Meet Dylan Rothenberg: The American PhD Student Cultivating Sustainable Tea Futures
While most grad students are buried in textbooks, 28-year-old Dylan Rothenberg is digging deeper—literally. The U.S. native is pursuing a Tea Science PhD in Guangzhou, analyzing soil microbes in organic tea plantations across the Chinese mainland. His mission? To brew up eco-friendly farming practices that could revolutionize tea production worldwide.
\"Healthy soil means healthier tea,\" says Dylan, who combines his environmental activism with lab work. His research focuses on boosting soil sustainability to create climate-resilient tea crops—a crucial innovation as extreme weather challenges growers.
From Lab to Vlog: Spilling the Tea Globally 

When he’s not playing plant detective (think Sherlock Holmes with a pH meter ), Dylan runs a social media empire explaining Chinese tea culture to global audiences. His videos—watched by thousands—break down everything from oolong antioxidants to the art of tea ceremony, \"bridging cultures one cup at a time.\"
Why it matters: As climate change reshapes agriculture, Dylan’s work offers a template for sustainable farming—with tea leaves as his test subjects. Meanwhile, his viral content is giving Gen Z worldwide a taste of China’s 4,000-year-old tea legacy.
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U.S. 'tea doctor' looks at ecological tea plantations in China
cgtn.com