Bean there, done that: Meet Asia's first female coffee expert, Sunalini Menon

"But she is a woman, and will be married off soon," a panel argued.

The year was 1971, and the dilemma was whether to give the candidate a job of an assistant cup taster on the Coffee Board of India.

She had topped the written examination and oral tests, competing with PhDs and coffee experts, but the hesitation was due to her gender.

The person in question was Sunalini Menon, who spent the next 25 years, sipping, slurping and spitting coffee, identifying flavour notes, and determining the quality of the drink for coffee growers in India.

"The slurping is to expose the sip to oxygen and open its flavours, and spitting is to avoid consuming so much coffee," the tiny figured lady explains with a broad smile when we meet her in Coorg.

Her melodious voice has us in rapt attention, as she excitedly spoke of Block no. 19, Tata Coffee's micro lot from the Nullore estate, selected last year by Starbucks for sale under the Reserve Brand in USA.

Menon, who consults several traditional coffee growers, has carved a niche for herself. She closely worked on the micro lot (cream of the crop with artisanal properties, usually sold in small quantities for a higher price) that put Indian coffee on the global map.

The seed was sown in childhood. "In the summers, we would go to Polachi in Coimbatore and visit the tea plantation my uncle was posted at. Labourers picked tea and put it through steaming, drying and rolling processes. During tastings, the tea master would use a penny to weigh the tea. Tasters would slurp, sip and spit out the liquid," says Menon.

Imitating them, the kids would take the leftover tea "gargle and make horrendous noises," laughs Menon.

After a degree in dietetics, while applying for scholarships in New York Institute of Dietetics, Menon saw Coffee Board of India's job ad for an assistant cup taster, and "memories of sipping, slurping and spitting came flooding back." As no woman had ever held the post, she was sure she wouldn't make it, but soon she completed the board's two-member team.

The board sent her to Witnerthone near Zurich for a year-long intensive course in coffee tasting in 1976, followed by a six-month review training in 1982.

"My hosts exposed me to a lot of international coffees from Peru and Costa Rica, and also sent me to Germany. This was an eye opener, and palate too, because at the time, India didn't have such exotic coffees. I learnt to identify characters and use my palate to decipher coffee". When she returned, her boss had retired and she took over to become India's first cup taster.

Friends and family would tease her, "Your job is to take coffee breaks. What fun'.

The sensorial method, though, involved a lot: focusing on fragrance, aroma, flavour, aftertaste, acidity, mouthful, sweetness, balance, uniformity, overall taste and cleanliness of the cup to determine the coffee's quality.

"One that secures 80 or above is considered a speciality coffee," explains Menon, adding that the science and chemistry behind the cup can also be evaluated individually to provide accurate results. "But so far, a holistic scientific value hasn't been arrived at to conclude on the cup rating. Till it does, I guess we tasters will have a job," says Menon.

After the market liberalised in 1996 and growers could sell their own coffee, the board shifted focus to research and training. Menon moved to Japan, where her husband was posted, but coffee growers coaxed her to return and continue independent quality checks and research on their plantation.

"Coffee has come a long way in India, primarily a tea growing country. The British introduced the coffee plant from Ethiopia. A drink for the elderly and usually consumed at home, it didn't have a special aura. But the vision of grandmothers using the dabba filter to brew their cup has become a fad after Café Coffee Day (CCD) launched in Bengaluru in 1996," recalls Menon.

That's why, Block No 19 is special. Indian coffee being selected for a limited edition sale by an international company will encourage more plantations to work on micro lots. This milestone has opened a door to make artisanal Indian coffee a stand out," says the woman who has paved way for women tasters in India. As for her poison, it's "a blend of robusta and Arabica beans. Black please," she signs off.