Coffee Tales- A Conversation With Sunalini Menon

When the address says Coffeelab Ltd., I expect it to be a stark white building with instruments, a whole lot of white coats and coffee, co-existing in an austere ambiance to give us a more logical explanation for our fascination with this brown liquid. Instead, I find the lab is nestled in a cosy residential area. It’s an old house that still has its charm, the interior of which has been modified to house the first of its kind lab. Coffee is in the air! And I mean that quite literally.

The scent of coffee, the rooms decorated with the largest collection of coffee mugs, the coffee seeds placed in ornate bowls, and the accolades displayed on the wall. Everything stands testimony to Sunalini Menon, Asia’s first woman coffee taster. Breaking stereotypes and paving her way through the world of coffee Sunalini Menon puts it quite simply. Whether its life, career, or a great cup of coffee, it’s about finding the perfect balance.

Sunalini Menon has been awarded the 2014 Alfred Peet Passionate Cup Award, by the Speciality Coffee Association of America. She also teaches at the Università Del Caffè de Trieste as a Full-time Professor. In 2003, she was on the Tea and Coffee Trade Journal’s “People of The Year” list for her outstanding contribution to the coffee industry India. These are just a few of her accolades. The Coffeelab gets samples from all over the world for analysis and her expert feedback. To think this incredible journey began with tea.

“I remember watching my uncle tasting tea in the estates of Munnar. He would take a sip with a slurp, taste it and then admonish it as bad. As children, we always loved to slurp our milk to get a white moustache. Our grandmother would tell us that it is bad manners to do so. And here I see grownups doing the same, and then spitting it all out. To think someone could get away with this act of “bad manners” and then actually, pass judgement on how good or bad the tea was. I did not know that there was something called as “tasting”, but as a child, I did think this would be a fun thing to do when I grow up.”

Growing up in Chennai, Sunalini Menon says her childhood was filled with love and support of her family members. “My grandfather migrated from Cuddalore with his brothers, and they all settled in Chennai. My grandfather was very radical, and he insisted that girls should be brought up like boys, and must be educated. While his brothers did not agree and all the other girls in the family were married young, my older sister and I continued with our education.”

Sunalini Menon did her Masters in Food technology. We are talking about 1971, a time when women did not pursue higher education or work. This was just the beginning of Sunalini Menon’s journey to defy gender stereotypes and bring Indian coffee to the limelight.

In 1972, she saw an ad in the local newspaper for a coffee taster, and Menon applied for this job. “My father was working in Bangalore in a bank, so I decided to apply for this job. But after I got the job, he got transferred back to Chennai.” Bangalore city is teeming with PG’s (Paying guests) for women today. In 1972, this would be a rare phenomenon. “I had almost decided to give up the assignment. If it wasn’t for my mother I might have. She reminded me how this was a unique opportunity and helped me a find a place to live close to the Coffee Board.”” Despite her stellar academic performance and acing the tests for the position of “assistant cup taster” (she laughs as she recollects the title), the panel was skeptical about giving her the job. The Chairman of the Coffee Board, impressed with her credentials decided that she deserved a chance to prove herself. Needless to say, she did.

The lab is getting ready for a round of coffee tasting as I see glasses filled with varying shades of the brown liquid. A coffee grower wants his coffee profiled before he gets them ready for an exhibition. Coffeelab provides solutions to coffee farmers from the field right to the final product. They profile coffee based on its mouthfeel, flavour, acidity, sweetness, bitterness, aftertaste, uniformity, cleanliness and balance. They also perform brewing/ roasting studies and sometimes visit the farm to get to the root cause of a batch gone bad. With years of practice under her belt, Menon can pick on the slightest offnotes, and underlying flavors. Frequent training sessions and workshops are also held at the lab. “We also conduct workshops for coffee farmers, so that they understand the importance of Robusta coffee which is also grown in India, and learn to take better care of them. Farmers often undermine the care given to Robusta, because of their low prices. Once they give it the right attention, it has the capability to shine globally. Yes, Arabica is the more flavourful coffee, but Robusta provides the backbone to Arabica. Robusta has many positives that people have slowly come to accept. I hope more people will do so. ”

To sum up Sunalini Menon’s journey from Chennai to being one of the most respected people in the world of coffee, in a few words is an impossible task. From dealing with the initial hostility of her co-workers, refusing to take ideas from a woman much younger than them, to becoming the Board’s Quality Control head and then leaving it all to start her own venture- Sunalini Menon says that her journey has taught her to love the beverage even more today. “Coffee humbles you. It teaches you something new every day. You can never say that you know it all. Coffee is my bread and butter.”

I wrap up the interview as she gets ready for tasting (time of the day also plays a huge factor on how one perceives the taste). She insists on giving me a packet of freshly ground coffee. In the bus, my bag smells strongly of coffee, but my thoughts are far away from it. I am thinking of Menon’s advice to all women out there- “Knowledge is power. Make sure you learn your subject well. Tread swiftly yet steadily and always voice your opinion with confidence.”