Sunalini Menon
Sunalini Menon has grown up in coffee since her post graduation in Food Technology from the University of Madras, India in 1972. She has spent more than 50 years in coffee in the arena of quality and has worked as a quality evaluator, trainer, coffee blender, developer of green coffee brands for the farmer, judge in coffee competitions, writer of coffee articles and even as a coffee guide to new coffee entrepreneurs.
Her career commenced at the Coffee Board of India, where she was trained in the art and science of cupping and quality evaluation, not only becoming the first woman coffee taster in Asia, but also ultimately heading the Quality Control for Indian coffee at the Coffee Board of India, as the Director (Quality), where she helped in the formulation of quality standards for Indian coffee, besides launching speciality coffees to the world market.
In 1996, when the market for Indian coffee was liberalised, Sunalini helped in the setting up of a lab called ‘Coffeelab’ in Bangalore. This lab is the first of its kind to be established in the private sector in India, providing comprehensive quality related services not only for the Indian coffee industry, but also for coffees from various producing origins and consuming countries. The lab undertakes the training of personnel connected with coffee, coffee lovers and coffee consumers on the art and science of cupping.
Sunalini undertakes the evaluation and certification of coffee that is exported from India. She is associated with quality and quality related aspects of domestic coffees also and has been promoting the concept of quality in coffee over many years, making presentations and conducting workshops on coffee quality not only at International conferences, but also in coffee producing origins in Africa, Asia and the Americas, where she worked as a Coffee Corps Volunteer of the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI). In India, she has built a platform for training all in the coffee value chain on coffee quality, besides helping brands of green coffee of various coffee farms to be developed. She teaches at the ‘Masters Course on Coffee Science and Economics’ at the Universita del Café, Trieste under the Ernesto Illy Foundation and the University of Udine.
She has many awards to her credit, received from the Speciality Coffee Association of America, the CQI, the International Women’s Coffee Alliance (IWCA), USA, Speciality Coffee Association of Europe and also the First Lady Achievers Award from the President of India.
Sunalini is on the Board of Trustees of the CQI and was earlier an Independent Director of M/s. Tata Coffee Limited, Asia’s largest integrated coffee company, besides being the President of the Women’s Coffee Alliance – India Chapter of the IWCA.
From a Q grader to an R grader, Sunalini is a Q Processing Professional Robusta Instructor and is the President of Coffeelab Limited, Bangalore, India.