Ube is enjoying a purple reign in the US. That’s causing problems in the Philippines | CNN

Last December, Pantone crowned “Cloud Dancer,” a billowy shade of white, as the Color of the Year for 2026. Just a few months later, there is evidence to suggest that the go-to hue specialists may have staged their latest coronation a shade prematurely. From coffee shops in New York to bakeries in Sydney and beauty retailers in London, a purple reign is taking root across the globe. Ranging from vivid violet to light lavender, the exact tone varies but it can be traced back to the Philippines. More specifically, to just below the archipelago’s surface to a native species of yam. It’s a starchy root vegetable with many names — dioscorea alata, uwhi, Guyana arrowroot — but is most often known locally, and increasingly internationally, as ube. Meaning “tuber” in Tagalog, a language spoken across the Philippines, ube (pronounced oo-beh) is becoming an increasingly lucrative Filipino export as the rest of the world seeks to sate its appetite for the earthy purple ingredient with a nutty or vanilla-like taste. Almost 1.7 million kilograms of ube products, worth over $3.2 million, were exported by the Southeast Asian country last year, according to data shared with CNN by