Ube Coffee Latte, Ube Brownie with Gelato and Ube Pound Cake by Halo Ube

I've always loved ube flavoured treats since I visited the Philippines many years ago, and it has been relatively rare to find authentically tasting ube treats in Singapore, even the standard ube ice cream used in halo halo. So since it is trending now, I decided to try out Halo Ube which purports to specialise in it. I had previously tried the Ube Cheese Roll and Ube Matcha Cloud from Mary Grace Cafe, which is authentically Filipino in origin, so this time I thought to try the Ube Coffee Latte instead of matcha, and other pure-ube snacks such as the Ube Brownie with Ube Gelato and the Ube Pound Cake.
Ube Coffee Latte by Halo Ube
Ube Coffee Latte, Ube Brownie with Gelato and Ube Pound Cake by Halo Ube
Visually it was also a treat - look at all that royal purple. That's the really nice thing about ube - its ability to colour things in such a rich and glorious purple. Japanese purple sweet potato too, but that tends to be a bit lighter and more pastel in colour.

Ube Coffee Latte

Overall, this was one of the better menu items for experiencing the ube flavour paired with something else - coffee in this case. 
Ube Coffee Latte by Halo Ube - close-up
The coffee leaned malty with cereal notes and nutty dark roasted notes. There was some noticeable acidity but it wasn't too prominent under the ube. It didn't seem like the typical Brazil origin nuttiness due to the acidity and cereal notes. 

The ube provided nice creamy vanilla top notes with coconut notes that sat over the coffee. But the ube flavour was quite mild, as compared to the intensely flavoured halo halo ube ice cream.

Also, the syrup is at the bottom before stirring. I made the mistake of sipping from the bottom to try the pure ube paste before stirring and got a mouthful of ultra sweet syrup. I requested less sugar as the ube paste had no sugar in it at all, and it felt like a 4-5% level of sugar in g/100ml. I would have preferred it with even less sugar because I wanted to observe the ube flavour more, but I think it wouldn't have worked with the coffee's acidity and cereal notes.

Personally, I would have preferred a purely dark roast, nutty and chocolatey coffee profile because I just don't like the cereal taste in coffee especially when there is acidity (imagine breakfast cereal milk with sourness), and in this case I felt the ube somehow didn't pair well with the coffee blend. A search online either attributes this to some India, Honduras or El Salvador origin beans, which I have honestly never seen being explicitly used at any other cafe, or else some issue with the roasting of the beans.

I thought that the ube flavour and even colour reminded me of the Taro Latte by Bullock Cart Coffee, and I felt that their taro latte went a lot better with the similar vanilla-coconut and sweet nutty yam notes because it was low acidity, dark, chocolatey and nutty. 

That said, I liked that the ube seemed quite natural, like an ube paste that was like a mash potato consistency. This is nicer than many other flavoured lattes such as even the Bullock Cart one, which seem dependent on syrups and hence come across as quite synthetic. You can see the ube powder floating around even after stirring in this image below.
Ube Coffee Latte by Halo Ube - stirred
Ube Pound Cake

I tried this next, as I thought it might have a milder ube flavour than the brownie and gelato.
Ube Brownie with Ube Gelato Ice Cream
Ube Pound Cake by Halo Ube
And it was the right decision, because the ube flavour was even milder than the coffee. I tried rinsing my mouth with water to clear my palate, but I honestly couldn't quite discern any distinguishable ube flavour. At most, it was the ube's vanilla notes that I might have picked up, and I don't even know if I imagined it, because when I closed my eyes, it just seemed like a vanilla or perhaps pandan cupcake, perhaps with a tiny hint of earthiness. No obvious root vegetable taste that comes with yam or purple sweet potato, not were there any obvious notes of coconut like the ube ice cream or paste in typical halo halo desserts in the Philippines.

This pound cake was actually closer to a tea cake or in fact a cupcake or muffin in texture, not a typical dense pound cake. It was warm and moist, almost fluffy on the inside. See the photo below with the inside glistening with moisture. (If you click to enlarge, you can see the white dots of shiny moisture a bit more clearly.) The external layer was a thin crust that was slightly firm and slightly crunchy with a bite, which was nice. 
Ube Pound Cake by Halo Ube - fluffy moist texture like cupcake
This texture was in sharp contrast to this cafe's previous iteration, which I understand was Hvala Kissa, specialising in decaf coffee-matcha blends and came under the same management as Halo Ube. For their previous pound cake which was the Dirty Matcha Pound Cake. That one was much denser, which I liked, although it leaned a tad dry. Overall, I prefer the previous texture that was denser because that is the normal texture of a pound cake. If it is so fluffy and soft, I think it is closer to a cupcake or muffin, which is a completely different experience. 

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this item for the ube flavour or the pound cake description. If you like pandan or vanilla fluffy cupcakes or muffins and are just looking for something comforting with a bit of a crust without caring about the ube, then you would find this very comforting.

Ube Brownie with Ube Gelato
Ube Brownie with Ube Gelato by Halo Ube
I was quite excited to try this because I love intense ube flavours, and thought this might be more intense than the pound cake. I had a mixed experience. I believe the transluscent yellow sauce was honey.

The brownie was equally disappointing as the pound cake unfortunately. I tried rinsing my mouth several times to try again and tried to sniff in the scent to see if I was missing anything. I don't think I had any blocked nose that day. But when I closed my eyes, I couldn't tell the difference between this brownie and a vanilla flavoured brownie (not even pandan brownie). I feel like the dark purple colouration was a gimmick and felt a bit cheated because of it.

The upside was that they did have a lot of walnuts in it, which was good. And as a brownie overall, it wasn't as thick as fudge brownies, but otherwise quite a decent cake-like brownie if you ignore expectations of the ube flavour. It was fragrant in a vanilla way. It also wasn't as cloyingly sweet as a dense chocolate fudge brownie.

The ube gelato was much better than the brownie and pound cake in terms of the ube flavour intensity. It came out clearly this time, with clear creamy pandan and coconut notes with the characteristic earthy root flavour that makes ube and root vegetables such as taro and sweet potato so complex and satisfying. The top notes of the gelato were clear and intricately complex, and overall the taste was quite well-balanced across the different notes and levels. 

If I compare it to my memory of the typical ube ice cream in the Philippines I tried a while back, I would say that it is more fragrant on the top notes and less intense in the body and base notes where the earthiness is. It was quite sweet unfortunately, but I guess that is on par with other ube ice creams I've tried in the Philippines. I felt that they should have it somewhat less sweet to let the ube flavour shine through a bit more, especially since the earthy root-like taste is already less intense than the Philippines version. 

Verdict

I think the ube coffee latte and ube gelato have a nice ube flavour that materially impacts the item. I would give the other items a pass. Since I had the ice cream last and could taste its ube flavour clearly, I don't think my palate was dull for the cake and brownie. I've also tried a whole host of root-flavoured stuff (see the longlist of links below), so I have a lot of references to compare this with.

I would have preferred a different coffee profile for the latte, but overall it is an interesting one-time experience to see how mild ube would pair with coffee. 

The ube gelato is the most characteristic in the ube flavour and is a somewhat different take from the ones found in halo halo, so it is worth trying. But do also try the more authentic Filipino version... those are heartier and pack a stronger earthy root-flavoured punch, which is what I like in vegetable-flavoured snacks.

Discover other ube and vegetable-inspired treats

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