A mossy green base, a lavender purple layer on top, and the sharp line between the two blurring from the very first sip: the ube matcha latte — often called purple matcha or violet latte — is the two-tier drink that has replaced dalgona on the menus of Asian coffee shops. It is not a visual gimmick: the pairing works because the vanilla sweetness of ube rounds off precisely what puts beginners off matcha, its vegetal bitterness.
This page gives the exact recipe, hot and iced, the one technique that produces two clean layers without them mixing, the proportions that stop either ingredient from crushing the other, and the mistakes that turn a beautiful gradient into a brownish-grey glass.
The ingredient behind this recipe: Natural Ube Powder 200 g — 16.90 €. 100% Kinampay ube from the Visayas, no additives, no colouring, packed in Aix-en-Provence. One pouch covers around twenty-five lattes.
Why ube and matcha work together
On paper the pairing is odd: a ground Japanese tea leaf and a dried Filipino root share neither botanical family, nor history, nor aromatic profile. That is exactly what makes it interesting.
Matcha brings a clean bitterness, a grassy note and a long finish. Ube brings sweetness, notes of vanilla and hazelnut, and a silky texture once rehydrated. One leans vegetal, the other pastry-like. Side by side in a glass they answer each other instead of competing: ube softens the first hit of matcha, matcha stops ube from turning into a liquid dessert.
The visual contrast is no less effective. Green and purple sit opposite each other on the colour wheel, and here they are obtained without a trace of colouring: green from the chlorophylls and catechins of the tea, purple from the anthocyanins of the tuber. If you want to understand in detail what separates these two powders, our ube vs matcha comparison covers the whole question.
The ingredients
For 1 large glass (around 35 cl)
Ube layer
- 8 g of Ubedia Natural ube powder (1 level tablespoon)
- 3 cl of hot milk at 80 °C — for rehydration, never boiling
- 15 cl of whole milk or barista oat drink
- 1 teaspoon of maple syrup or sweetened condensed milk
- 1 pinch of fine salt
Matcha layer
- 2 g of culinary or ceremonial matcha (1 level teaspoon)
- 5 cl of water at 75 °C
- 1 teaspoon of cane sugar syrup (optional)
For the iced version
- 8 to 10 ice cubes
- The milk given 30 minutes in the freezer before assembling
Two points matter. First, matcha must never be given boiling water: above 80 °C it releases its harshest tannins and turns frankly bitter. Second, ube demands the opposite of a simple cold mix: it needs a hot liquid to release its colour. These are two opposing logics, hence the separate preparation.
Time and yield
- Preparation: 8 minutes
- Resting time for the purple base: 8 minutes
- Assembly: 2 minutes
- Total time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 1 large glass
- Difficulty: easy
The recipe step by step (iced version)
- Rehydrate the ube (2 min + 8 min resting). Pour the 8 g of powder into a bowl and add the 3 cl of hot milk in three goes, whisking vigorously between each addition until you have a smooth, glossy paste. Leave to rest for 8 minutes: the colour shifts from a dull mauve to a clear purple. This is the one step where you cannot cheat.
- Sweeten and loosen. Stir the maple syrup and the salt into the purple paste, then loosen it with the 15 cl of cold milk. You end up with an even, slightly thick purple milk.
- Prepare the matcha. Sift the 2 g of matcha into a bowl (sifting prevents lumps, which never disappear afterwards), add the water at 75 °C and whisk in a W motion with a chasen or a small electric whisk until a fine foam forms on the surface. Sweeten if you like.
- Cool the matcha down. Pour it over 2 ice cubes and stir for 10 seconds: it has to be cold before assembling, otherwise the layers mix instantly.
- Build the glass. Fill it with ice cubes, pour the matcha into the bottom, then let the purple milk run slowly over the back of a spoon held against the side. The milk, less dense than the diluted matcha, stays on top.
- Serve with a straw. The two layers hold for 5 to 10 minutes. You mix them as you drink — that is the whole point.
Hot version
Same logic, reverse order. Prepare the matcha in the bottom of a mug, froth 15 cl of milk at 65 °C, stir the rehydrated purple base into it, then pour that foamy purple milk over the matcha. The result is less clean-cut than the iced version — heat speeds up the mixing — but the purple foam over a green base stays clearly readable for a minute or two. For the frothed milk technique applied to ube alone, see our ube latte recipe.
The 4 mistakes that ruin an ube matcha latte
1. Tipping the ube powder straight into cold milk. This is mistake number one, and there is no way back from it: unrehydrated powder stays as micro-grains that feel rough in the mouth, and the colour never gets past a greyish mauve. The 8 minutes of resting are not decorative.
2. Boiling water on the matcha. Above 80 °C, bitterness takes over and completely masks the sweetness of the ube. The glass loses its balance: all you taste is tea.
3. Building the layers with liquids at different temperatures. Lukewarm matcha over cold milk creates convection currents: the two layers stir themselves together within seconds. Everything has to be at the same temperature, and cold.
4. Using equal amounts. 2 g of matcha to 8 g of ube is a ratio of 1 to 4 — and that is no accident. Matcha is far more powerful on the palate. In equal doses the ube disappears completely and you end up with a tinted matcha latte. Our ube powder dosage guide gives the benchmarks recipe by recipe.
Variations that work
Purple matcha coconut
Replace the milk with full-fat coconut milk loosened with a little water. Coconut and ube is the obvious Filipino pairing, and coconut also tempers the astringency of matcha. Our Coconut Ube Powder 100 g — 15.90 € gives you that profile in a single step.
Vanilla version
Our Vanilla Ube Powder 100 g — 15.90 € pushes the contrast towards the pastry side and works particularly well hot, as an evening dessert.
Triple layer
Matcha at the bottom, plain milk in the middle, purple milk on top. Three densities, three colours, and a gradient that holds longer than the two-tier version because the neutral layer acts as a buffer.
Caffeine-free, “fake matcha” style
If you want the look without the tea, replace the matcha with a very concentrated mint infusion or a moringa powder. The contrast is less spectacular, but the drink becomes completely caffeine-free: ube powder contains none, as our page on ube and caffeine explains.
Does it contain caffeine?
Yes, and that is worth knowing. Matcha is a green tea: 2 g of powder deliver roughly the equivalent of a light long coffee. Ube, for its part, is a tuber and brings no stimulant at all. In practice, the ube matcha latte is a morning or early afternoon drink. If you want it later in the day, the iced ube latte without matcha plays exactly the same refreshing role, caffeine-free.
Preparing ahead when you have guests
Ube syrup. Multiply the rehydrated, sweetened purple base by the number of glasses you are planning. It keeps for 5 days in the fridge in a sealed jar, and works just as well in a latte as in a frappe or drizzled over yoghurt. It is the best possible use of a quarter of an hour of preparation.
Purple ice cubes. Freeze part of that base, loosened with milk, in an ice cube tray. When you build the glass, the colour gains depth instead of being diluted.
Matcha, on the other hand, is made to order. Whisked in advance, it separates and loses its foam within a quarter of an hour. On the raw material side, our ube powder storage advice explains how to preserve colour and aroma once the pouch is open.
Which ube powder should you choose for this recipe?
In an uncooked drink, where nothing masks the grain or rescues the colour, the quality of the powder shows immediately. Three criteria matter. Variety first: Kinampay from the Visayas gives the deepest shade and the cleanest aroma, which is decisive alongside a matcha that makes no concessions of its own. Purity next: a powder cut with starch or sugar gives a pasty, bland milk. And finally fineness of grind, since there is neither cooking nor batter here to absorb a grainy residue.
- Natural Ube Powder 100 g — 12.90 € — to try it out: around twelve lattes.
- Natural Ube Powder 200 g — 16.90 € — the reference size, best cost per gram.
- Duo Rituel — 29.90 € — 200 g Natural plus a flavour of your choice, to make the recipe with coconut or vanilla.
Frequently asked questions
Which matcha should you use?
A culinary matcha is more than enough: it will be mixed with milk and ube, and the refinement of a ceremonial grade would be lost. Do avoid pre-sweetened “matcha latte” mixes, which throw everything out of balance.
Why do my layers mix straight away?
Nine times out of ten, a difference in temperature between the two liquids. Cool the matcha over ice cubes before building the glass, and pour the purple milk very slowly over the back of a spoon.
Can you make it without a frother or a chasen?
Yes. A jar with a lid does the job very well: sifted matcha plus water, close it, shake for 20 seconds. For the purple milk, a hand whisk is enough provided you have rehydrated the powder properly beforehand.
Is ube “the new matcha”?
That is the phrase going around, but it is misleading: these are two complementary ingredients, not competitors. Ube is milder, caffeine-free, and easier to get children and bitterness-averse palates to like. The details are in our ube vs matcha comparison.
How much ube powder per glass?
8 g for a large glass against 2 g of matcha. Go up to 10 g if you want the purple to dominate the green clearly.
Going further
If you enjoyed this two-layer latte, carry on with the ube frappe, the purple smoothie and the ube milkshake. The full repertoire is gathered on our ube recipes page.
Before ordering, our ube powder buying guide compares sizes, origin and price per gram, and our ube latte powder page sets out what makes a good base for whisking.
Order Natural Ube Powder 200 g — 16.90 € and build your first purple matcha tomorrow morning.
