Been noticing purple-colored baked goods showing up in your local cafe or bakery? That’s something ube-flavored, and it’s probably delicious. Ube is a type of yam originating in southeast Asia. It’s got a sweet potato-like flavor and a stark, deep purple hue. Combined with sugar, it reminds me of many familiar flavors: sugary breakfast cereals, cake frosting, malt powder, honey.

That’s the flavor we want in this drink.

Ube Simple Syrup

We’re going to get ube flavor from ube extract. You can grab it on Amazon pretty cheap if it’s not at your local grocer.

Using Ube extract in syrup form is quick and easy, but be very careful: It’s great at instantly staining anything it touches. Preferably, do any measuring/combining over a sink or plastic cutting board. Don’t wear white.

The key to the Ube syrup is to add 1tsp ube extract for every 6oz of simple syrup. This can be scaled up or down at the same ratio (roughly 36:1 syrup to extract). Using less Ube gives a more vibrant purple color to the finished drink, but a noticeably weaker Ube flavor.