State of Ube 2026

Search interest by country

Google Trends shows what share of all searches in a country are about ube. It gives no counts, but a reliable direction. We compared January to October 2026 with the same months of 2025.

Poland made the biggest jump, but from a low base. In the Netherlands interest more than tripled. Belgium and France grew less, because ube had already risen sharply there in 2025: in Belgium, 2025 was more than three times the 2024 level.

The curve since 2022

Until late 2024, ube was a small topic in Europe. France started rising in spring 2025, and in March 2026 every country went up at once. The United Kingdom had the highest peak.

What people searched for around the peak stands out. In all six countries, queries such as "ube starbucks" and "ube vanilla starbucks" rose fastest, and in the UK also "costa ube". Whether a single launch caused the peak cannot be read from these figures. Germany is the only country where interest was still at its highest point in October 2026.

The ube latte came through France

For "ube latte" the order is different. People in France and Belgium were searching for it from April 2025, with "ube latte paris" high on the list. Germany, the UK and the Netherlands only followed in March 2026.

For cafés we calculate with 3 grams of ube powder per latte. A 100 gram bag then makes over 30 lattes.

What people want to know

Most people just search for "ube". Terms like "ube poeder", "ube pulver" or "ube proszek" are so small that Google Trends barely draws a line for them per country; only "ube pulver" in Germany becomes measurable from March 2026.

The related queries show that ube is still new to many people. "Wat is ube" tops the list in the Netherlands, "what is ube" in the UK, "was ist ube" is in the German top three and "ube co to" leads in Poland. In the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, ube also often appears together with matcha.

Ube on the menu

On 2 November 2026 we counted venues with ube on the menu in London, Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin for the first time. We used the same fixed searches in Google Maps and on the web and only counted a venue when a menu, its own website or a recent article names the ube item. The numbers are a lower bound.

In London these are Filipino bakeries, ice cream shops and restaurants. Six of the eight belong to the same team, so there the count mostly says something about one operator. In Paris ube sits in the coffee bar: four of the five venues serve an ube latte. Across all fourteen venues, ube appeared most often in baked goods (8 venues), then in drinks (7) and ice cream (5).

In Berlin, Google Maps showed nine venues for the search "ube", but we could not confirm the item at any of them. Germany searches a lot and we find nothing yet in Berlin; we take that to the next count.

What we see ourselves

We only show our own sales as an index, without amounts or units. Our current web shop has been running since mid-January 2026, so we cannot compare with 2025 yet; the base quarter is April to June 2026 (= 100).

From July to October we sold 3.1 times as many kilos of ube as from March to June. That is mainly down to larger packs: since July we also sell 1 kilo bags, and in September the first 10 kilo box went out. From January to October they made up 49 percent of the kilos and 27 percent of ube revenue. Revenue grew less than weight, because a kilo in bulk costs less than in 100 gram pouches.

Customers in 24 countries ordered ube from us. Most of it goes to the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

Where our customers are

What we don't know yet

• Absolute search volumes per country. Google Trends only gives ratios.
• Our sales in 2025, because our current web shop only started in January 2026. The next edition compares year on year.
• Menus in Berlin and Amsterdam. Nine venues in Berlin and three in Amsterdam still await confirmation.
• What cafés see themselves. We are preparing a short survey among cafés and bakers.