All-in-one products are godsent for those who prioritise convenience over the process in cooking, and they usually come in paste or powder forms.
With the pandemic not going away anytime soon for the year, most of us are bound to be cooking ourselves more often these days, which can get tiring. Hence, easy-to-make products are likely the go-to choice for many of us.
“We started with an idea of creating ‘astronaut food’, something that requires minimal preparation and at the same time lets you enjoy simple home-cooked meals. Additionally, we wanted to create something that could save you a crazy amount of time and help keep you from wasting your spices and herbs.”
Despite having no professional culinary qualifications, Li Min, Ivy, and Michelle wanted to create a convenient product that could make the meal preparation process more straightforward.
Hence, the trio came up with Momo Butter in December 2020 to sell flavoured butter which you can instantly pop into whatever you’re cooking for seasoning.
Not As Ang Moh As It Seems
Although the concept of flavoured butter isn’t new, I think of it as an ingredient for very Western food first and foremost.
While Momo Butter does sell flavoured butter with Western herbs, they also make local flavours like Curry butter and Kampung butter, which are packed with local herbs.
| Butter | Herbs |
| Classic | Rosemary and thyme |
| Tuscan | Sun-dried tomatoes, parmesan, and basil |
| Curry | Curry powder, turmeric, shallots, daun kesum, chili, and kantan |
| Kampung | Daun kesum, kantan, shallots, and kaffir lime leaves |
These flavoured butters come in a box of 12 packs (3 packs of each flavour), priced at RM36 per set. Single flavour orders (12 packs of one flavour) are also available but must be preordered by Sunday.
Now, prior to Momo Butter, the trio have been making their own homemade flavoured butter for their families for a few years, but only the Classic and Tuscan flavours. They were even considered staples in their own homes.
When they started Momo Butter, however, they took about 3 months of R&D to create the Curry and Kampung flavours, which were taste-tested by their friends and family first and later with their real customers for another before officially launching it in February.
“The bulk of the R&D time was put into balancing the flavours for a single portion serving as that’s the USP of our product,” they shared with Vulcan Post.
Churning The Butters
“Our infused butters are made with cooking butter and fresh herbs. The process is tedious and every batch that we make, we ensure there will be no surplus of herbs and wastage,” they explained.
Because these herbs are fresh, they always have to be used up immediately once they’re chopped.
“We also chose a better-known butter brand so that we can serve a wider group of consumers and with lesser roadblocks through Halal compliance. We are currently also looking at sustainable ingredient sourcing from small local farms to supply to us.”
Each of their butter cubes are around 15g and can flavour up to a serving of rice. Since butter is a delicate product when it comes to delivery, their butter packs are delivered with a chill bag that can stay out at room temperature for about 2 hours.
The trio has also broken even with the business already, and have sold out every week since they launched.
As of now, they’re mainly focusing on B2C, but have been talking to a few food services and online retail brands about collaborations.
Spreading Knowledge Of Recipes
Although creating an all-in-one product may greatly ease the cooking process for customers, when they don’t know what to make with your product, it’s a new issue altogether.
Moreover, flavoured butter isn’t as common of a cooking ingredient in Malaysia yet, so it’s hard for many of us to understand the many things we can actually make with them.
To help with that, the trio created a highlight section called “Cuisines” on their Instagram page. In that highlight, they have videos of how to use their butter in cooking.
You could just heat them up and pour them over your salmon as a sauce, incorporate them into a curry, make soup out of them, put them in a sandwich, or even enjoy them as a dipping sauce, as examples.
In the beginning, the Momo Butter team faced a couple of challenges like under-stocking and delayed delivery of their packaging.
“We learnt a lot during this time. We regrouped on Zoom every night to find ways to streamline our processes, manage workflow and most importantly, increase brand awareness as we go,” they shared with Vulcan Post.
As of now, they’re working on creating new products to launch towards the end of March.
Featured Image Credit: Li Min, Ivy, and Michelle, founders of Momo Butter