See the post by Chip: http://www.teachat.c...opic.php?t=9690. His recommendations are mine, Ocha and Zencha. Zencha is a little more user-friendly, but the teas are amazing, I'd be surprised if you managed to find even one you didn't love the flavor and aroma of.
If you want something with a discernibly unique psychoactive effect, consider shade-grown green gyokuro or white baihao yinzhen tea, both reputed to have high levels of amino acids (ie. theanine [20mg/g]). Compared with shade grown gyokuro, most sun grown greens (the commonest longjing and bancha) will have substantially less theanine (5mg/g vs 20), comparable caffeine (30mg/g), but far more antioxidants (250mg/g vs 150) giving a uniform psychotropic effect: a jittery not very relaxing effect, the classic green tea effect. So although cheap teabags will taste worse and have more fluoride when compared with pricier loose-leafs, I suspect the psychoactive profile will not discernibly vary across brands, as caffeine with little theanine tends to make you alert and jittery, the classic green tea effect [most teabags are made with shake leftover from bancha or sencha, unlikely you'll get gyokuro or silver needle in a teabag]. Sencha, although healthy, isn't very tasty or relaxing, and gyokuro, tho tasty and relaxing, is lower in antioxidants than the cheaper sencha! What do you want a health-promoting tea with polyphenols (sencha) or a psychedelic tea with theanine (gyokuro)?
If you want a tea with a different feel, try gyokuro or baihao yinzhen, both are higher in theanine and more relaxing than your average green or black. Or perhaps you should just drink sencha, knowing it's good, not paying attention to the psychoactive effects. Despite its astringent taste and lack of ample theanine, sencha is loaded with antioxidants, third in teas only to matcha and hibiscus in antioxidant capacity, making it a healthy and affordable lifestyle choice, even if it feels like a worthless placebo. Or if you like the jitters (I personally don't), go with something you can brew longer, oolong, blacks or pu-erhs, you'll extract more caffeine.
So yes, there are countless teas out there which will blow away your supermarket teabags, in terms of flavor, health, and even psychoactivity. Order some loose leaf, if you don't care for the taste, get a new supplier, if you still don't care for the taste, accept that tea isn't your cup of tea.
Edited by dasheenster, 25 November 2014 - 06:23 PM.