Wikipedia, Maesil-ju (outline only)wiki
  8. [WP:Fruit wine] Wikipedia, Fruit wine (outline only)wiki