Throughout the day, it is probably after you finish your day’s work when you feel most hungry as well as tired. As soon as you finish your work, you will become eager to rush to your home and then when you finally arrive home, hunger and tiredness hit you all the sudden. If someone is already cooking for you and dinner is ready straight away after your arrival, there will not be any problems, but what if dinner is not ready yet and you have to wait for a little while? You may not want to take some food as you do not want to spoil your appetite for your dinner. So, you probably want to have some drinks, and Japanese tea is good for this. But on this occasion, please be careful to not take high grade tea types such as Gyokuro (the finest Japanese tea) and Sencha (high grade Japanese tea). Gyokuro and Sencha contain a high amount of caffeine and tannin. Both caffeine and tannin are too strong for the empty stomach, and therefore you should avoid drinking Gyokuro and Sencha.
The most suitable Japanese tea types are Bancha and Hojicha. Bancha is the lower grade Japanese tea and Hojicha is the roasted version of Bancha or Sencha. Both types do not contain much caffeine, but they contain relatively high amount of tannin. Here you may wonder “So, they are not good for the empty stomach as well?”
The fact is that their tea leaves are harder as they are exposed to the direct sun for a longer period of time than Gyokuro and Sencha. Because of the hardness, if you pour hot water on Bancha or Hojicha and just leave it for a short time like 30 seconds, these teas will release much less tannin than Gyokuro and Sencha. (Gyokuro and Sencha need to be left in hot water for a longer time like 1~2.5 min and this extracts much more tannin.)
While both Bancha and Hojicha give a certain degree of fullness to your empty stomach for a short period, Hojicha has a distinctive aroma that comes from roasting, and this relaxes you and alleviates your fatigue from your work.
The information above is all about when you feel hungry after your work, but the same information applies to any occasion wherever you feel hungry like after doing some exercise and long-distance driving.