About bag v.s. leaves, one of the reason for bag will be it keep
everything in bags, so you won't have to deal with those unwanted
leavings, but in traditional Chinese teacraft, those leavings were at
the top of to-be-avoid list.
Also, as a consideration of usages, bags are more likely to be applied
in those fast serving circumstances, while loose leaves sits more on
entertaining and relaxation side.
Talking about diffusion of the chemical ingredient in tea leaves: as a
common sence, it is impossible to analysis everything out of an
organic body, another common sence, every ingredient has some effect
on human body, so you will never know which one told you to drink more
water or which one gives you a headache; But the ancestors of Chinese
tea-lovers left all their experiences to later generations, and I
haven't found any tea-bag dosages.

About Chinese tea v.s. Japanese tea, I never been to Japan and seldom
drink Japanese tea, so I won't comment on this, but I lived in China
longer than Rich lived in Japan, and began to drink Chinese tea almost
15 years ago, so I know what I have been drinking, and what to drink
according to different situations.

About the names to Chinese tea, as I said earlier, China was a huge
country of agriculture and the tea was sitting at the top of the
culture, and, Chinese linguistic system is too different compare
western lingusitic systems, and if one want to map/image every tea
name from an element-richer environment to a relatively limited
expression, confusion, I am afriad, will be the only thing that one
could expect.
A donwn-side factor contributes to this confusion would came from the
some dealers, especially those not that honest and those not having
enough knowledge. From the middle of 19th centry, the Chinese original
social structure was ruined by so many "things", and a health tea
industry hasn't been restore yet by now, but unfortunately, there is
nobody to be blamed...back to names, I don't think by only use
original English without imported linguistic elements could help to
clarify the confusion.
Again, Chinese tea drinking is not only for a refresment, culture
elements were built-in bolcks down to every tiny detail of tea
drinking, enen on those names. So, if your central processing unit
could only deal with English and rather reluctant to carry out an
upgrade, I don't see any possibility for your system to deal with more
complicated informations; and as to the confusion, maybe just stay in.



(Rich Hudson) wrote in message . com>...
> To respond to a few of the comments made he
>
> I lived in Japan for 10 years, and bagged green tea is looked on there
> in the same way that the gourmet coffee drinkers I know in the U.S.
> would entertain the thought of McDonald's coffee. The simple reason is
> that tea bags contain the "sweepings" that are left over after
> loose-leaf tea makers have first pick, plus twigs that wouldn't be
> allowed in the better loose-leaf green teas.
>
> As for multiple steepings, the way the typical Japanese tea drinker
> does it is to put leaves in the pot and keep adding leaves and hot
> water as the infusion is depleted.
>
> When I'm drinking tea at the office, I usually infuse three times,
> adding a pinch of new leaves for the 3rd cup (I use an over-the-cup
> infuser). With good teas, the second infusion has different qualities.
> Not weaker, but different.
>
> Back to bags vs. leaves: I also think that more of the "good stuff"
> comes out of the leaves when they're free to flow around the teapot.
> I've tried putting loose-leaf tea (from mellowmonk.com) in
> do-it-yourself tea bags that I found at a local Japanese market, but
> the infusion just wasn't as good as brewing "unfettered" leaves.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Rich (a fogie newbie glad to be aboard)