What Is Smoked Plum? A Full Guide to Its Origins, Characteristics and Common Uses

Smoked plum is a dried fruit made from the nearly ripe fruit of the plum tree (Prunus mume) in the rose family, harvested and then processed through steps such as drying and smoking with fumigation. It gets its name from its blackened appearance, and among ordinary people it is also called meishi or xunmei. It is both a traditional food ingredient and is often classed among materials that serve as both food and medicine, and it has a rather long history of use in China.

The processed smoked plum has shriveled, pliable flesh and is blackish or brownish black, with a faint smoky aroma. On the tongue the sour taste stands out, with a slight astringency, mainly coming from its rich organic acids such as citric acid and malic acid. Because the sour taste is so intense, it is often used to steep in water, to boil into sour plum drink, or to add flavor and cut greasiness in braised and stewed dishes.

There are quite a few cultivated varieties of plum, which can be roughly divided by skin color into green plum, white plum and flowering plum types, and thick-fleshed, small-stoned green plum fruits are mostly chosen for making smoked plum. Plum trees are mostly grown on warm, humid hills and mountains, and there is fairly extensive cultivation in places such as Sichuan, Fujian, Zhejiang and Yunnan in China, which are also common production areas for smoked plum.

When selecting smoked plum, those with thick flesh, a glossy black color and a pure sour taste are best; if you come across products with unusually bright color or a weak, insipid sour taste, watch out for dyeing or for other dried fruits passed off as smoked plum. For home storage, seal them and keep them in a cool, dry place to avoid dampness and mold, which would affect the flavor.