k dude first off i obviosly dont know what exact kind of tea you drink, but it sounds like your friend knows what he is talking about, or at least thinks he does, so im going to say trust him.
secondly: no, there is no such thing as "plain regular tea".there are two basic types of tea, green and black. green tea is made from the young and relitivly fresh (compaired to black tea) leaves of the east asian tea tree. black tea is a broad term for all tea that is made from the leaves of the tea trees of india. the thing about tea is that just like the trees it comes from there are many sub-species, to complicate matters different teas are picked at diferent stages of growth and just to make it a bit more technical teas are often mixed with other teas to create 'blends', much like coffee or wiskey. 'earl grey' is one of the most popular of these, so is 'orange pekoe' chances are you are drinking one or the other.
and thirdly as can be seen from that rant: i love tea.
heres a mad tip from a seasoned cafine pro. sometimes (usualy before partys) i make coffee-tea it is amzing you get the awesome cafine hit and bold flavour of coffe mixed the subtly high and intricate palet of tea. how, put tea(bags)in coffee pot brew coffee as usual, enjoy.