From lattes and cakes to ice cream, ube is turning heads with its vivid purple hue. The Filipino yam is tipped as the next matcha – though the hype has its dark side.
By Maja Kunert
Published on
29/06/2026 - 6:00 GMT+2
Anyone strolling through city cafés at the moment will increasingly come across drinks and pastries in an unusually deep shade of purple. The colour doesn’t come from a bottle of food colouring, but from a tuber: ube, a purple yam from Southeast Asia, is tipped to be the next big food trend after matcha.
What exactly is ube?
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