Coffee & Plant Care Workshop by QORE × Alchemist × Soilboy
Photo: Courtesy of QORE × Alchemist
📅 When
Sat 17 Oct 2026, 1:00pm
📍 Where
Alchemist Arab Street
119 Arab Street, Singapore 199814
💸 Price
S$198
Ninety minutes on the top floor of Alchemist Arab Street: watch filter coffee brewed, then repot a plant with your own spent grounds into a coffee-waste planter to take home, one of only 50. Six per session, Saturday 17 October at 1pm or 3pm. $198.
Most coffee grounds end up in a bin. At this workshop, the cup you are served ends up in a plant pot, and you take the pot home.
It is the hands-on part of QORE: Circularity at the Core, the pop-up that has filled Alchemist’s three-storey shophouse on Arab Street with furniture and surfaces made from coffee waste. The workshop runs on the top floor, beside the display showing how those materials are made, and takes six people at a time.
How the 90 minutes go
It starts with coffee. Alchemist brews filter coffee in front of you, and everyone gets a serving. When you have finished it, the spent grounds are not thrown out: they go into the potting mix for the second half.
Then Soilboy takes over, with the basics of looking after your plant and repotting it. You do the potting yourself, with your own coffee grounds worked into the soil.
What you take home
The plant, in a Coffee Waste Planter made for this collaboration: a stainless-steel bowl resting on a stand of QORE’s coffee-chaff composite. Only 50 were made, split across light, medium and dark roast shades. You also leave with whatever grounds are left over, and notes on how to use them, so your next few cups can go back into the soil too.
Who is behind it
Alchemist is a homegrown roaster that has been finding uses for its own coffee waste for a while. The Arab Street café is itself fitted with 65 QORE panels, which together hold about 120kg of coffee chaff that would otherwise have gone to landfill. Soilboy is the plant studio at New Bahru on Kim Yam Road, known for its potting workshops and handmade pots.
Why it is worth booking
If you want something different from the usual Saturday of brunch and a mall, this is it. Six people, good coffee brewed in front of you, and a plant you potted yourself, in a planter only 50 people will own. It makes a thoughtful gift, a date that is not another dinner, and an easy yes for anyone who loves coffee or plants.
It is also a small, practical way to do your part. Instead of reading about waste, you turn some of it into something living, and the planter that holds it was made from coffee waste too.
Come half an hour early and walk through the free exhibition on the floors below first. By the time you reach the top floor, you will know exactly where your planter came from.
Before you go 🧭
- Two sessions
- Choose 1pm to 2:30pm or 3pm to 4:30pm when you book.
- Six per session
- Each session takes up to six people, so it can fill. Book ahead on Alchemist’s workshop page.
- What the $198 covers
- The brewing showcase and your serving of coffee, the repotting session, the plant in its Coffee Waste Planter, plus your leftover grounds and notes on using them. Per person.
- Getting there
- 119 Arab Street, in Kampong Glam. Bugis MRT (EW12/DT14) is about a ten-minute walk; Jalan Besar (DT22) is a little closer.
- Come early
- The free QORE exhibition fills the floors below. Arrive half an hour before your session to walk through it first.
Details compiled by Onz from public listings — always confirm with the organiser before heading down.
