Stick with the tablets. Although I am of Asian heritage, the soups and teas are not to my liking. Even my mom, who was born in China, hates them. One formula dates back hundreds of years and has bizarre-sounding additives like dried fungus or “wood ear.” I guess it’s cheaper than truffles.
Actually, I would avoid any tablets, creams, tinctures or other proprietary formulations of TCM. They have been found to contain all sorts of ingredients, like steroids and some substances banned in the West as carcinogenic. I wouldn't even try dried herbs unless I was _certain_ what it was. Some of the herbs have similar sounding common names and they all mostly look alike, to the untrained. You are right, though: they mostly don't smell very good. If they taste like they smell, it would be difficult to ingest them. There is also no way to tell how much active ingredient any given quantity of dried herb might or might not contain.