Ube (purple yam) — a sweet, nutty, vividly purple root vegetable popular in the Philippines — is emerging as a new dessert trend in South Korea. Lotte Wellfood launched five ube-flavored items across its brands, including Natuur ube milk pint and ube chocolate bar, a ube latte cake, ube cream cheese-filled rice cake pies (chal-tteok-pie), and a Crunky ube cream cheese chocolate bar. Crown Confectionery released a limited ‘Cookies & Cream’ style product, the CookDas Ube Edition, coloring both the cookie and cream with ube for an all-purple treat. Companies say consumers now enjoy familiar products with novel ingredients and colors, and they plan to continue introducing global flavor trends to the Korean market.
