Pioneering Quality and Opportunity in Indian Coffee

In January 2025, India reached a historic milestone: for the first time, the country’s coffee exports surpassed US $1 billion, growing 29% in just eight months of the fiscal year. This achievement reflects not only a thriving domestic coffee culture but also decades of effort by people who believed in what Indian coffee could become.

One of those people is Sunalini Menon, Founder of Coffeelab, member of the Board of Directors of the Specialty Coffee Association, and one of the most respected figures in global coffee. Sunalini’s journey began in 1971 at the Coffee Board of India, a time when the industry—and opportunities for women—looked very different.

Breaking Barriers as India’s First Woman Coffee Taster

“When I was growing up, coffee was only brewed at home and only consumed by the elderly. It was very expensive compared to tea,” Sunalini recalls.

When she applied for a role as a coffee taster in the early 1970s, she excelled in the tasting test—only to be told that, despite her abilities, they couldn’t hire her because she was a woman. She challenged that decision and won the opportunity to train.

It wasn’t easy. Most colleagues ignored her, and the profession was “a completely male pasture.” But she persevered. “I used to cry every day until my boss gave me advice I never forgot: acquire your knowledge, have patience, and your knowledge will become your power.”

Those words became her guiding principle, and she now shares them with young women entering the industry: “Learn your subject. Be sure of what you are talking about. Then you’ll be firm in what you do.”

Transforming India’s Coffee Through Quality

Over the next five decades, Sunalini became a key figure in transforming India’s coffee into what it is today—globally respected for its quality.

In the 1970s, the Coffee Board of India took responsibility for marketing and assessing quality because smallholder farmers didn’t yet understand how to sell or price their coffee internationally. Payments were tied to bean quality, motivating farmers to improve their practices.

When markets liberalized in 1996, those same farmers understood what buyers expected and how quality created value. Sunalini stayed by their side, cupping, advising, and ensuring they felt supported:
“Many farmers came to me and said, ‘How can you leave us? We don’t know enough about quality or processing.’ I thought I’d help for a couple of weeks, but months went by, and we built something lasting.”

Elevating Robusta and Inspiring Women

Sunalini also challenged the norm of treating Robusta as second-tier. “We never treated Robusta differently from Arabica,” she explains. “We replicated careful processing methods, creating washed Robustas that became known among the finest in the world market.”

Today, she looks across India’s coffee sector with pride: “Through all these years of hard work, I can hold my head up and say Indian coffee is of very high quality. What’s more, there are now many more women in the industry. I see so many of my young women doing so well here in India.”

A Legacy That Inspires

From breaking gender barriers to driving a national focus on quality, Sunalini Menon has helped shape a thriving coffee culture in India that is now recognized around the globe.

At IWCA, we celebrate trailblazers like Sunalini who open doors and create opportunities for the next generation of women in coffee—one cup, one harvest, and one milestone at a time.

Thank you, Sunalini, for paving the way.

Interested in more stories of women leading change in coffee? Stay connected with us at IWCA.

Read the Global Coffee Report Article: https://www.gcrmag.com/meet-the-women-fuelling-indias-coffee-market-growth/