More teas were used, such as jasmine green tea, oolong tea, and then they branched out into fruit teas, with some even going to be just pure fruit juice. Iced tea was favoured over the original hot tea, usually due to the hot weather in Asian countries. The tapioca pearls were also upgraded in size and in some cases replaced by jelly or nata de coco.
Although the bubble tea craze died down once, it made a revival due to the entry of KOI Cafe, a chain of bubble tea store originating from Taichung, Taiwan. Purporting to bring the original flavour of Taiwanese milk tea to Singapore, KOI Cafe specially imports the ingredients for their bubble teas directly from Taiwan, claiming this lets them maintain the authenticity of the taste.
The rich flavour and luxurious texture of the KOI Cafe bubble teas instantly became a hit with Singaporeans, as there were no other bubble tea stalls around with that level of quality and taste. An innovative concept of allowing customers to choose their desired sugar level in the bubble tea also appealed to those who were more health conscious.
The popularity of KOI Cafe soon exploded and they quickly capitalised on this by opening many other outlets around the island but even those were not enough to keep up with the demand; it was not uncommon to see huge crowds of customers milling around outside a KOI Cafe outlet for up to an hour, all waiting for their queue number to be called just so that they can collect it.
And to meet all this demand for Taiwanese bubble tea, more bubble tea shops sprung up in neighbourhoods and shopping malls – for example Gong Cha, I Love Tai Mei, Each-A-Cup, etc. Most of them followed KOI Cafe in proclaiming they served Taiwanese bubble tea and adjustable sugar levels. And even now, the love for bubble tea is still going strong in Singapore!