The production of medicinal tea originated in the Tang Dynasty. The production, usage and indications of medicinal tea are recorded in the section "Waiting for a new prescription for tea" in the Secret of Foreign Taiwan, which is the first formal production of medicinal tea. Herbal tea is also used to treat "intractable low back pain" and "detoxification and diarrhea" in Dietotherapy Materia Medica. However, according to the historical data Guangya, before the Western Han Dynasty, people made tea cakes from picked tea leaves, cooked them, baked them into red, pounded them into powder and put them into porcelain, and then poured them into hot water with onion, ginger and orange as ingredients to refresh themselves. This is the earliest record of making herbal tea.

Later, there were eight herbal tea prescriptions in Taiping Shenghui Prescription in the Song Dynasty, such as "green onion and black bean tea to treat the intense heat of typhoid headache" and "gypsum tea to treat typhoid headache". In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were more and more works about herbal tea prescriptions, especially the book Shen Shi Zun Sheng written by Ao in Qing Dynasty, and the most famous one is Tianzhong Tea revised by Ye Chafang, a febrile disease scientist, which is still highly praised by the country. In addition, Materia Medica of Food Supervision and Compendium of Materia Medica also provide valuable information for the research and arrangement of medicinal tea. Medicinal tea was also used as longevity tea in the court of Qing dynasty, which shows the influence of medicinal tea on the diet life of the court.