In an unpretentious Chin Bee Avenue Nanyang Sauce factory building that’s more than 25 years old, some world-class magic is taking place every second of every day, slowly and naturally in closed clay vats. Unseen and unsensed except by those who understand and set the stage for it.
The magic? It’s the all-natural handmade process of making soy sauce, one of the world’s favourite condiments. No chemicals, additives or artificial flavours, this is soy sauce at its most authentic. And it’s like a human baby’s gestation. The process takes nine months, from sorting, boiling and preparing the beans for the two stages of fermentation, to the filtered and flavour-filled finished product.
From its roots in China and Japan, soy sauce’s popularity has spread around the world, and the best soy sauce is often described as an “umami bomb”, in today’s parlance. Most soy sauce today is made in factories, using chemicals and additives to speed up the manufacturing process. This mass production enables them to keep prices low for consumers. Nanyang Sauce chose to keep to it traditional.
Making it the traditional way involves time, patience and the daily grind of opening up each vat, stirring, smelling, deciding, closing, and repeating the process again the next day. In the case of Nanyang Sauce, the magic revolves around 300 clay vats.
As the eldest of three children, 67-year-old Poh Choo used to spend her after-school hours and school holidays working alongside her father Tan Tiong How who had come to Singapore from Fujian.
When he died suddenly in 1996, her life changed dramatically. Poh Choo was thrust into a leadership role and suddenly, the future of Nanyang Sauce and the livelihood of her family and staff was on her shoulders.
Joining the family business as well, Ken is taking Nanyang Sauce in new directions even as he keeps his grandfather’s commitment to purity and quality.
The 40-year-old sees his mother Poh Choo as the heart of Nanyang Sauce.
Like his grandfather who began with his grandmother’s recipe and founded the company in 1959, Ken too has been wooed by commercial giants who have the capacity and the means to mass produce hybrid versions of Nanyang’s soy sauce.
The choice was clear: remain true to the artisanal roots and stay small.
So Nanyang Sauce produces the amounts that it can, in its traditional way. And, led by Ken, shares its story, welcomes visitors, and offers tasting sessions and tours to show how it’s done.
Beyond soy sauce, Nanyang Sauce also makes other sauces like chilli sauces, vinegar, sesame oil and sweet sauce. They are also made with the same ethos as the soy sauce.
It’s no surprise to learn that Nanyang Sauce has clients who’ve used their sauces for generations, and even carry travel-size bottles of it with them when they travel.
But there is no shortage of challenges that Nanyang Sauce has faced.
A process that cannot be rushed. Dishonest partners who left devastation in their wake. Space constraints. Escalating costs of raw materials, labour, power and water. The task of keeping this family business alive has become increasingly daunting.
For some years, Ken and Poh Choo felt caught between a rock and a hard place. Then a series of accidental discoveries shone a light on possible new lines of business that would allow Nanyang to continue its artisanal soy sauce production alongside.
Soy salt is a natural crystallised salt that occurs naturally during the soy sauce brewing process. It yields a rare depth and complexity of flavour.
Today it is sought after by customers around the world, for use in seasoning chicken essence, steak, chocolate, sashimi.
This other discovery was gradual.
That ingredient is koji, which occurs naturally during fermentation of grains like soybeans. Currently, it is most often mentioned in relation to Japanese food production like miso, soy sauce and sake, but it also has skincare benefits. And Ken saw an opportunity in this special ingredient.
So what lies ahead for Nanyang Sauce?
As their skincare range and soy salt gains traction through online sales, there’s a renewed sense of purpose and hope.
“We may face extinction as a traditional soy sauce maker at some point,” Ken admits, “but if we can help people lead healthier lives through our products and story, we’ll have made a difference.”
Nanyang Sauce is more than just a family business. Created all those decades ago to bring comfort and a reminder of home to its founder and his friends, its sauces reflect history, devotion and craftsmanship in an age of mass production.
Whether through the careful fermentation of soy or the unexpected serendipity that led to skincare breakthroughs, Nanyang Sauce is a heartwarming tale, reminding us that authenticity and tradition still matter in a fast-paced world.