Dolly Roy, India's first 'woman tea-taster', and wife of TMC MP Saugata Roy, dies in Kolkata

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee mourned her death in a tweet.

"I am deeply saddened by the sudden demise of Smt. Dolly Roy. My thoughts and prayers are with Shri @SaugataRoyMP and the bereaved family during this difficult time. A woman of great achievements, her warm presence among us will be dearly missed," she posted.

Dolly Roy was suffering from cancer for a long time. She was admitted to a hospital recently following an infection in lungs, reports said.

Dolly Roy, who was in her late 70s, was a tea-taster by profession.

Decades before Kolkata became a hub of mushrooming cafes with a vibrant evening life, the city knew Dolly’s, The Tea Shop, in the Dakshinapan shopping complex of south Kolkata. Since its opening in 1988, the tea shop has been a favourite of the city's celebrities.

While she was seen less and less in her tea shop in the past years, once her benign presence was the main attraction of the shop, with spartan eco-friendly cane furniture, where she would serve sandwiches with the tea and give a crash course on tea varieties and preparations- Darjeeling, Assam, Kashmiri Kawa, Lemon Ginger, Orange and Mint, et al.

Many visiting Kolkata would go back with the tea packets and boxes being sold at Dolly's while for many a Kolkatan visiting outside the state or even abroad, the favourite gift from the city would be Dolly's tea.

From touring in the USA as a tea ambassador from India in the early 1970s when she was barely 20 year old working at the Tea Board in Mumbai, to later working in the same field in Europe and then her job at a tea broking firm in India after returning from abroad, Dolly Roy earned her reputation with a rich experience in tea and tea-tasting.