Ube in Melbourne

Purple yam, sweetened and used as a paste or syrup in lattes, matcha and cold foams: sweet and nutty, a little like vanilla, and bright purple. In all our data to 13 Nov 2026, The Froth has seen it at 44 Melbourne cafes across 42 suburbs, in posts, customer reviews and menus. The 40 in "Where to get one" are the cafes with it on their current menu or in a cafe or creator post.

It is on 23 Melbourne cafe menus right now, including Gillott Espresso in Melbourne, The Green Goose in Malvern, High Cove in Preston and Malcolm Corner by Matcha Kona in South Yarra. 17 more cafes have posted it, though it is not on their current menu. The "Where to get one" list on this page has every one, with the price where the menu gives one, links to the menu or post, and directions. Menus change, so check with the cafe before you go.

The average is $8.67, from 17 Melbourne cafe menus as of 14 Nov 2026. Most charge between $6.84 and $9.94; the lowest we have seen is $6 and the highest $10.

It is on a bigger share of Canberra cafes: 3.6% against Melbourne's 1.9%, over the last 90 days.

Melbourne cafes also sell ube as "Ube Latte", "Ube Matcha", "Iced Ube Matcha", "Ube Iced Latte", "Iced Ube Matcha Latte", "Ube Cold Brew", "Ube Cream Matcha" and "Ube Matcha Latte", plus 8 other names. The Froth counts every one of these names as the same trend, from cafes' own posts and menus.

Yes. The Froth rates ube as Rising as of 13 Nov 2026: searches in Melbourne are up 97% (Aug to Oct 2026 against Aug to Oct 2025), though too few of the same cafes have it to read a change (5, against 1 in the 90 days before). In the 90 days to 13 Nov 2026, 1.9% of the Melbourne cafes we see well (an Instagram post or a current menu in that time) had it. Among the 1,204 cafes we have followed through both periods, 5 of the same cafes had it, against 1 in the 90 days before. Melbourne searches for it were up 97% in Aug to Oct 2026 compared with Aug to Oct 2025.

There were 720 searches for ube in Melbourne in Oct 2026, with all its names added up. Across the 23 months we have, from Dec 2024 to Oct 2026, it ranged from 90 searches (Dec 2024) to 720 (Oct 2026). These are monthly estimates of search demand in Melbourne.

The earliest Melbourne cafe post or customer review about ube that The Froth has is from 1 Jan 2026. We only see what we collect, so that is when we first saw it, not when it started: it may have been sold earlier, here or elsewhere.

A typical ube latte, drawn from Melbourne cafes' own posts, is built from the top down with ube cold foam (milk whipped with a little ube; some cafes add an espresso shot instead), ice (fills the cup before anything is poured), cold milk (about 200 ml, poured over so it turns lilac where they meet) and ube base (purple yam jam loosened with condensed milk, 2 to 3 spoonfuls). Each cafe makes its own version, so this is a typical build, not one cafe's recipe.

A cafe counts for ube from the first public post or customer review we found about it, the cafe's own post or a customer's, and while it is on the cafe's current menu. Shares are of the cafes we see well: those with an Instagram post or a current menu in the same 90 days, a chain counting once. A change compares the same cafes in the last 90 days with the 90 before, only among cafes we have followed through both, so newly added cafes never look like growth. The 90 days end on the latest day with cafe posts or reviews (13 Nov 2026), not today. Searches are monthly search demand in Melbourne with all of a trend's names added up. Captions stay private; we only link to public posts. The full method is on our "How we track cafe trends" page.