A pot that's been simmering since 1973
Ask a Singaporean where they get their bak kut teh, and most will have a stall they swear by. For a lot of people, that stall is Outram Ya Hua — simmering its clear, peppery Teochew-style broth since 1973. Where Hokkien-style bak kut teh leans dark and herbal, the Teochew style is built almost entirely on white pepper and garlic, cooked until the broth turns sharp, clean and unmistakably peppery. It's a recipe that rewards restraint: a handful of ingredients, done exactly right, for over five decades.
From a single pot to a sealed packet
A live-cooked stall recipe and a shelf-stable spice blend are two very different things. A stall can adjust a pot by taste every morning; a packet has to deliver the same result in a kitchen thousands of kilometres away, months after it was sealed. Getting there meant working with whole spices rather than pre-ground shortcuts, and packaging that could hold up over a genuine 2.5-year shelf life — long enough to clear export logistics and sit on a shelf without losing the sharpness that makes the broth what it is.
Hua Lok Group's decade-plus in Singapore F&B
Hua Lok Group has spent over a decade in Singapore's food and beverage industry, working at the intersection of product, packaging and export — turning a recipe like Outram Ya Hua's into something that can travel, and helping other F&B brands do the same through our food branding & marketing services. Every service we offer other brands is something we had to solve for ourselves first, starting with this one product.
Landing at Jewel Changi Airport
Getting onto a shelf at Jewel Changi Airport was a milestone worth marking — it put the spice in front of both Singaporeans picking up a taste of home and travellers encountering it for the first time on their way through the airport. It's one thing to sell a product to people who already know what bak kut teh is; it's another to introduce it to someone who's never had it, in the middle of an airport terminal.
Carrying it further — China, Hong Kong, Indonesia
From there, the spice found its way to distributors in China, Hong Kong and Indonesia. Exporting a hawker recipe isn't just a commercial decision — it's a bet that a dish built on five ingredients and half a century of practice can hold its own anywhere a pot of water and a stove can be found. So far, it has.
What's next
Bak kut teh spice was the starting point, not the destination. Hua Lok Group is developing a small line of other Singapore hawker staples in the same spirit — a Hainanese chicken rice paste, a laksa lemak concentrate, a chilli crab sauce, a satay marinade and a kaya spread — each one aiming for the same standard: the real recipe, made to travel. You can see what's currently in the works on our homepage.