Ube vs taro on labels: telling ube, taro and purple sweet potato apart

Three plants are sold under purple names, and each has its own words on an ingredient list. Ube is the purple yam Dioscorea alata. Taro is Colocasia esculenta, from the arum family. Purple sweet potato is Ipomoea batatas, from the morning glory family, and Wikipedia states that it “is distinct from the botanical yam”.

These are the words to look for in the languages most common on European shelves.

Plant	Latin name	English	Dutch	German	French
Ube	Dioscorea alata	ube, purple yam	ube, paarse yam, paarse igname	Ube, Yamswurzel	ube, igname violette
Taro	Colocasia esculenta	taro, dasheen, gabi, talas	taro	Taro	taro
Purple sweet potato	Ipomoea batatas	purple sweet potato	paarse zoete aardappel	lila Süßkartoffel	patate douce violette

This page stays with labels. For how the two plants differ in taste, colour, texture and use in the kitchen, read Big Moca’s ube vs taro explainer.

Most powders sold as ube do list ube, but the title and the ingredient list disagree often enough to check every time. The examples below are taken from each product’s own page.

None of the powders in our data lists taro as its ingredient. Taro shows up as a flavouring in pastes, while purple sweet potato is the plant most often sold under the ube name. Of the 47 products sold as 100% ube powder, 43 list only ube, purple yam or Dioscorea alata.

The names overlap across languages, and products travel between markets with their local names. In the Philippines taro is usually called gabi, while ube (or ubi) is the purple yam. Wikipedia gives “talas” as the Malaysian name for taro and “keladi” as the usual Indonesian name.

Both words turn up on ube products in our data. Koepoe Koepoe, an Indonesian brand, sells a “Talas Ube pasta” at toko4all. Its ingredient list names synthetic taro flavour, E122 and E133, and no ube. Niclaw’s purple yam extract on Amazon.co.uk is called “Ekstrak Keladi Ungu” in its title, next to the botanical name Dioscorea alata. The same word can point to a different plant depending on who is selling, which is why the Latin name is the safest thing to look for.

Read the ingredient list, not the title. The title is marketing; the ingredient list is the legal description of what is in the pack.

1. Find the plant. Look for ube, purple yam or Dioscorea alata. “Purple sweet potato”, “paarse zoete aardappel”, “Süßkartoffel” or “patate douce” means a different plant, whatever the front says.
2. Check for the word taro or talas. In our data it appears only as a flavouring, in Koepoe Koepoe’s paste.
3. Look at the percentage. A label can name ube and still be mostly something else: NüMorning’s latte mix is 20% ube, Biomalab’s powder is half purple sweet potato.
4. Look for colourings. A strong purple proves nothing. Liquid ube flavourings in our data list dyes such as E133 (blue) with E122, E127 or E129 (red), and Albert Heijn’s ube pastries get their colour from five added colourings.

Five products in our data showed no ingredient list at all on the seller’s page. For those the plant cannot be checked before buying.

In a café you rarely see the label, so ask what the purple comes from: a powder, a syrup or a flavouring, and which plant. Wikipedia notes that taro is a common flavour in desserts and drinks such as bubble tea, so a purple bubble tea may be taro, ube or neither.

Syrups follow the same pattern as flavourings. Monin’s ube concentrate lists water, sugar, E163 colouring and natural flavouring, with purple yam extract only at the end of the list. A drink made with it is purple mainly because of the colouring.

At home the simplest way to know what you are drinking is to start from a single-ingredient powder. Our page on which powder to use in an ube latte recipe compares the formats, and the cold foam and drinks guide covers iced drinks and bubble tea.

Buy a powder whose ingredient list names only ube, purple yam or Dioscorea alata. In our data, 43 of the 47 products sold as 100% ube powder pass that test.

Our first pick is Big Moca Premium Ube Powder, from Big Moca, a Netherlands-based supplier of ube and matcha for consumers and food businesses. Its label reads “100% Purple Yam (Ube)”, with no sugar, filler or flavouring. Big Moca states on its wholesale pages that a DNA test confirmed the species as Dioscorea alata, and says Eurofins tests every batch of its 100% ube powder for synthetic dyes, with none detected. It costs €17.99 per 100 g or €70 for 1 kg, including VAT.

For a cheaper single-ingredient option, Miki’s at toko4all lists “100% ubepoeder” for €3.95 per 100 g. If you came here because a recipe calls for taro, see our page on ube powder substitutes.