An Intensively Aromatic Experience

I had met Shinji Inaba, Head of International Exports of Choya Umeshu from Japan about two years back and then he had warmly invited me to visit his distillery in Iga, in Mie. I politely thanked him and then completely forgot about it. Little did I know I was destined to keep my date with Choya and it finally fructified this year. It is not every day that one gets a chance to go all the way to Komagatani, Habikino-shi, near Osaka to see Japan’s biggest and most successful Umeshu liqueur making facility. Umeshu liqueur is made from the exotic ume fruit. This journey was a fascinating trip to the wonderland of ume’s nectar.

The highway wending its way to Osaka from the Kyoto city is dotted with uncountable big names of companies who have made Japan proud by their quality products. Be it Itochu Corp, Nippon, Sumitomo, Daiwa, Sharp, Kansai, Panasonic or Omron, all pass through your car window like a whirl. So much industrial excellence all around; so much wealth, but hardly any arrogance among the people! The politeness of Japanese is ultimate, efficiency remarkable and work culture worth imbibing. While Shinji Inaba was giving me the lowdown about Choya Umeshu company and its founders and current bosses, I could intuitively feel another shining example of Japanese excellence was waiting to unveil itself. As soon as Shinji parked his car in Choya’s biggest facility in Iga Ueno, near Osaka, I was amazed by the quietness, cleanliness and orderliness of this big production house that silently creates delectable magic in tall tanks.

Politeness Personified

While walking towards the main building, Shinji very subtly pointed towards three flags hoisted on the building. I looked up and was pleasantly surprised to see our Indian flag too flying there. Shinji whispered,“It is to honour your visit to our distillery.” I was too humbled to say anything at all. I was greeted by an extremely polite and quiet man (so befittingly part of the whole set up), Iida San, the Production Head. He took us to the tanks and explained the technique and process of Umeshu liqueur making. In Iga Ueno facility, there are 120 tanks of 100,000 liters each. In the other two facilities in Tanabe and Kawamukai, respectively, there are 120 and 200 tanks of 50,000 liters each.

He explained all these with the help of Yuya Konishi, young Export Marketing Executive (who dutifully accompanied me on the trip). “These 100,000liter tanks are first filled with cane spiritand sugar up to 2/5th level and then around 40 tones of ume fruits are loaded inside and then put into sugar.The tank is never filled more than 3/5th of the capacity. For one year, it is a slow maceration process in the tank, resulting in a beautiful marriage of ume fruit with cane spirit; thereby making an intensely aromatic Umeshu liqueur,” Iida explained. Shinji further explained that the slow ageing process adopted by Choya allows for the making of an authentic Umeshu with the best possible taste and aroma every time. Talking about the process, Iida explained that “once a day, the liquid in each tank is circulated through a pipe  which takes about two hours. With this, the fruits and liquid are moved around to get some traction.”

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