The Kopi Tin - Jar Making Class

In this 3-hour hands-on pottery workshop, you’ll wheel-throw and hand-build a ceramic reinterpretation of the tee kong — the recycled condensed milk tin that Hainanese kopitiam owners repurposed as a takeaway kopi vessel, a piece of everyday ingenuity that is still in use today.

As part of this SG Culture Pass experience, the session weaves in the heritage and history of the tee kong throughout — the story of Singapore’s kopitiam culture, the kopi order vocabulary, the Carnation brand behind kopi-C, and Heap Seng Leong, the kopitiam on Northumberland Road that still serves takeaway kopi in a tin today.

What you make is your own interpretation. The original kopi tin was a recycled aluminium tin — functional, portable, made from what was already there. In this workshop, you reinterpret that same object in porcelain, as a maker rather than a towkay improvising behind the counter.

Choose your form on the day A lidded travel coffee cup with a pulled handle, or a lidded jar that echoes the original tin’s proportions. Both carry the same heritage, built by the same techniques. The choice is yours.

Pieces are glazed and fired after the session. Collection within 8 to 12 weeks.

Eligible for SG Culture Pass redemption. No prior pottery experience required. Max. 8 participants.

WHAT’S INCLUDED 3 pieces of food-safe glazed fired handmade ceramic (cup or jar body + fitted lid with coil strip handle).

WHAT’S EXCLUDED Guarantee of a perfect finish — as clay is a natural material with its own unpredictability, minor cracks, glaze variations, and surface imperfections may occur during the drying and firing process. These are part of the nature and charm of handmade ceramics.

Accessibility options: Guide dog friendly, Calm spaces, Touch/tactile experience