Ube powder, also known as purple yam powder, is gaining popularity for its vibrant purple color and sweet, nutty flavor. Ube is a root vegetable native to Southeast Asia that has a striking purple color due to its high anthocyanin content. When dried and ground into a fine powder, ube powder can beautifully infuse both sweet and savory foods with its signature hue.
From ube ice cream to ube cheesecake, this versatile powder is beloved for its ability to create stunning purple foods and drinks. Beyond aesthetics, ube powder also provides a pleasant, subtly sweet taste reminiscent of vanilla. It can add rich notes of nuttiness and earthiness as well.
Key Takeaway: Ube powder is a versatile and colorful ingredient made from purple yams that adds vibrance and flavor to both sweet and savory dishes. This buying guide covers everything you need to know to choose the best ube powder.
Jans Natural Ube (Purple Yam) Powder
Jans Natural Ube Powder Purple Yam is easy to use in many desserts and baked goods. Using the highest quality ingredients, this powder ensures a vibrant purple color you can see and a fragrant flavor you won't forget. It's an easy to use powder that blends easily when making ube desserts like ube cake icing. It provides a rich ube flavor with a sweet, earthy tone made directly from natural purple yam. If it's not purple, it's not ube - this powder easily adds a vibrant purple-lavender color just like natural ube yam!
Key Features:
- Easy to use powder
- Strong ube flavor
- Vibrant purple color
What We Like:
- Made from natural purple yam
- Provides vibrant purple color
- Adds rich ube flavor
Giron Powdered Purple Yam - Ube
Giron Foods Powdered Purple Yam Ube is an easy to use ingredient to make any ube dessert like ube pandesal, taro pastries, or bread. By making purple sweet potatoes into a simple powder form, you can add their natural purple color and rich nutrients. This is the best farmer's purple sweet potato powder you can trust! It's made with 100% pure domestic purple sweet potato from new season crops. The product is made in a clean, safe manufacturing facility certified by HACCP and Kosher.
Key Features:
- Easy to use powder
- Vibrant purple color
- Strong flavor
What We Like:
- 100% pure purple sweet potato
- Made in a certified safe facility
- Retains nutrients of purple sweet potato
ORGFUN Purple Sweet Potato Powder
ORGFUN Premium Purple Sweet Potato powder provides color and earthy, sweet flavor. It's made from locally sourced, 100% pure purple sweet potato with no additives or preservatives. This gluten-free, vegan-friendly powder uses freeze dried purple sweet potatoes to preserve vitamins, fiber, and minerals. With no artificial colors or flavors, this convenient dried powder always has the vibrant purple color and nutrition of purple sweet potatoes. It's easy to use for natural food coloring in baking, smoothies, drinks, and more.
Key Features:
- 100% purple sweet potato powder
- Vibrant purple color
- Gluten-free and vegan
What We Like:
- Preserves nutrients of purple sweet potato
- Provides natural purple coloring
- No artificial colors or flavors
Suncore Foods Purple Sweet Potato Powder
Suncore Foods Purple Sweet Potato Powder provides colorful and healthy eating. This powder adds color made from whole purple sweet potato with nothing else added. It's inspired by South American and US cuisine. Suncore Foods powders allow you to color your food naturally. Purple Sweet Potato powder has a brilliant purple color and earthy, sweet flavor. It's made by freeze drying fresh purple sweet potatoes to preserve nutrients, vitamins, fiber, antioxidants and minerals. This convenient dried powder always has the vibrant purple color and nutrition of purple sweet potatoes. It's gluten-free, vegan, and non-GMO.
Key Features:
- Made from whole purple sweet potatoes
- Vibrant purple color
- Gluten-free and vegan
What We Like:
- Provides nutrients of purple sweet potato
- Natural purple food coloring
- No artificial ingredients
T'SMOMENT Ube Powder Purple Sweet Potato Powder
T'SMOMENT Ube Powder is a high quality, natural supercolor powder made purely from purple sweet potato. It retains all the freshness and nutrients of the potato using advanced freeze drying technology and sterilization. This powder has the original flavor of ube and is easy to use for coloring foods like baking, smoothies, and drinks. It has a fine, smooth texture and vibrant purple color from natural raw ingredients. The powder is easy to blend for a rich color. It's an all-natural, non-GMO powder ideal for natural food coloring.
Key Features:
- Made purely from purple sweet potato
- Vibrant purple color
- Fine, smooth texture
What We Like:
- Retains nutrients of purple sweet potato
- Provides natural food coloring
- Non-GMO and no additives
Grelim Premium Purple Sweet Potato Powder
Grelim Premium Purple Sweet Potato Powder is made from new season premium and whole purple sweet potatoes. It contains rich nutrients, natural purple color, and provides a rich flavor. The potatoes are high in vitamins A, B6, and C as well as antioxidants not found in artificial food colors. This pure and natural ube powder has no GMOs, additives, preservatives, artificial colors, flavors, soy, or fillers. It's gluten free and vegan friendly. The powder blends easily into drinks, baked goods, and more. The convenient resealable bag keeps it fresh after opening.
Key Features:
- Made from premium purple sweet potatoes
- Rich in nutrients
- Vibrant purple color
What We Like:
- 100% natural ube powder
- No artificial ingredients
- Gluten-free and vegan
Tasty Kitchen Combo Set Jans Ube Purple Yam Powder & Butterfly Ube Extract
This combo set contains Jans Ube Purple Yam natural ube powder and Butterfly Ube flavoring extract. The Jans powder is 100% natural while the Butterfly extract is artificial flavor. Ube Purple Yam is a popular flavor from South East Asia used in breads, cakes, cupcakes, ice cream, Asian desserts, and beverages. The beautiful purple color acts as a wonderful flavor enhancer. Jans powder provides true ube flavor while the extract boosts flavor. The set also includes a bonus gift magnet.
Key Features:
- Contains ube powder and ube extract
- Enhances flavor of baked goods
- Vibrant purple color
What We Like:
- Provides authentic ube flavor
- Useful for boosting flavor
- Includes bonus gift
Flavor Delights by Angel Specialty Products Flavored Powder Bakery Mix Ube
Angel Specialty Products Flavor Delights Ube flavored powder excites guests by offering new flavors for cakes, donuts, muffins, gelatin, icing, waffles, pancakes, and whip topping. Just add the powder to dry bakery mix or whip topping base to create varieties from one recipe. It's a simple, fast way to add popular flavors to baked goods for chefs, bakers, bakeries, cafes, and more. The authentic, tasty, high quality flavors increase the variety of baking creations.
Key Features:
- Flavored powder
- New flavors for baked goods
- Simple to use
What We Like:
- Authentic ube flavor
- Enhances baking flavors
- Easy to add to recipes
Food to Live Purple Sweet Potato Powder
Food to Live Purple Sweet Potato Powder provides colorful and healthy eating. This natural superfood powder adds vibrant color made purely from purple sweet potatoes with no additives. It's inspired by South American and US cuisine for flavorful eating. The powder retains nutrients like vitamin A, calcium, and antioxidants from fresh potatoes thanks to freeze drying. The dried powder always has the same bright purple color and earthy, slightly sweet flavor. It can seamlessly blend into baked goods, smoothies, drinks and more as an easy, gluten-free, and vegan ingredient.
Key Features:
- Made solely from purple sweet potatoes
- Vibrant purple color
- Gluten-free and vegan
What We Like:
- Retains nutrients of fresh potatoes
- Provides natural purple food coloring
- No artificial ingredients
NPG 100% Pure Purple Sweet Potato Powder
NPG Purple Sweet Potato Powder, also known as purple yam or ube, has a vivid violet-purple color from the natural tubers. This superfood powder can be used as flour or for coloring gourmet foods like baked goods, smoothies, pasta, and more. The potatoes provide a sweet, earthy flavor along with antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals not found in artificial food dyes. The pure powder has no additives, preservatives, GMOs, gluten, or soy. It's vegan and dissolves easily when mixing drinks or baking for beautiful natural purple food.
Key Features:
- Made from 100% pure purple sweet potatoes
- Vibrant natural purple color
- Gluten-free and vegan
What We Like:
- Provides nutrients from whole potatoes
- Non-GMO with no additives
- Useful for natural food coloring
Buying Guide for Best Ube Powder
How Ube Powder is Made
To understand how to choose a quality ube powder, it helps to first learn how it's made. Ube powder starts with the ube root, also known as Dioscorea alata. This purple yam contains high levels of anthocyanins, natural pigments that impart its vivid color.
Ube roots are harvested, peeled, and then sliced. The slices are dried slowly and at low temperatures. This drying process helps maintain the ube's signature color. Once fully dried, the ube slices are milled into a fine powder.
High-quality ube powders retain more color and flavor from this careful drying process. Low heat prevents the anthocyanins from breaking down. Slow drying also allows more of the ube's natural sweetness to develop.
When shopping for ube powder, look for brands that use Philippine-grown ube and gentle drying methods. This helps ensure a vibrant color and natural sweet taste.
Powder Color
The most obvious quality marker when buying ube powder is its color. Since ube's purple pigment is the main appeal and utility of this ingredient, the powder should have a rich, vibrant purple hue.
Avoid ube powders with brown, gray, or muted tones, as this indicates lower anthocyanin content. The powder should look brightly and uniformly purple. Speckles of brown or gray mean overheating occurred during processing.
High anthocyanin ube has an intense purple color. When used in recipes, this creates stunning purple-hued results. Vibrant purple powder also provides more flavor, as anthocyanins contribute to ube's sweetness.
Taste
Beyond its vivid appearance, ube also carries a unique and pleasant taste. High-quality ube powder will provide nutty, earthy depth with subtly sweet vanilla notes. There should be no bitter, starchy, or sour flavors.
A musty, rancid taste means the powder is either old or was improperly dried. An extremely bitter taste indicates the ube had high tannin content. For the best flavor experience, choose a brand that uses Philippine ube and highlights the powder's sweetness.
Texture
Freshly milled ube powder should have an ultra-fine, silky texture. When rubbed between your fingers, it should feel smooth. Any noticeable grittiness or coarse bits means the milling process was rushed or low-quality.
Properly dried and finely milled ube powder will dissolve seamlessly into both liquids and batters. A fine texture ensures the powder integrates smoothly for a uniform purple color and flavor distribution.
Purity
Check the ingredient list for additives, fillers, and preservatives. The best ube powder contains 100% Philippine ube - no added sugars, starches, or anti-caking agents.
Pure ube powder allows you to control the flavor and sweetness level in recipes. Added sugars or starches dilute the vibrant color. They also interfere with the ube's delicate flavor.
Storage
Once opened, ube powder is best kept refrigerated in an airtight container. Anthocyanins can degrade when exposed to light, air, and prolonged heat.
Refrigeration helps the powder retain its color and flavor. Properly stored, ube powder will keep well for 9-12 months. Signs of stale powder include fading color and a bitter taste.
For peak freshness, opt for ube powder in resealable packaging and use within 1 year of the production date.
Key Takeaway: When buying ube powder, look for Philippine-sourced ube, vibrant purple color, finely milled texture, pleasant sweet taste, and no additives or preservatives. Proper storage helps retain maximum color and flavor.
FAQ
Does ube powder need to be refrigerated?
Yes, it's recommended to store ube powder in the refrigerator after opening to maintain peak color and flavor. The cold environment helps prevent moisture exposure and anthocyanin degradation. Store in an airtight container.
How long does ube powder last?
If stored properly in the refrigerator in an airtight container, ube powder will maintain quality for 9-12 months. Signs of stale powder include fading color, bitter taste, and loss of sweetness. For best results, use within 1 year of purchase.
Is ube powder expensive?
Compared to other baking ingredients, ube powder is priced on the higher end. Expect to pay $6-$12 for a few ounces. The specialized processing it undergoes accounts for the higher cost. Using it sparingly helps offset the price.
What's the difference between ube and taro?
Ube and taro are two different root vegetables. Ube has a vivid purple color and comes from Southeast Asia. Taro is rough and brown with origins in Southern India. While both can be made into powder, only ube powder provides that striking purple color.
Can ube powder be substituted for flour?
No, ube powder cannot directly replace flour in recipes. It lacks the protein content vital for gluten development. Small amounts of ube powder can be used along with flour to add color, sweetness, and flavor. But it cannot provide the structure that flour does.
What does ube powder taste like?
Ube powder has a very subtle sweetness, similar to vanilla. It also carries nutty, earthy undertones. When used in desserts, it pairs well with dairy and fruits. Ube's flavor is delicate so it integrates without overpowering.
Conclusion
With its striking purple hue and subtly sweet flavor, ube powder is an amazing ingredient that can transform both the look and taste of foods.
From vivid desserts to uniquely flavored breads, this Philippine yam powder opens up endless opportunities for creativity and color.
Resources:
- How to Make Ube Powder / Purple Sweet Potato Powder - Alphafoodie: This article provides a detailed guide on how to make ube powder and purple sweet potato powder at home. It also offers tips on using ube powder in various recipes, such as smoothies, hot chocolate, ice creams, and doughs.
- Ube Milk Tea (Ube Bubble Tea) - The Flavor Bender: This recipe for ube milk tea includes options for using fresh ube, ube powder, ube halaya, or ube extract. It also suggests adding green tea for a unique twist. The article provides step-by-step instructions and tips for adjusting the sweetness of the drink.
- Ube Crinkles - Kawaling Pinoy: This recipe for ube crinkles uses ube powder to create soft and chewy cookies with a vibrant purple color. The article includes helpful tips for achieving the best results, such as using chilled dough and coating the cookies in powdered sugar.
- Ube Halaya Recipe - The Unlikely Baker®: This article provides an authentic and easy-to-follow recipe for ube halaya, a Filipino purple yam jam. The author claims that this homemade version is better than store-bought ube jams and shares various ways to enjoy ube jam, such as in cakes, cheesecakes, cupcakes, and ice creams.
- Ube Cookies Recipe - Soft and Chewy - The Unlikely Baker®: This recipe for soft and chewy ube cookies uses ube powder to create a delightful purple treat. The article highlights the simplicity of making these cookies and the addictive nature of their sweet and creamy flavor.