We’re delighted to have added further awards to our growing collection in 2026, continuing a run of recognition for our cheeses and yoghurts that began in 2024.
Since first entering industry competitions, we’ve been fortunate to receive recognition across several of our products, with awards from the South African Food & Beverage Awards, Aurora International Taste Challenge, Food&Home Best in Food Awards and South African Dairy Championships.
Our latest awards, announced in July 2026, saw us receive four Silver Awards, with both our Vacchino Romano cheese and full-cream plain yoghurt receiving Silver at the South African Food & Beverage Awards and the Aurora International Taste Challenge.
These latest achievements follow a particularly successful 2025, during which we received multiple Gold, Double Gold and Silver Awards, as well as recognition at the South African Dairy Championships.
A particularly successful 2025
One of our highlights of 2025 was the success of our Brie and Camembert, which each received Double Gold at both the South African Food & Beverage Awards and the Aurora International Taste Challenge.
Our Lactose-Free Double Cream Strained Yoghurt (formerly known as Greek Yoghurt) and Double Cream Strained Yoghurt with Added Strawberries were both awarded Silver at the 2025 South African Food & Beverage Awards.
Further recognition came from the 2025 Food&Home Best in Food Awards, where we secured four Gold Awards across our range.
Our Brie was named Best Cheese in the Bloomy Rind Cheeses category, while our Vacchino Romano received Best Cheese in the Hard Cheese category. Our Cream Cheese took the top award in the Plain Cream Cheese category, and our Double Cream Strained Yoghurt was named Best Dairy in the Greek Yoghurt category.
These results were particularly encouraging for us, with recognition across a diverse range of products, from soft-ripened and hard cheeses to fresh cream cheese and traditionally made yoghurt.
Earlier in 2025, we also achieved two placements at the South African Dairy Championships, one of the country’s most established dairy competitions.
Our Brie placed second in the Brie Without Condiments category, while our Lactose-Free Yoghurt achieved third place in the Strained Yoghurt category.
The competition attracted 1,110 dairy products from 77 manufacturers, judged by 103 experts, making these placements particularly significant for our relatively young cheesery.
Recognition from our early days
Our awards journey began in 2024, just two years after we established Bush Hill Cheese on Underbush Farm in Creighton.
At the 2024 Food&Home Best in Food Awards, we received two Silver Awards, with our Camembert recognised in the Soft Cheeses category and our Halloumi named runner-up in the Cheeses category.
These early awards were enormously encouraging for our small cheesery and laid the foundation for the achievements that followed in 2025 and 2026.
From our farm to award-winning dairy products
Our cheesery is situated on Underbush Farm in Creighton, southern KZN, where we established Bush Hill Cheese in 2022.
As a family-run dairy farming and cheesemaking business, we have the advantage of producing our own milk, using the full-cream milk from our pasture-based Jersey herd to manufacture our range of cheeses and yoghurts in our on-site cheesery.
Our Jersey cows graze on ryegrass and kikuyu pastures grown on the farm, and their milk is used to produce our range using traditional cheesemaking and yoghurt-making methods.
We don’t remove the cream from our milk before production, nor do we rely on stabilisers or bulking agents to create the consistency of our yoghurts and cream cheeses. Instead, we use traditional methods, including straining through muslin cloth, to produce the thick, creamy textures for which our products have become known.
For us, the continued recognition is particularly rewarding because we are involved in the entire process, from growing the pastures and caring for our herd to producing the finished products.
Looking ahead
With awards now spanning three consecutive years, we continue to develop our range while maintaining our focus on traditional production methods and the quality of our own Jersey milk.
We supply restaurants, hotels, lodges, delicatessens and retailers, and we’re seeing growing interest in our range of full-cream and lactose-free dairy products.
These awards are an encouraging acknowledgement of the work taking place both on our farm and in our cheesery, and a reminder of just how far we’ve come since opening our doors in 2022. We are very grateful to everyone involved in getting our range to market.
From the pastures of Underbush Farm to our award-winning cheeses and yoghurts, it’s a journey we’re enormously proud of, and one we look forward to continuing.
For trade enquiries or further information, email us on sales@bushhillcheese.co.za
