Ingredients · Fruit

Plum

Prunus spp. · Rosaceae (rose family)

Plum
Deep, winey and dark, with a tartness in the skin that a peach does not have. Three products carry it, as pieces or petals. Plums are likely to have been one of the first fruits domesticated by humans, which puts them alongside the fig and the olive rather than with the later orchard fruit, and dried they become prunes — a different thing again, more caramel and less bright.

What it’s like, and how to use it

The partFruit
KindFruit
CaffeineCaffeine-free
Where it is fromChina
TasteDeep and winey with a tart skin; dried, it turns caramel and raisin-like

How to use it

In fruit infusions. It rehydrates soft and dark. Plum and peach together is a natural pairing; plum and black tea is a stronger one, since the tea's tannin meets the fruit's.

With food

Almond and hazelnut. Cinnamon and star anise. Duck and pork. Cream. Red wine. Ginger. Dark chocolate.

With spices

Star anise. Cinnamon. Ginger. Cardamom. Vanilla. Szechuan peppercorn.

With tea

Black tea, especially Ceylon. Oolong. Pu-erh. Chunmee green tea, which is itself plummy.

Its story

Where it comes from

The three main cultivated species are Prunus domestica, traced to East European and Caucasian mountains, and P. salicina and P. simonii, both from China. China dominates production with 55 per cent of a world total of 12.5 million tonnes in 2023, then Romania and Chile. Our lot names no origin or variety.

What happened

Plums are old enough to be foundational — likely one of the first fruits humans domesticated. The European plum and the Japanese plum are genuinely different species with different uses: European varieties make good prunes, while Japanese and Chinese ones are typically clingstone and unsuitable for drying, which is why the plum you stew and the plum you eat from the hand are often not the same fruit. The ornamental Chinese plum, Prunus mume, is a third thing again — and in East Asia it is the blossom rather than the fruit that carries the meaning.

On the shelf with it

Every product it goes into.

Every ingredient in the shop

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Other ways in

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