By Robin Emmott

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - A loud slurping sound fills the classroom, followed by a lot of spitting, as eager students drink and then discharge mouthfuls of hot coffee, carefully marking a score sheet as they go.

"Look for the delicate flavors," calls an instructor dressed in a white coat. "Look for the quality."

Coffee tasting, long the preserve of just a handful of connoisseurs, are bringing about a huge shift in Peru's long-neglected coffee sector, encouraging growers and buyers alike to tap into a growing demand for quality in the United States and in Europe.

"Here we teach buyers to treat coffee as if it were wine," said the instructor, K.C. O'Keefe of U.S. import company Jungle Tech. "Coffee drinking is not just about getting a kick in the morning anymore."

O'Keefe, who is holding the classes at the request of Peru's coffee chamber, said many buyers in the country -- South America's No. 3 coffee producer behind Brazil and Colombia -- are commercial-grade tasters who simply look for beans without mold or fermentation.

Much of Peru's coffee is exported to Europe and the United States and is used in blends sold in restaurants, hotels, supermarkets and is also used in instant coffee. Typically, consumers are not aware that Peruvian coffee is part of the blend.

But the success of global coffee chains like Starbucks Corp. and the growing demand for quality beans from luxury food buyers like U.S-based JBR Gourmet Foods and Taylors of Harrogate in the UK make it essential that buyers for local exporters become more discriminating.

Coffee growers are also desperate to win specialty premiums above the New York market price to recover from a four-year global crisis, when supplies ballooned and prices plunged to historic lows well below the costs of production.

Prices have recovered this year and are equal to production costs in many Latin American countries, but insect damage and other defects can punish the coffees on commodity markets.

Peru, whose tropical Andean plantations boast ideal growing conditions, is well placed to make the most of the rising interest in specialty coffees and the premiums that international luxury food buyers are willing to pay.

But a lack of processing equipment, such as mills, dryers and roasting machines, means many coffees in Peru are mixed together to achieve volume for export.

"Some of Peru's coffees are like diamonds, but they are just being chucked out," said U.S. coffee guru George Howell, who helped direct the classes in Peru and who pioneered the specialty tasting concept in Latin America.

"These tastings send the message that you need to conserve the jewels," Howell said. "They sell for a much higher price."

Peruvian coffee currently goes for around $70 per 100-pound bag in New York, but specialty buyers pay at least twice that amount for world-class brews.

'Cupping' Contest

Peru's next big step on the road to quality is to hold a series of tastings, also known as cuppings, later this year to decide which of the nation's coffees is best.

Hundreds of growers will present their wares in 10 regional contests. The coffee chamber hopes judges will pick 40 semifinalists to go the grand competition in Lima Nov. 2 through 6.

"Our classes are also training the people who will be the judges in these regional contests," said Eduardo Montauban, the coffee chamber's general manager.

The chamber aims to attract international coffee buyers to decide the 10 best entries in the national competition. Unlike similar events in Brazil and Central America, the winners will not go on an Internet auction due to a lack of funds to organize the sophisticated and lucrative online process.

Instead, Peru's exporters will probably buy winning lots.

Still, Peru hopes to be able to develop its specialty coffee business so that it can eventually hold an Internet auction and one day command the kind of record prices that Panama and Nicaragua have achieved. In June, a Panamanian coffee sold for $21 a pound at auction, nearly 30 times the market price.

"We just need one or two coffees to gain international renown," said Cristobal Llanos, a buyer for exporter COEX of Lima and a student at the classes there. "And that will lift the whole industry in Peru."