Innovating Oat Milk for Asia With Oatside Founder Benedict Lim

Speak of “oat milk” and the two expressions you will instantly be met with include one full of unbounded glee as a result of the oat latte Renaissance, and one of grimacing distaste, likely followed by a mutterance decrying anti-carnivorous diets. Smashing the insurmountable gap between the two is oat milk brand Oatside, a contender straight out of Singapore that has been making its steady way through Asia.

Oatside is envisioned to provide a sustainable and health-conscious plant milk that could convert even the most hard-boiled of dairy-lovers through its irresistible creaminess. Taking the first step to rerouting the preconceived notion of plant milk as a second-rate alternative, let alone a monstrous imitation of dairy, oat milk hones in on the malty, nutty, and buttery palate that has been missing from its competitors.

Formerly the CFO of Heinz Indonesia, Oatside founder Benedict Lim unpacks how the beverage has been formulated to appeal to the Asian palate as a starting point.

“The interesting thing, especially for plant-based dairy, is that people here already drink it. We drink soy milk, and it's already been pretty deep in the culture for a long time. But we don't necessarily think of soy milk as plant based, even though it is. We just drink it because we are familiar with the tastes.”

"That's why I tend to say that product acceptance is all about familiarity. If you're familiar with something, eating something since you're a kid, or even with some flavour nodes which are familiar, then it makes it a lot easier to drive adoption. It tastes pretty good, and we grew up drinking it," he says.

“So with oat milk I feel it's quite familiar because we eat oats as a cereal in the morning, first of all. Especially in Hong Kong, it's quite a big category. And then the taste of oat milk, it's creamy, it's malty, it’s quite neutral tasting—then it becomes very acceptable. You don't necessarily have to drink it because it's plant-based milk, you drink it because it tastes good. Many of our consumers drink both dairy and oat milk, you don't have to be lactose-intolerant to drink Oatside.”

Centred on the principle that flavour comes first, every single droplet of each carton has been sourced and manufactured in-house, comprising the unique “full-stack” model that keeps everything from ingredients research all the way to client-facing marketing within the Oatside family.

Benedict remarks on the rarity of his key strategy: “[It’s] is very unusual, right? If you look at most startups, it's difficult to build your own production facility because of the capex required, and also the lead times. So that was kind of a leap of faith we had to take.”

“The reason why we went full stack was because to create oat milk that is more customised and distinct, you need to do the oat extraction yourself. And what I mean by oat extraction starts from the oat grain, grinding it, treating it with water, breaking down the starches through an enzyme process…all of that, having control over that is really important to creating a customised product. For us, it was the most important thing to have a product that's creamy, malty, has some nutty flavours as well. And we needed to control that.”

This means an ingredients table that reads closer to a shopping list than it does a Harry Potter spell, relying on natural sweeteners and cooking processes to attain its compelling flavours. For example, the Ferrero Rocher-esque Oatside Chocolate Hazelnut, which draws from a high-heat roasting process to derive a lusciousness reminiscent of Nutella, and the Oatside Chocolate that uses a ratio of double Indonesian-African cacao beans to palm sugar that trumps its overly saccharine competitors.

Having only been available in the market since 2021, an even shorter length of time than the 18 months required to establish the company’s initial factory in Bandung, Indonesia, Oatside is already being sold in 11 countries across the continent, a number that is only growing as the brand continues its international expedition.

“Our main purpose in every market is connecting to the culture of the other consumers. How do we speak to them in a way that is appealing, in a way they understand? So, we're still learning through trial and error.”

“We have to adapt a lot to local culture, the language is different, even humour is different. Like Korea, for example. The way we are funny in English, we have to find a way to be funny in Korean. That is our biggest challenge that we're trying to crack across all the markets.”

And a sense of humour is crucial to their campaigning indeed, as the company’s hip and markedly youthful branding can attest. “So, when I was creating the brand, it wasn't very deliberate,” explains Benedict to The Beat Asia. “Honestly, it was more what I thought would be cool. You know, to have cartoons on the back, something that was funny and cartoonish, but not necessarily for children, like adults would find it funny. And also light-hearted.”

“We have the illustration on the barista blend pack, which shows the two guys working on a computer being very serious, and then the bear just chilling in a Hawaiian shirt in the café. And that's like a situation that I find hilarious. We all want to be that bear right? Where you don't have any heaviness in your life, and you can just relax and enjoy life.”

“Even the name ‘Oatside,’ we liked the name Oatside because it sounded like a place, or a way of life. You could say, you want to welcome people to the ‘Oatside’ of life, which is this light-hearted place where you can live like this Hawaiian bear.”

The key to this adaptability isn’t simply a well-travelled bear that lightens up the mood for Oatside’s drinkers, but the leading team members on the ground who are scattered across their Asia-wide network.

“Given how important local cultures are, and understanding it, we always make it a point wherever we go to hire locals. In Thailand, our whole team is Thai. In Korea, they're all Korean. So same-same for all the markets. And it’s because we feel like only locals will understand the local culture deeply and then it's a matter of trying new things, collaborating with local partners to activate coming up with creative communications. So that's what we've been doing. it's really about having a local team.”

For locals in the city, this translated into hand-drawn versions of iconic Hong Kong films starring the Oatside bear, and a loving homage to the iconic skyline and red-sail junks in an adorable Instagram announcement hearkening the brand’s arrival.

“I think the cartoons are pretty universal and even the life messages [on the cartons] are pretty universal. But as we grow, the way of communicating the brand in general, or introducing the product, we definitely have to localise in every country. We’d really love to do more of that. Localised both in terms of communications, but also applications and creating menus that people can appreciate.”

Beginning with cafés and coffee houses in the countries on their bucket list, Oatside pushed their hero product of the Barista Blend as the foot in the door of each local market’s coffee scene. “What was very apparent to me was that every country is super different in terms of how people perceive it, how they probably would like to consume milk. Whether they're more tea-based or more coffee-based, whether they like dark roast or light roast, stronger tastes or lighter tastes, stuff that is fruity or super sweet. And it's super different across all the countries.”

“I'm still learning the local palates and what works, what doesn't work. Most days I'm doing a lot of tastings of Oatside in different applications, so that's a part of the job that I really enjoy.”

Speaking on the introduction of Oatside to Hong Kong’s shelves, Benedict says: “I've always been very excited about the Hong Kong market, just because I feel like understanding of the category is good, meaning you're familiar with soya, with oat. It's also super vibrant, dynamic.”

“And it was just a matter of showing that Oatside has a very distinct taste that I feel people will enjoy. You have a huge coffee culture, a lot of specialty cafés , with their own offerings and very interesting menus. So, we're excited with the possibilities of merging Oatside with the local Hong Kong culture.”

Brandishing a sampler of local snacks reinterpreted with Oatside Barista Blend as a not-so-secret addition, the oat milk’s versatility was shown off at a launch event in the form of gooey sweet egg custard buns, creamy and crunchy egg tarts, and a frothy rendition of an Oolong latte capped with a running volcano of cream.

Remixing the star product into other local dishes, Benedict recalls: “The most interesting one I've seen so far is hotpot. So we've just started with Haidilao in Taiwan, serving oat milk as a soup base. Actually, the sweetness and the creaminess, it sounds a little bit weird but, it goes really well with hotpot. If you think about hotpot, soymilk hotpot is really popular in places like Japan, ‘tonyu nabe’ is kind of a spin on that. So, I hope we can work with some hotpot restaurants in Hong Kong.”

Dialling back a bit to more broadly accepted tastes for Hong Kongers, he adds: “I think bubble tea is an interesting one. Aside from coffee, I think bubble tea would be the other big beverage the city consumes.”

Still, its early days, and collaborating venues have been relatively modest in their ways of incorporating the oat milk. “We're actively looking for more café partners that have creative menus that we can work with. And I feel like when people try that, you know, they get excited. And then they start to look for it online and also at supermarkets. We're currently selling at Wellcome, Apita, and UNY. [O]nline we're selling on HKTVmall. But we really want to grow that base of foodservice partners.”

“We have percent Arabica, which is a really cool Japanese coffee chain in Hong Kong, that's already using Oatside. We have NOC coffee, n.o.t. Coffee, Grotto, Ponty Café, Coffee Obsession, Bakehouse is about to start as well. And of course, Between Coffee, and Elephant Grounds is starting as well. We have a lot of really cool coffee groups that are working with us, and all of them have their own creative menu, which is the fun part.”

“For now, we are working hard to drive Oatside deeper into all these countries. We’ve launched across Asia, and we want to bring it to more people. Our mission is to drive more people to sustainable milks through incredible taste. We have to do that across all the countries and really go deeper, so right now we're focused on that.”

Interview quotes have been edited for length and clarity.