Brazil Fazenda Triunfo Honey

Arrived mid October 2025 in grainpro liners.

About a year ago we offered a full Natural processed coffee from Fazenda Triunfo and many of our customers were sad when we ran out of it.  This year, we were offered the same coffee in a honey process and we actually selected it in multiple blind cuppings, though we were primarily seeking a Natural.  This has been a very challenging year for better coffees from Brazil and for US customers. Brazil sets the benchmark for coffee pricing as it is the world's largest producer, by far.  Early in last season, Brazil experienced very dry, almost drought conditions which reduced their crop size; that means the world's supply of Arabica coffee was also reduced and prices rose. More recently, Brazil has had a 50% tariff imposed on imports which, in turn, has prevented much of it being imported. Collectively, these situations have resulted in higher prices for all coffee, not just that from Brazil.  But happily, we were able to secure this coffee. The prior year's Natural from the same farm that we initially discovered during a cupping event we attended at a conference. The exporter represents individual property owners in Brazil's top coffee producing areas, many of them smaller farms. Fazenda Triunfo is a property in Minas Gerais, Brazil's premiere coffee producing region, that is owned by an agricultural group called Agricola G8.

At the end of 2001, Agricola G8 was founded  by the Tamekuni, Sakuma, Nakamura, Tanaka and Morita families, originally of Japan, who were members of Coopadap (Cooperativa Agropecuária do Alto Paranaíba), with the aim of producing garlic in the city of São Gotardo, in Minas Gerais. Over the years, G8 diversified its crops by producing soybeans, corn, wheat, and onions. In 2012, it expanded its planting area, also operating in the city of Cristalina, near the capital of Brasilia. Finally, coffee cultivation within the group began in 2019 at Fazenda Triunfo, located in the municipality of Pratinha, Minas Gerais. Since then, G8 has been dedicated to producing this beautiful coffee crop with unique flavors and aromas.

The difference between a full Natural coffee and Honey processing is fairly straightforward. When coffee cherries are harvested the entire cherry is allowed to slowly dry with its skin intact, a process that often takes 10 to 20 days. With honey processed coffee, also called Pulped Natural in Brazil, the outer skin of the cherry is removed and the rest of the cherry, including its pulp or flesh, is dried in much the same way. Without its skin, honey coffees can dry a bit quicker. In either process, the drying fruit pulp imparts some fruity flavor to the coffee beans (seeds) in the cherry's center.

• Farm: Fazenda Triunfo
• Producer: Marcelo Morita 
• Owner Group: Agricola 8
  
• Country: Brazil
• State: Minas Gerais
• Municipality: Pratinha
• Region: Cerrado
• Altitude: 1250 meters
• Variety: Caturra
• Processing: Honey processed, self induced with yeast
  

We purchased this coffee from Brazilian exporter NuCoffee, which, as noted above, works with individual producers. They also provide technical support to producing farms in their network. NuCoffee has an Artisans Project where their objective is to enhance and improve coffee flavors through fermentation techniques using yeasts specifically tailored to coffee. They apply carefully selected yeasts for coffee fermentation based on variety, altitude and other factors, thus establishing a unique and highly specialized approach previously unprecedented in the Brazil coffee market. This scientific approach is done to achieve specific sensory outcomes.

Edimar, manager of the Agricola 8 Artisan project for Fazenda Triunfo

Through the use of their proprietary Self-Induced Anaerobic Fermentation (SIAF) method and the introduction of starter cultures, the Agricola 8 fermentation process is optimized and accelerated, providing substantial gains in its efficiency and flavor development. Scientific details aside, Fazenda Triunfo's coffee is flavorful, clean and tasty.