Ume liqueur (Japanese apricot liqueur) is made by soaking ume fruits (Japanese apricot) in shochu (distilled sake, alcohol content: 35%). Among the flavor components that influence greatly the quality of ume liqueur are the organic acids. During manufacturing and storage, transfer of organic acids contained in ume fruits into shochu and formation of ethyl esters of the organic acids were observed. Eighteen months after the start of the experiments, the content of organic acids in shochu reached a maximum level and changed only slightly thereafter. Citric and malic acids comprised approximately 90% of total organic acids, but the change of the two acids during storage of ume liqueur differed from each other. While the content of citric acid in ume liqueur did not change significantly after reaching a maximum level, the content of malic acid decreased gradually. This finding suggested that malic acid was converted into its ester more readily than citric acid.
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