Jeffrey Cesari grew up eating ube, a purple yam native to the Philippines, whenever he visited his relatives there. But seven months ago, when he encountered it in a latte at a Turkish cafe, it suddenly sparked a business idea.
The 31-year-old former auditor thought if people in Istanbul were drinking ube lattes, he could launch a similar product in his hometown of Paris. But in joining a growing global hunt for ube, whose signature violet hue has taken over social media in drinks, cakes, and other sweets, Cesari realized that the actual root vegetable was much more elusive, particularly in the wake of its recent fame.
First Cesari scoured Facebook groups and asked ChatGPT and Gemini for leads. But he wasn’t sure he could trust the websites he found. There were different plant varieties – Baligonhon, Sampero, Kinampay – and forms – extract, power, jam. He also worried about getting a product that could have more common crops, like taro or purple sweet potato, mixed in.
He put his search on hold until February, when he went to see his family in the Philippines. There he visited bake shops and wholesalers, hoping to trace their supply chains back to the farmers themselves. However, he said most were reluctant to facilitate contact with their sources.
“It was a bit frustrating. If we want to get the high-quality ube, I think we have to be on-site, because you have to feel, you have to see, you have to test,” he said. “You have to be careful. Some projects you don’t know if they are very transparent.”
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