State of Ube 2026

The Ube Index

We sell ube powder from the Netherlands to home bakers and to cafés across Europe. There were hardly any hard numbers on ube, so we now keep them ourselves: how often people search for ube and where it is on the menu. We update the figures every quarter.

In short

In 2026 ube broke through in Google across Europe. In the Netherlands, search interest from January to October was 3.3 times as high as a year earlier, and it rose in all six countries we track.

Read State of Ube 2026 How we measure

Updated 2 November 2026

Iced ube latte against a blue sky November 2026 edition
Search interest NL
3.3× the 2025 level
Countries tracked
NL, BE, DE, FR, UK, PL
Venues in London
at least 6 with ube on the menu
Next update
February 2027

The key figures

You can quote every sentence below as it is. Each one lists its source, sample and date.

  1. In the Netherlands, search interest in ube from January to October 2026 was 3.3 times as high as in the same months of 2025.Google Trends, search term "ube", retrieved 2 November 2026.
  2. In all six countries we track, people searched for ube more often in 2026 than in 2025. Growth ranged from 1.3 times in France to 4.1 times in Poland.Google Trends, January–October 2026 vs January–October 2025; Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, United Kingdom and Poland.
  3. In France and Belgium, people were searching for "ube latte" from April 2025. In Germany, the UK and the Netherlands the term only took off in March 2026.Google Trends, search term "ube latte", January 2024 – October 2026.
  4. Worldwide, interest peaked in the week of 1 March 2026. Around that time, searches combining ube with Starbucks were the fastest rising in all six countries.Google Trends, search term "ube" worldwide (weekly values) and related queries per country, 2025–2026.
  5. Germany is the only country in our series where search interest was still at its highest point in October 2026.Google Trends, search term "ube" and topic "Purple yam", Germany, 2022–2026.
  6. Most people searching for ube first want to know what it is. "Wat is ube", "what is ube", "was ist ube" and "ube co to" top the related queries in four of the six countries.Google Trends, related queries for "ube", January 2025 – October 2026.
  7. On 2 November 2026 we found at least 6 venues in London with ube verifiably on the menu, 1 in Paris, and none we could confirm in Amsterdam or Berlin.Own count using 16 Google Maps and 11 web searches in four cities; a lower bound.
  8. From July to October 2026, Big Moca sold 3.1 times as many kilos of ube as from March to June. Almost half of all kilos went out in packs of 1 kilo or more.Big Moca, own sales data in Shopify (index, no absolute figures), retrieved 2 November 2026.
  9. Between January and October 2026, customers in 24 countries ordered ube from Big Moca. The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany together accounted for 87.5 percent of ube revenue.Big Moca, Shopify, paid orders January–October 2026; excludes bol.com, Amazon and Ankorstore.

What the Ube Index tracks

State of Ube 2026

Search interest in six countries since 2022, ube on the menu in four cities and what we sell ourselves.

Read the report

Label index

What ube packs say: percentage of ube, colourings, origin and lab tests. Coming soon.

About the label index

Method and data

How we search, count and calculate, what we don't know and all downloads.

See the method

Why we keep these figures

Big Moca is a small company from The Hague. Cafés, journalists and customers kept asking us the same things: is ube really getting more popular and where can you drink it? We couldn't find good answers, so we started counting ourselves.

We sell ube powder ourselves, so we show where every figure comes from. If something is wrong, tell us and we will fix it.

How to cite the figures

The figures are licensed under CC BY 4.0. You may use them, also commercially, as long as you name the source. For example:

Source: Big Moca Ube Index, "State of Ube 2026", November 2026, https://www.bigmoca.nl/en/ube-index

Downloads

The same figures as on these pages, in files you can open yourself.

Questions about the Ube Index

What is the Ube Index?
The Ube Index is a set of figures on ube in Europe kept by Big Moca: search interest by country, venues with ube on the menu, our own sales as an index and, soon, a comparison of labels. The first edition is called State of Ube 2026 and was published on 2 November 2026.
How often are the figures updated?
Every quarter. The next update is planned for February 2027 and covers data up to January 2027.
May I use the figures?
Yes. All figures are licensed under CC BY 4.0. Credit "Big Moca Ube Index" and link to bigmoca.nl/en/ube-index.
Isn't the index biased, since Big Moca sells ube itself?
That is why we publish the source and date for every figure and put the raw data online. Our own sales are shown separately, as an index. Anyone who spots an error can report it to info@yoghoyogho.nl.
Is ube getting more popular in Europe?
On Google, yes. From January to October 2026, people in the Netherlands searched for ube 3.3 times as often as in the same months of 2025. Interest also rose in Belgium, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Poland.

Read next

State of Ube 2026
Trend report

State of Ube 2026

Search interest in six countries, ube on the menu and our own sales.

 Method and data
Method

Method and data

How we search, count and calculate, and all downloads.

 Label index
Coming soon

Label index

What ube packs say. Coming soon.

Using the figures?

Journalists, researchers and list makers may use all figures freely, credited to "Big Moca Ube Index" with a link to this page. Questions or a correction? Email info@yoghoyogho.nl.

Download the data Back to the Ube Index