Ube’s purple reign: why this Filipino yam is trending right now

Oh bay-bee bay-bee—it’s the reign of purple ube.

From vivid Insta posts of desserts made with this violet ingredient to festivals devoted solely to this royal-coloured tuber, ube (pronounced ooh-beh) is the current “it girl” of all things gastronomical.

Ascend to the top it must, much like the royalty status its rare colour used to have.

We’ve seen many refreshments, sweet pastries, vegetables and desserts coloured in pastels or vivid hues of greens, yellows and reds, but the colour purple in food is still highly unusual.

So what exactly is ube?

Ube is also known as purple yam, a tuber. Don’t confuse ube with taro or purple sweet potato—it has its own special texture and taste.

The root vegetable is shaped like a potato, with greyish skin on the outside and a distinctive, rich purple on the inside.

Originally from the Philippines, ube is primarily used to make desserts such as ube halaya. The simple dessert can be made from boiling frozen or fresh ube, condensed milk, butter and coconut milk.

These days, ube is prized for its antioxidant properties and its surplus of vitamin C.

Halo-halo’s favourite topping

The Philippines’ favourite dessert called halo-halo is incomplete without a dollop of melting purple ube ice cream as its crowning glory.

The bright red and green of kaong, coupled with the yellow of a candied mango or saba banana, complements the purple topping sitting on a bed of plain white crushed ice.

Is it a colour thing that makes ube so appealing?

Whatever it is, you can’t really call your dessert halo-halo without ube. It just ain’t right.

Ube ube everywhere

President’s Choice, a food company in Canada, recently came out with ube hamburger buns and ube boba pie.

There are now ube drinks, ube donuts, ube pastillas, and even an ube song (see below).

Let’s see what other ube-licious products come up.

Ube is here to stay.

Long may the purple (yam) reign.

Filipino-Canadian artists Manila Grey with their song Ube.