As purple goes global, the face of the Philippines strengthens the supply

Long-time Filipino bartender Chris Joseph has served at his London locations for the past decade, but interest in drinks and desserts featuring purple yam has grown over the past year.

Ube, a naturally sweet, starchy vegetable grown by farmers in the Philippines, has been the star of Joseph and his wife Rowena Romulo’s Soho restaurant Kasa and Kin, which opened in 2021.

“The thing that was flying off the shelf was the be from the beginning,” Joseph told CNBC in an interview.

Their old restaurant, Romulo Café, which opened in 2016 and has since closed, is also known as be dishes. Kasa and Kin’s menu includes ube latte, ube martini, ube tsunami cheesecake (with lots of purple sauce), and ube cream cheese bread among other masterpieces.

Joseph’s first customers were confused Filipinos looking for a taste of home. “What we have seen now is people coming in again [being] We want to know you, people we don’t often see. … They come in, they will check the case of the bakery, they will pick up something, whether it be a brownie, or an ice cream,” he said.

In the past year, it has crossed over from Filipino culture and into mainstream consciousness as coffee chains and restaurants hunt down HIV-infected food and drinks.

Starbucks helped spark the trend in 2025 with limited-time offerings of Ube Iced Coconut Latte and Ube Espresso Martini, expanding its spring 2026 lineup to include Ube Matcha Latte and Ube Vanilla Macchiato. US coffee chain Peet’s has also introduced an Iced Vanilla Latte with Ube Dream Top for the season.

Ube servings have increased 230% on all US restaurant menus in the past four years, according to food and beverage analytics firm Datassentials. It is currently available on the menu at 95 chains across the US, and is predicted to grow 74% over the next four years.

Ube exports from the Philippines have increased significantly in recent years. In 2025, the Philippines exported be worth an estimated 3.2 billion dollars – about 1.7 million kilograms – marking an increase of about 20% from last year, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) shared with CNBC.

The United States was the largest exporter, accounting for about $1.6 billion, or about half of total exports. Canada, Australia, and the UK were the next largest markets.

Joseph said the increased visibility of ube has boosted sales of Kasa and Kin, with the restaurant’s desserts seeing high demand.

Emily Tang, chief product officer of Datassentials, tells CNBC that be is “accessible from a flavor perspective,” making it easy to innovate with.

“It goes well with people’s favorite things, meaning coffee, drinks, desserts, and cakes, and it has a low nutty flavor, so it has a very low barrier to temptation. It’s not an intimidating taste; it’s a safe experiment, and it also looks amazing.”

Ube had a moment, but it was a slow rise to fame. Data has been tracking the flavor since 2017, when it was sold mainly in Filipino bakeries and mom-and-pop restaurants in the US.

Its first appearance in the international arena was related to “the rise of Asian culture in the mainstream,” from foods and drinks like Korean fried chicken and boba tea to media like K-pop and K-drama, according to Tang.

The milestone was in 2022 when Baskin-Robbins offered Ube Coconut Swirl ice cream as a limited time item.

“This March has been the biggest month of limited-time ube supply that we’ve been tracking for top chains, so now it’s at a high level,” Tang said of this year, and added to its growing popularity on social media.

“It’s very visible. It’s very Instagrammable. It’s very bright. It’s easily spread by social media, so it’s a perfect trend in its behavior,” Tang added.

A search of the be hashtag shows over 120,000 posts on TikTok and over 750,000 posts on Instagram, all featuring be’s iconic purple hues.

The hype surrounding this ingredient is largely driven by the global desire to drink exotic drink and dessert flavors, as food chains aim to replicate the success of Japanese matcha and Dubai Chocolate, both of which have been adapted into everything from cakes to milkshakes.

“It’s part of the culture of eating and drinking now because the demand for food that looks good is as important as the taste,” Andrew Freeman, founder of hospitality consulting firm AF&Co, told CNBC.

Coffee, in particular, has become a social media platform for young people as they become accustomed to drinking alcohol, according to Freeman.

“People are drinking less, so the coffee house culture is coming back,” he said.

“In this year’s report, we had a complete study of coffee and how it went from being a functional beverage to being over-the-top, ‘What can I put on top of coffee? What can I top it with?’ What drives it is that you want to capture it, and you want it to go beyond,” he said.

But while ube is enjoying growing demand around the world, farmers in the Philippines are struggling to keep pace as climate change makes weather patterns unpredictable and limits the supply of quality planting material, according to the Philippine Root Crop Research and Training Center.

The total production of purple yams in the region declined annually, down 1.63% from 13,381 metric tons in 2024 to 12,483 metric tons in 2025, according to PSA data. In 2021, the Philippines produced 14,150 metric tons of purple corn.

The country even imports some be from Vietnam to support local needs.

“It’s one of those things that initially, you’re going to have a huge demand, and the supply chain just needs to catch up and get an idea of ​​what it is,” says Kasa and Kin’s Joseph.

Although the price of ube has increased, Joseph is not complaining because it is the opportunity of Filipino farmers to charge higher prices.

“A low yield like a tuber is something that many people don’t know, so I’m happy for them. If they can get more of it, they can plant more, it’s great. I’m asking the world to open up,” he said.