Move over matcha: how ube cocktails and coffees are hitting the UK’s sweet spot
Bright purple coffees and cocktails made with a root vegetable called ube have hit the high street in the UK after the yam’s striking hue caused a sensation on social media.Many are calling ube the “new matcha”, and it has a nutty, creamy, sweet taste, like a mix between coconut and vanilla.Ube coloured and flavoured drinks became popular in the US last year, after an earlier boom in Australia.Farmers in the Philippines, where the root vegetable is often sourced, have been struggling to meet demand.Now, the purple drinks have crossed the pond: Starbucks and Costa both launched ube drinks in their UK stores last month.
A Starbucks spokesperson said: “With its stunning technicolour, ube is gaining recognition as chefs, bakeries and cafes around the world have re-imagined the ingredient in culinary creations, particularly in drinks and desserts, and the Starbucks Ube range celebrates this growing cultural presence.”Ube has long been used in east Asian cooking.Noa Wang, who is originally from China, owns the trendy Bar Lotus in Dalston, east London.She has been putting ube in her cocktails – including a white chocolate dessert-style drink with ube-infused double cream, white chocolate liqueur, white rum, vanilla syrup, and egg white – since the bar opened in 2024, and said they were bestsellers.“Ube is a very good ingredient that east Asian people enjoy a lot,” she said.
“We have lots of desserts using that in our childhood memories.The colour is beautiful but it also gives a special taste.It provides a subtle sweetness as well as starchy cream mouthfeel, and is always in our top three most popular drinks at the bar.”While ube is nostalgic for those who grew up with it, it is an exciting new trend for many who haven’t previously encountered it.This has caused a boom on social media, including TikTok, where ube drinks are often featured.
Regina Maisevičiūtė-Haydon, food and drink associate principal at the market research firm Mintel, said: “Ube’s vivid purple colour is ‘highly photogenic’ and well suited to social media platforms, where visually appealing foods can go viral.In the UK, social media can directly trigger people to try things: 49% say they have bought a drink after seeing it featured in a social media post.“Ube is positioned as an ‘approachable yet exciting’ innovation because it’s mildly sweet, nutty and creamy, often with vanilla/coconut-like notes – meaning it can feel both new and comforting.Brands have been pairing it with familiar flavours like vanilla to broaden its attraction.”Bettina Campolucci Bordi, a chef who runs wellness retreats and creates recipes, said she had been using ube for many years, as she travels the world for her work and had encountered it across Asia.
She said she had noticed it being asked for more, and that it had become a craze “like matcha was a few years ago”.She uses it in a tiramisu, and said it was “excellent in pancakes, especially if you are making them for kids”.Bordi added: “It’s become popular from social media – it’s the colour, it looks good on videos, it is all over TikTok.It’s something new because we don’t usually see purple drinks or desserts.”
IMF chief Georgieva warns ‘everyone will feel the impact’ of energy price shock, as UK growth beats forecasts – as it happened
Over in Washington DC, the International Monetary Fund is holding a debate on the global economy.IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva says the world economy is facing another, large, shock:double quotation markThe world economy has been, very resilient over the last few years, facing shock after the shock. And this resilience is tested yet again, this time by a shock that is large.Twenty percent of oil and gas is stuck in the Strait of Hormuz, depriving primarily Asia, but also Europe, and other parts of the world of a vital resource. It is global
Europe has only six weeks’ supply of jet fuel left owing to Iran war, says energy chief
Europe has only six weeks of jet fuel left before shortages will hit because of the Iran war, according to the head of a global energy watchdog.Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, said there would be flight cancellations “soon” if oil supplies from the Middle East were not restored within the coming weeks.“I can tell you soon we will hear the news that some of the flights from city A to city B might be cancelled as a result of lack of jet fuel,” he told the Associated Press.KLM, part of the Air France-KLM group, said on Thursday it would cut 160 flights in the coming month because of high kerosene jet fuel prices. Although less than 1% of its schedule, the cancellations underline the financial pressures on the airline industry
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Tesco warns profits could fall amid Iran war uncertainty
Tesco has warned that profits could fall back in the year ahead, citing increased uncertainty caused by the conflict in the Middle East.Ken Murphy, its chief executive, said that despite concerns about the impact of the closure of the strait of Hormuz on oil, gas and linked chemicals, the UK’s largest supermarket chain was “in good shape” on stocks of fuel for its petrol stations and distribution network.He said Tesco was not currently seeing problems with the supply of food or groceries, or “meaningful” inflation except at the pump on its forecourts.Murphy said he did not recognise predictions from the UK’s Food and Drink Federation that food inflation could hit 9% amid fears of shortages. “None of our growers, suppliers or manufacturers have flagged any supply issues,” he said
UK could face gaps on supermarket shelves by summer if Iran war continues
The UK could face some gaps on supermarket shelves this summer if disruption caused by the Iran war continues, with shortages of carbon dioxide potentially hitting supplies of chicken, pork and fizzy drinks.Government ministers are drawing up contingency plans for a “reasonable worst-case scenario” if the key shipping lane of the strait of Hormuz does not reopen, disrupting supplies of the CO2 required by the food industry.Officials from departments including No 10, the Treasury and the Ministry of Defence have run a planning operation named Exercise Turnstone to rehearse various scenarios of how British industry could be affected by a long closure of the strait.The planning exercise run by the government’s Cobra emergency committee, details of which were first reported by the Times, was based on multiple disruptive events happening at once, including the strait still being closed in June, a lack of a permanent peace deal between the US and Iran, and a mechanical failure at one of the UK’s key CO2 plants.The business secretary said on Thursday that the public should be “reassured” by the fact ministers were making contingency plans for possible repercussions from the war, adding that supplies of CO2 were “not a concern” for the UK economy
EasyJet warns of impact on profits as Iran war hits bookings and fuel prices
The budget airline easyJet has warned the impact of the Iran war on bookings and oil prices will hit its profits, having driven up fuel costs by £25m in the last month alone.It said it expected to report an increased pre-tax loss of £540-£560m for the six months to March, up from £394m in the first half of 2024-25. The carrier typically makes its money in the second half of the year which includes the peak summer period.The airline said it remained confident in its fuel supply. While it has hedged 70% of its needs for the rest of the financial year to September, it said that each $100 (£74) movement in the spot price jet of fuel per metric tonne was adding £40m in costs for its unhedged supply – and currently the price is about $800 higher than before the conflict started
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