Wine Culture 美酒文化 Time-Honored Plum Wine 历史悠久的青梅酒

青梅酒历史悠久、文化内涵深远。我国自古就有关于青梅的种种典故，尤以青梅煮酒最为出名。据《三国志》记载：建安5年，刘备“学圃于许田，以为韬晦之计”，曹操以青梅煮酒相邀刘备共论天下英雄，青梅酒及其“青梅煮酒论英雄”的典故由此见于史书。
In China, plum wine is famous for its time-honored history and cultural richness. Since ancient times, there have been a lot of literary quotations about the plum, with “warming wine with plum” in particular being the most popular one. According to, The History of the Three Kingdoms, in the fifth year of Jian’an Period of Han Dynasty (A.D. 200), Liu Bei "learnt planting vegetables in Xutian as the stratagem of concealment." Cao Cao invited Liu Bei to discuss heroes with wine stewed with plum, which was recorded in history.
青梅酒不是一个新品类，在中国云南、广东、福建等地，土法酿制的自用型青梅酒已经有了很长的历史，日韩等国也有饮用青梅酒的习惯。泡青梅用的白酒，度数应该在25度-45度左右，白酒度数过高，泡出来的梅酒太烈。
As a popular product, plum wine produced for personal drinking using local methods has a long history in Yunnan, Guangdong, Fujian and other places in China. Moreover, Japan and South Korea also traditionally drink plum wine. The alcohol content of wine used for immersing plums should be between 25% and 40%; if the alcohol content is too high, the resulting plum wine will be too strong.
青梅酒的制作工艺主要分为两大流派：
There are two types of production techniques of plum wine:
一种是浸泡青梅酒，以广东、浙江、江苏的部分地区为代表，采用米酒或者黄酒来浸泡新鲜青梅果。
1. Immersed plum wine: this method immerses fresh green plums in rice wine or yellow wine, and is seen in some areas of Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu.
另一种是青梅果的堆积发酵生产的青梅酒。这种工艺生产出来的青梅酒虽然口感独特，但是不易保存，沉淀问题也不易解决。
2. Fermented plum wine: this method piles up plums to produce fermented plum wine, which has a unique taste, but it is difficult to store and the precipitation issue has not been well addressed.
青梅酒既有水果酒的果香甜柔，又具有蒸馏酒的浓烈，其味微酸中带醇厚甘甜，可以长年陈放。青梅酒具有调理肠胃、澄清血液、治疗风湿痛及中暑积食、消除疲劳和美容的功效。
With both fruity sweetness and strong taste of liquor, plum wine offers tart, mellow, and sweet flavors and can be stored for years. Additionally, plum wine has many functions, including regulate one’s digestive system, cleansing one’s blood, treating rheumatism, heatstroke, and stomach overload, removing fatigue and, perhaps best of all, increasing one’s physical beauty.