What Are Chinese Herbal Drinks?

In Chengdu there is a Yao bar, an herb bar, where every single drink on the menu is a Chinese herbal formula that somebody has made delicious. The menu is not built from flavors. It is built from functions. That bar is the clearest picture I know of an idea that sits at the center of Chinese medicine: food and drink are the original medicine, and the inputs you take in every day are where recovery begins.

What are Chinese herbal drinks?

A Chinese herbal drink is a formula you can enjoy. At the Yao bar in Chengdu, every item on the menu is a classical herbal idea poured into a glass, chosen for what you want it to do.

Every drink on that menu is balanced the same way an herbalist balances your prescription. A Chinese formula is never one herb aimed at one symptom. It is a small team:

Modern pharmacology has caught up with why this works. A major review of adaptogenic herbs used across traditional medical systems found that some combinations of plants produce effects through synergy that no single ingredient produces on its own, and recommended that new combinations be built on traditional medical concepts^[1]. That is the herbalist's whole craft. If you want to learn to think this way about your own food and drink, it is what we teach inside Gut Brain Synchrony, my community on Skool.

What are the five flavors of Chinese medicine?

The five flavors are sour, bitter, sweet, pungent and salty, and in Chinese medicine each one is an action, not a taste note. Alongside them sit the four natures, or temperatures: cold, cool, warm and hot. Together they describe what an herb or food does inside you. Researchers who mapped herbs by nature and flavor describe the system as pharmacological rules that came out of clinical practice, and found the cold herbs they studied far richer in flavonoids than other components^[2].

So flavor and temperature are not garnish. When you taste bitter, you are tasting what the drink will do.

Bitter drains, sweet builds

The drink I tasted in the video was bitter first, then it opened up sweet. That is intentional. Bitter drains, sweet builds. You are literally drinking the yin and the yang. Bitter clears heat, dries dampness and moves things downward. Sweet tonifies, nourishes and harmonizes. A review of Chinese herbs used for inflammatory skin disease described exactly this division of labor: bitter herbs have antipyretic, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effects, acrid (pungent) herbs promote circulation, and sweet herbs nourish^[3].

The body has its own sensors for this. Bitter taste receptors, called TAS2Rs, are not only on the tongue; they are expressed along the gastrointestinal tract. A 2026 review in Nutrition Reviews describes how bitter compounds in culinary herbs and spices activate these gut receptors and can stimulate the release of the digestive hormones GLP-1 and cholecystokinin, and concludes that bringing naturally bitter plant foods into the diet is a simple, culturally adaptable way to support metabolic health^[4].

Is chrysanthemum tea good for you?

Yes, and it is one of the best examples of a cooling herb you can drink. The chrysanthemum floating in the drink in my video is there for its temperature. Ju Hua is cool, slightly bitter and sweet, and it clears heat from the Liver channel and the head. A review in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology calls the chrysanthemum flower head the paradigm of a flower used as Chinese dietary herbal medicine, used for respiratory and cardiovascular conditions, with antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective activity, and notes that the theory of dietary herbal medicine has a history of thousands of years^[5].

The classical actions of chrysanthemum are to "clear the liver" and "improve vision." A review of four medicinal flowers with those actions, including two chrysanthemums, counted 125 flavonoids among them and traced the classical effects to antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity and the regulation of oxidative stress and inflammation in liver and eye tissue^[6].

What is jujube tea good for?

Jujube is calming. The jujube date on the rim of the drink is the anchor of the formula: sweet, warm, nourishing to the Spleen and settling to the Heart and spirit. A review of jujube as dietary medicine notes that the fruit is eaten worldwide as both food and herbal medicine, and that one of its main traditional functions is to benefit the brain by calming the mind and improving the quality of sleep^[7]. The same review describes neuroprotective activity, including protection of nerve cells against neurotoxin stress and increased expression of neurotrophic factors^[7].

A later review lists jujube's polysaccharides, polyphenols and alkaloids among the compounds behind its anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective and sedative functions^[8]. If sleep is the reason you are interested in jujube, I go further into it in Does Jujube Help You Sleep?.

Did the West invent adaptogens?

No. The West just discovered these herbs and put the word adaptogen on them as if the idea were new. There are pots of soup in China that have been simmering since before your favorite supplement company's founder's family came to the US.

The researchers who have spent their careers on adaptogens say much the same thing. Their review of the field describes adaptogens as herbal medicinal and nutritional products that promote adaptability, resilience and survival under stress, drawn from plants used across traditional medical systems, and it concludes that the evolution of the adaptogenic concept has led back to the basics of those traditional systems and a holistic approach^[1]. The label is recent. The practice is not.

What does food as medicine mean in Chinese medicine?

It means that food is the original medicine. Chinese medicine has never drawn a hard line between the kitchen and the pharmacy. Many classical herbs, chrysanthemum and jujube among them, are listed as both food and medicine, a principle known as the homology of medicine and food. A review of these dual-use flowers notes the long history of the theory in China and the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity of their flavonoids, organic acids and terpenoids^[9].

A well-built meal is a well-built herbal formula. It has something bitter, something warm, something cool, something to move and something to anchor. The herb bar took that idea and made it something relaxing you want to sit down with. The drink is just the fun proof.

My point for the damp cluster

This is my whole point for what I call the damp cluster: POTS, MCAS, IBS and fibromyalgia. If you are one of the people with a shoebox of supplements who still feels terrible, your recovery was never going to come from bolting sixteen more pills onto a broken routine. It comes from your inputs, what you eat and what you drink, every day. If the word damp is new to you, start with What Is Dampness in the Body?.

Gastroenterology has arrived at the same place for IBS. A 2026 review of nutritional management for IBS notes that traditional dietary advice is commonly recommended as first-line therapy and provides a solid base for symptom improvement in almost half of patients, that the structured low-FODMAP diet is now in many clinical guidelines, and that dietary modification can significantly alleviate IBS symptoms^[10].

Fibromyalgia shows the same pattern. A systematic review of diet and fibromyalgia pain included 12 studies with 546 participants, and nine of them, including all three plant-based diet studies, reported statistically significant benefits on pain measures^[11].

A drink you look forward to beats a pill you dread

Notice what the herb bar is not. It is not a handful of pills that you force down at 6 a.m. It is something you actually look forward to. That matters, because a routine only heals you if you keep doing it. In a study of 12,122 people starting the same anti-inflammatory medicine for inflammatory bowel disease, those prescribed fewer pills a day stayed with treatment far better: adherence was 41.3 percent in the fewest-pills group against 28.0 percent in the most-pills group, and six-month persistence was 44.6 percent against 25.3 percent^[12]. A drink you enjoy is the easiest input to keep.

How do you make herbal mocktails the Chinese medicine way?

Build them the way the herb bar builds its menu, from function first and flavor second. Am I telling you to get drunk for your health, or that heavy drinking is a good idea? No. Alcohol is still delicious poison. A lot of these drinks can be built as mocktails. The herbs are the hero. The buzz is optional.

The research is blunt about the alcohol side. The Global Burden of Disease analysis of 195 countries, built on 694 data sources and 592 studies, ranked alcohol the seventh leading risk factor for death and disability worldwide in 2016 and found that the level of drinking that minimised harm across health outcomes was zero standard drinks per week^[13]. So leave the spirits out and let the herbs do the work:

The point is not one perfect drink. The point is the daily input.

Questions people ask about Chinese herbal drinks

Is chrysanthemum tea caffeinated?

No. Chrysanthemum tea is made from the dried flower, not tea leaves, so on its own it contains no caffeine. Some blends add green or black tea, so check the cup.

What is jujube ginger tea good for?

Ginger and jujube are one of the most common pairs in Chinese formulas. Ginger is pungent and warm and moves; jujube is sweet and anchors. Together they warm and settle digestion, a gentle choice for someone who runs cold.

Is there a Chinese herbal tea for sleep?

Yes. Jujube fruit is traditionally used to calm the mind and improve sleep^[7], and the seed of the same plant, Suan Zao Ren, is a classical sleep herb. A 2026 review describes the seed as a medicinal and edible material with sedative and hypnotic effects, with saponins, flavonoids and fatty oils behind its sedative, anxiolytic and antidepressant activity^[14].

Your medicine does not have to come in a bottle. Build your days the way that herb bar builds its menu, and let what you eat and drink do the work.

— Brehan Crawford, L.Ac.

References

1. Panossian AG, Efferth T, Shikov AN, et al. Evolution of the adaptogenic concept from traditional use to medical systems: Pharmacology of stress- and aging-related diseases. Med Res Rev. 2021;41(1):630-703. doi:10.1002/med.21743
2. Wang H, Wei W, Liu J, Zhang S, Zhao Y, Yu Z. The characterization of traditional Chinese medicine natures and flavors using network pharmacology integrated strategy. J Tradit Complement Med. 2024;14(3):343-349. doi:10.1016/j.jtcme.2023.12.004
3. Sun Q, Hu S, Lou Z, Gao J. The macrophage polarization in inflammatory dermatosis and its potential drug candidates. Biomed Pharmacother. 2023;161:114469. doi:10.1016/j.biopha.2023.114469
4. Komarnytsky S, Mhawish R, Wagner C. Activation of extraoral bitter taste receptors by herbs and spices in the regulation of incretin signaling and glucose metabolism. Nutr Rev. 2026;84(Suppl 1):37-48. doi:10.1093/nutrit/nuag031
5. Yuan H, Jiang S, Liu Y, et al. The flower head of Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat. (Juhua): A paradigm of flowers serving as Chinese dietary herbal medicine. J Ethnopharmacol. 2020;261:113043. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2020.113043
6. Xiong S, Xie J, Xiang F, et al. Research progress on pharmacological effects against liver and eye diseases of flavonoids present in Chrysanthemum indicum L., Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat., Buddleja officinalis Maxim. and Sophora japonica L. J Ethnopharmacol. 2025;338(Pt 2):119094. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2024.119094
7. Chen J, Liu X, Li Z, et al. A review of dietary Ziziphus jujuba fruit (jujube): Developing health food supplements for brain protection. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2017;2017:3019568. doi:10.1155/2017/3019568
8. Lu Y, Bao T, Mo J, Ni J, Chen W. Research advances in bioactive components and health benefits of jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.) fruit. J Zhejiang Univ Sci B. 2021;22(6):431-449. doi:10.1631/jzus.B2000594
9. Ma A, Zou F, Zhang R, Zhao X. The effects and underlying mechanisms of medicine and food homologous flowers on the prevention and treatment of related diseases. J Food Biochem. 2022;46(12):e14430. doi:10.1111/jfbc.14430
10. Colecchia L, Marasco G, Meacci D, et al. Nutritional management of irritable bowel syndrome. Nutrients. 2026;18(4):699. doi:10.3390/nu18040699
11. Maddox EK, Massoni SC, Hoffart CM, Takata Y. Dietary effects on pain symptoms in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome: Systematic review and future directions. Nutrients. 2023;15(3):716. doi:10.3390/nu15030716
12. Kirchgesner J, Thorne H, Safroneeva E, Laoun R. The impact of mesalazine pill burden on compliance in inflammatory bowel disease patients. Inflamm Intest Dis. 2025;10(1):214-223. doi:10.1159/000547076
13. GBD 2016 Alcohol Collaborators. Alcohol use and burden for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. Lancet. 2018;392(10152):1015-1035. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31310-2
14. Tang Y, Shang S, Runhua X, Pan G, Li W. Recent advances on the chemical compositions, biological activities, and applications of Ziziphi Spinosae Semen: From traditional treasures to modern medical stars. Phytochem Anal. 2026;37(6):795-812. doi:10.1002/pca.70078