What is ube?
Ube is the purple-fleshed tuber of Dioscorea alata, a true yam grown on a climbing vine. It is eaten cooked. Its colour comes from anthocyanin pigments, and its flavour is mild and creamy, closer to vanilla and toasted nut than to anything sharply sweet. In the Philippines it is the base of ube halaya, ube ice cream and halo-halo.
It is pronounced OO-beh, two syllables, stress on the first.
Ube at a glance
- Species
- Dioscorea alata
A true yam, family Dioscoreaceae. Also called greater yam, water yam and winged yam in English.
- Part eaten
- The tuber
An underground storage organ on a climbing vine, commonly 1 to 5 kg. Eaten cooked, not raw.
- Flesh colour
- Cream to deep violet
The purple comes from anthocyanins, principally the acylated alatanins. Colour depth varies by cultivar and is not a reliable guide to quality on its own.
- Where it grows
- Across the wet tropics
Grown throughout Southeast Asia, the Pacific, the Caribbean, West Africa and tropical South America.
- Growing cycle
- 8 to 10 months
Heirloom cultivars such as Kinampay commonly run longer, closer to 10 to 12 months.
- Pronunciation
- OO-beh
Two syllables, stress on the first. A Tagalog word.
Where ube came from
Dioscorea alata originated in Southeast Asia and Melanesia. It moved with people, as yams do, and today it grows across the wet tropics: Southeast Asia, the Pacific, West Africa, the Caribbean and tropical South America. Austronesian communities carried it into the Philippine islands thousands of years ago, and domesticated yam has been recovered from early to mid-Holocene deposits at Ille Cave in Palawan.
So the interesting Philippine claim was never that the species is confined here. It is what happened to it here. One study documented 77 indigenous varieties of D. alata among 13 ethnolinguistic groups in Northern Luzon alone. Bohol's Kinampay is a named heirloom group with its own classification of forms. That is a depth of cultivar tradition and continuous use, built over millennia, and it is checkable.
It is a better argument than exclusivity, because exclusivity is not true and cultivar depth is.
Ube, purple sweet potato and taro are three different plants
They share a colour range and nothing else. Each belongs to a different botanical family, with its own flavour, texture and culinary tradition.
| Common name | Species | Family |
|---|---|---|
| Ube | Dioscorea alata | Dioscoreaceae (yams) |
| Purple sweet potato, beni-imo | Ipomoea batatas | Convolvulaceae (morning glory) |
| Taro, gabi | Colocasia esculenta | Araceae (arums) |
The full side-by-side comparison, including how to tell them apart in a finished product, is on ube vs purple sweet potato vs taro.
How to pronounce ube
OO-beh
Two syllables. The first is a long oo as in "boot", the second a short eh as in "bet", with the stress on the first. It is a Tagalog word, and Filipino speakers say it the same way whether they are speaking Tagalog or English.
Frequently asked
What is ube?
Ube is the purple-fleshed tuber of Dioscorea alata, a true yam grown on a climbing vine. It is eaten cooked, it has a mild, creamy, vanilla-and-nut character rather than a strongly sweet one, and its colour comes from anthocyanin pigments. In the Philippines it is the base of ube halaya, ube ice cream and halo-halo.
Where did ube come from?
Dioscorea alata originated in Southeast Asia and Melanesia and spread across the tropics with human movement. Austronesian peoples carried it into the Philippine islands thousands of years ago, and domesticated yam has been recovered from early to mid-Holocene deposits at Ille Cave in Palawan. What is distinctly Philippine about ube is the depth of the cultivar tradition rather than the species being confined here.
Is ube a yam or a sweet potato?
Ube is a yam. Dioscorea alata belongs to the family Dioscoreaceae. Purple sweet potato, including the Okinawan varieties, is Ipomoea batatas, in the morning glory family. Taro is Colocasia esculenta, in a third family again. The three are unrelated plants that happen to share a colour range.
Is ube a fruit, a root or a vegetable?
Ube is a tuber, which is a swollen underground stem the plant uses to store starch. In culinary terms it is treated as a starchy vegetable, and in the Philippines most often as the base of a dessert.
What does ube taste like?
Mildly sweet and creamy, with vanilla, toasted nut and white chocolate notes over a faint earthiness. It contains only 0.4 g of total sugars per 100 g raw, so most of the sweetness people associate with ube is added in the kitchen rather than present in the tuber.
Is ube only grown in the Philippines?
No. Dioscorea alata is grown across the wet tropics, from Southeast Asia and the Pacific to West Africa, the Caribbean and tropical South America. What concentrates in the Philippines is the number of distinct named cultivars and the culinary tradition built around them.
How many varieties of ube are there?
More than most people expect. One study documented 77 indigenous varieties of Dioscorea alata among 13 ethnolinguistic groups in Northern Luzon alone. Bohol's Kinampay is the best known named cultivar and is itself a group of forms rather than a single one.
How do you pronounce ube?
OO-beh. Two syllables, stress on the first, ending in a short eh rather than an ay. It is a Tagalog word.
Is ube the same as ubi?
They are the same crop. Ubi is the spelling used in the Visayas and in much of the older literature, ube the spelling that travelled with Tagalog and became standard in English-language use.
The short facts
- Farm location
- Lobo, Batangas, Philippines
- What we supply
- Ube powder (two grades) and frozen ube, all Dioscorea alata
- Shelf life
- Powder: 24 months sealed, cool and dry
- Certifications
- FDA Philippines (LTO) registered, Halal certified
- License mark
- Tatak Ube, a license mark we issue for genuine Dioscorea alata
- Ships to
- United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and worldwide
- Contact
- enquiries@philippineube.com
Composition figures are sourced to DOST-FNRI on the nutrition page. Allergen and dietary declarations are on the allergen statement. Production and area figures come from PSA OpenSTAT, cited where used.