We opened at The Sail @ Marina Bay in 2016. Japanese matcha, houjicha, and genmaicha — imported direct from Japan. We weren't confident tea alone would work in the CBD. The owner had always been a coffee person. So we sold coffee too.
We called it The Matcha Project × Copper Espresso.
Foot traffic was poor. The basement didn't do us any favours. Matcha never quite took off in the CBD — office workers wanted lattes, not ceremonial grade.
So we tried something. $3 coffee. A promotion to get people through the door. It was meant to last a few months. It lasted years.
The coffee crowd grew. Then it kept growing. Every morning, every afternoon, sometimes both. The matcha quietly took a back seat.
The irony:
People remembered the Matcha name.
What they ordered was coffee.
At some point we had to be honest about what we'd become. Matcha never really took off. CBD wants coffee, not ceremonial grade. Overnight, The Matcha Project became Volks Coffee Co.
We changed the name to Volks Coffee Co. As in folks. Coffee for all folks. A coffee-centric name for what was now, unmistakably, a coffee business.
For nearly nine years, we worked out of that basement corner at The Sail. No signage worth mentioning. Just regulars who found us once and never left. We became part of the routine. That was enough.
Next door was Al Marche — a grocery store with a nice little corner serving solid sandwiches. Their lunch crowd was always packed. We saw each other every single day. We weren't partners. We were neighbours. That matters later.
We moved to One Raffles Quay. More visible, more space, same energy. We dropped "Coffee Co" from the name. We serve more than coffee now — and we want to be recognised for all of it.
We added a bar. Beer, wine, cocktails from 5pm. Coffee shop by day, neighbourhood bar by night. The lobby's living room.
Coffee by day.
Bar by night.
Al Marche and us finally did what neighbours do — we teamed up. Volks × Al Marche at Marina Bay Link Mall. Two brands, one counter, same easy energy we had at The Sail.
Took us nine years to make it official.
And the tea? Still here. The Matcha Project never went away — it just stepped back while coffee took the spotlight. Japanese tea is still on the menu, still sourced the same way. The matcha whisk isn't a sidekick. It's where the whole thing began.
Ten years in.
Still a kiosk.
Still no fuss.
Good things
for all folks.
Drop by.
