The Best Thing 爱你 Cdrama: TCM Recipes to Make at Home

If you finished The Best Thing 爱你 at midnight and immediately Googled "what did He Suye put in that tea," you're in very good company. The 2025 iQIYI drama about a TCM doctor and a chronically sleep-deprived hotel manager had viewers putting down their bubble tea and picking up dried jujube. This post breaks down the real The Best Thing cdrama recipes so you can actually cook them.

> In This Post: Everything You Need for The Best Thing Cdrama Recipes

If you finished The Best Thing 爱你 at midnight and immediately Googled what Dr. He Suye put in that tea, you're not alone. The 2025 cdrama about a TCM doctor and a chronically sleep-deprived hotel manager sent viewers straight to their dried goods aisle. This post breaks down the real The Best Thing cdrama recipes and herbs so you can actually make them at home.

Jump to:

• > In This Post: Everything You Need for The Best Thing Cdrama Recipes
• What Is The Best Thing 爱你?
• Why TCM Food Therapy Is the Real Star
• Key TCM Herbs and Foods from the Drama
• He Suye's Licorice Root Tea
• The Red Bean Recipes He Suye Prescribed
• Where to Buy TCM Ingredients in Canada
• The Herbs, Episode by Episode
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
• Other TCM Teas and Soups to Try
• > Recipe Card
• The Best Thing 爱你 Cdrama: Jujube Goji Berry Sleep Tea (TCM)

What Is The Best Thing 爱你?

Released on iQIYI in February 2025, The Best Thing (爱你) stars Zhang Linghe as Dr. He Suye, a third-generation TCM physician, opposite Xu Ruohan as Shen Xifan, a workaholic suffering from chronic insomnia and migraines. Each episode loosely centres on one herb or TCM food, from licorice root to lily buds to fox nuts, used to gradually restore her sleep and emotional health. The storytelling is gentle. The food knowledge is genuinely solid.

What sets it apart from other medical romances is the philosophy baked into every scene. Food and medicine share the same source, 藥食同源, and the drama makes that feel less like a textbook fact and more like something worth trying on a Sunday afternoon.

Why TCM Food Therapy Is the Real Star

Dr. He Suye doesn't just write bitter prescriptions. He adjusts Shen Xifan's diet, brews teas suited to her constitution, and makes fragrant sachets to calm her nervous system between clinic visits. That's TCM food therapy working the way it's meant to, as a daily practice, not a dramatic cure.

The drama does a better job explaining this concept than most wellness platforms. It also has the advantage of Zhang Linghe delivering the information, which helps with retention.

Key TCM Herbs and Foods from the Drama

Each episode introduces a different ingredient. These are the ones viewers kept searching after watching.

Chinese licorice (甘草 / Gan Cao) is the first one Dr. He Suye reaches for. He steeps sliced licorice root in water and drinks it throughout the day as a calming, throat-soothing practice. In TCM, licorice harmonizes other herbs in a formula and supports spleen and lung qi. It's the quiet workhorse of the herbal pantry.

Jujube (紅棗 / Hong Zao) nourishes blood, calms the spirit, and forms the backbone of almost every Chinese herbal recipe for insomnia. The drama uses it often, with good reason. Paired with goji berries, it's the simplest effective sleep tea you can make.

Apple (苹果 / Ping Guo) appears early in the series as a gentle digestive aid. Cooked apple moistens the intestines and settles the stomach before bed, a small but practical detail the show gets right.

Poria mushroom (茯苓 / Fu Ling) strengthens spleen qi and gently quiets an overworked mind. He Suye makes a soup using lily buds, fox nuts, and poria, one of the drama's most-discussed recipes and one that overlaps neatly with Cantonese tong sui tradition. For context on how poria works in a seasonal soup, the Ching Bo Leung recipe on Nomss covers it well.

Osmanthus (桂花 / Gui Hua) features in sachets and evening teas throughout the series. It's warming, lightly sweet, and gently calming for the liver in TCM terms. It also makes your kitchen smell exceptional, which is a perfectly valid reason to stock it.

Dried tangerine peel (陳皮 / Chen Pi) and Ginger appear regularly as digestive supports and warming agents. If you're not keeping chen pi in your pantry yet, the spring dampness TCM guide on Nomss makes a solid case for why you should be.

The drama's consistent focus on sleep connects directly to a classic TCM imbalance: a depleted heart-spleen connection. The Si Shen Tang recipe addresses similar patterns, with four gentle herbs that target spleen qi deficiency and adrenal fatigue.

He Suye's Licorice Root Tea

This is the simplest recipe in the drama. Dr. He Suye steeps dried licorice root slices in warm or room-temperature water and drinks it through the day. No boiling required, no complex formula. It's mildly sweet without any added sugar, lightly cooling, and supportive of spleen and lung qi according to TCM principles.

Licorice root (甘草片) is easy to source at any Chinese grocery. I've seen it consistently at T&T in the dried herbs aisle. One note: those with high blood pressure, kidney conditions, or who are pregnant should check with a licensed TCM practitioner before making this a daily habit. The fictional doctor is charming; the real precautions still apply.

The Red Bean Recipes He Suye Prescribed

The jujube tea isn't the only recipe He Suye puts into Shen Xifan's hands. In Episode 15, he gives her two jars of red beans and a set of handwritten medicinal food recipes, explaining that red beans clear stagnation and help regulate mood. Her father goes home and quietly cooks them for her.

The specific dishes, including a classical adzuki bean and carp soup (赤小豆鲤鱼汤) rooted in Tang dynasty medicine, deserve their own post. The red bean scene was written specifically for the drama and doesn't appear anywhere in the original novel by 笙离 Shengli, which makes it one of the most underwritten corners of The Best Thing in English. That post is coming soon.

Where to Buy TCM Ingredients in Canada

T&T Supermarket carries almost everything on this list. Dried jujube, goji berries, poria slices, osmanthus flowers, and licorice root are all in the dried goods section. Fresh ginger is at any grocery store.

For bulk quantities, I usually buy dried jujube and goji berries at Costco because the quality is consistent and the price is genuinely reasonable for the bag size you get. The goji berry bags in particular are worth stocking, since they go into teas, congee, soups, and the occasional smoothie without much thought. Both are also available through Amazon if you want to compare prices or need specific varieties.

Most dry goods ingredients, tools, and supplies can be purchased at local Asian markets, Chinese grocery stores, or Amazon Online. Amazon Prime members receive free shipping and faster delivery times.

The Herbs, Episode by Episode

Every episode of The Best Thing 爱你 opens with a TCM herb or ingredient as its title. It's one of the most deliberate structural choices in the drama, and the one that has almost no English-language documentation. Here is the complete list across all 28 episodes.

Ep	Chinese	English Name	TCM Function
1	苏叶	Perilla Leaf	Warms the stomach, disperses cold, regulates qi
2	苹果	Apple	Calms the mind, gentle sleep aid, settles the stomach
3	甘草	Chinese Licorice	Tonifies spleen qi, clears heat, harmonises formulas
4	薄荷	Mint	Disperses wind-heat, clears the head and eyes
5	淮山	Chinese Yam	Nourishes the lungs, spleen, and kidneys; generates fluids
6	合欢皮	Albizia Bark love scene	Calms the spirit, relieves anxiety and emotional constraint
7	远志	Polygala love scene	Quiets the heart, calms the mind, opens the orifices
8	艾叶	Mugwort	Warms the meridians, stops bleeding, disperses cold
9	桂花	Osmanthus	Warms the stomach, transforms phlegm, calms the liver
10	五味子	Schisandra	Tonifies the kidneys, astringes qi, calms the spirit
11	蜂蜜	Honey	Moistens the lungs, nourishes the middle, topically heals sores
12	沉香	Agarwood	Descends rebellious qi, warms the kidneys, calms wheezing
13	生龙骨	Dragon Bone	Anchors yang, calms the liver, settles the spirit
14	决明子	Cassia Seeds	Clears liver heat, brightens the eyes, gently moves the bowels
15	红豆	Adzuki Beans dad cooks	Clears stagnation, reduces swelling, regulates mood
16	生姜	Fresh Ginger	Disperses exterior cold, warms the stomach, stops nausea
17	陈皮	Dried Tangerine Peel	Dries dampness, transforms phlegm, moves stagnant qi
18	朱砂	Cinnabar	Clears heart heat, calms the spirit, detoxifies
19	茵陈	Capillary Wormwood	Clears damp-heat, benefits the gallbladder, relieves jaundice
20	菖蒲	Calamus / Acorus	Opens the orifices, transforms dampness, calms the mind
21	辛夷	Magnolia Flower Bud	Opens nasal passages, disperses wind-cold
22	芍药	Chinese Peony	Nourishes blood, calms the liver, relieves pain
23	郁金香	Tulip	Moves qi stagnation, calms emotional constraint
24	葛花	Kudzu Flower	Relieves alcohol toxicity, clears heat from the stomach
25	芡实	Fox Nut / Euryale	Strengthens the spleen, stabilises kidney qi, stops discharge
26	半夏	Pinellia	Dries dampness, transforms phlegm, descends rebellious stomach qi
27	茯苓	Poria	Strengthens the spleen, drains dampness, calms the mind
28	金银花	Honeysuckle proposal	Clears heat-toxins, resolves inflammation, cools blood

Episodes 1, 6, 7, 15, and 28 are confirmed from Chinese drama recap sources. All other episodes are sequenced from the confirmed order of herb appearances across the full drama. This is the first comprehensive English-language episode herb index for The Best Thing 爱你.

Three episodes worth highlighting for the blog:

Episode 6 (合欢皮) is the most-quoted moment in the drama. He Suye tells Shen Xifan: "You are my albizia bark, relieving my worry and sorrow." In TCM, albizia bark resolves emotional constraint tied to the liver and heart. It's also used in formulas for depression and insomnia caused by unresolved grief, which is exactly Shen Xifan's pattern at this point in the story.

Episode 7 (远志) He Suye completes the thought in the rain: "And I am your polygala, calming your mind and spirit." Polygala enters the heart and kidney meridians and is used specifically for anxiety, insomnia, and a restless, unsettled mind. Two herbs. One exchange. The writers knew what they were doing.

Episode 28 (金银花) The final episode herb is honeysuckle, 金银花. In the last scene, He Suye weaves a honeysuckle vine into a ring and places it on Shen Xifan's finger as a proposal. Honeysuckle's twining, clinging growth habit is an ancient Chinese symbol of love and devotion. It is also the herb that ends the drama, which is quietly perfect for a show that began with a TCM doctor and a woman who couldn't sleep.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The drama raises a lot of questions about TCM that Dr. He Suye answers in 24 episodes. Here are the ones that come up most when you're standing in T&T holding a bag of licorice root.

Shen Xifan needed a TCM doctor to move into her neighbourhood and a 24-episode story arc to sort her sleep. You just need a pot, a handful of red dates, and about 25 minutes.

Other TCM Teas and Soups to Try

If the drama has you curious about TCM food therapy beyond jujube tea, there's a lot more to explore on Nomss. The Chrysanthemum Honeysuckle Tea is a good next step, gentle, cooling, and easy to make on a weeknight. It clears heat without burdening the spleen, which makes it a natural follow-up to the warming teas in the drama.

For something more substantial, Si Shen Tang is a four-herb Cantonese soup that targets the same spleen and heart imbalance He Suye keeps addressing throughout the series. It's mild enough to drink regularly and uses ingredients you'll already have after stocking up for the jujube tea.

Ching Bo Leung covers similar ground with a broader herb base, poria, fox nuts, lotus seeds, and barley working together in a single pot. It's the kind of soup that makes sense to batch cook on a Sunday, which is exactly how He Suye would probably suggest you approach it.

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