Chen Dong (陈栋) is a national chief black tea expert and former deputy director of the Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He served as the national post scientist for the China Agriculture Research System’s Black Tea Division (国家茶叶产业技术体系红茶岗位专家).
Chen Dong is credited with the discovery of natural almond aroma in wild ancient tree black tea from [Luokeng](https://shaoguantea.com/glossary/luokeng/), [Shaoguan](https://shaoguantea.com/glossary/shaoguan/). During a survey of Luokeng’s ancient tea tree communities around 2011, he identified that only 3 out of 10+ communities could produce tea with a distinctive almond fragrance — now known as the signature of Snow Flower Rock’s premium black teas.
He described his excitement at the discovery: “I couldn’t sleep for three days.” Chen Dong led the technical team that developed the proprietary processing technique to stabilize and enhance the almond aroma, which was recognized as filling a gap in China’s black tea aroma spectrum.