Umeboshi Chart
Plain salted, shiso, honey, bonito and low-salt umeboshi compared on one chart: salt, sourness, sweetness, umami, and the size of the ume they are made from.
Up and down is salt; left to right goes from ume and salt only to sweetness or umami added. Each point is a rough guide to the type; products differ.
A rough guide on a five-step scale. Products of the same type differ a lot, so check the salt equivalent (食塩相当量) on the package.
The traditional kind: ume pickled in salt only, then dried. The sourest and saltiest, and it keeps well.
Name on the label: 梅干 (umeboshi)
Good for: Rice balls, seasoning dishes, tasting umeboshi as it was made for centuries
Red shiso leaves are added while pickling, giving a red colour and the shiso aroma. Most taste about as strong as shiraboshi.
Name on the label: 梅干 (umeboshi)
Good for: Rice balls, chopped into dressed vegetables
Salted ume, partly desalted and steeped again in a liquid with bonito stock and other seasonings. Umami is added; salt and sourness are milder.
Name on the label: 調味梅干 (seasoned umeboshi)
Good for: With rice, in lunch boxes
Salted ume, partly desalted and steeped again in a liquid with honey and other seasonings. Sweet and mildly sour: easy to eat if you find umeboshi too strong.
Name on the label: 調味梅干 (seasoned umeboshi)
Good for: Eating as they are; a first umeboshi
Do not give foods containing honey to babies under one year old.
Umeboshi with less salt, usually seasoned ones. The amount of salt varies a lot from product to product.
Name on the label: 調味梅干 (seasoned umeboshi)
Good for: Cutting down on salt (ask your doctor if you have a condition)
Ume varieties used for umeboshi and crunchy karikari-ume, smallest first. Circle sizes are a rough guide; see each variety's page for details.
← SmallLarge →
Umeboshi made from small ume (koume) are labelled 小梅干 or 調味小梅干.
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Plain salted, shiso or seasoned umeboshi differ in salt as much as in taste. Using official food-composition data and growing-region facts, here is how to choose the right one.
Recipe
Plain salted, red shiso or honey — the main kinds of umeboshi and easy ways to try them.
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The name, ingredients and salt equivalent on the back of the package tell you whether umeboshi are traditional or seasoned, and how salty they are.
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A guide to what to look for when sending umeboshi to parents who live far away: how to read salt percentages and sodium equivalents, fruit size and pits, and how many days a pack lasts at one umeboshi per day.