The Botanical Brothers Win Gold and Silver at the 2025 Golden Leaf Awards

The Botanical Brothers have taken home both a Gold and a Silver at the 2025 Golden Leaf Awards, one of the most respected competitions in the tea industry. They earned Gold for Best Tea Bag Blend in the Herbal category for CherryHill Cherry Tea, and Silver for Fruit Infusion in the Herbal category for the same blend.

Winning one award at the Golden Leaf Awards is an achievement. Winning two for the same tea speaks to craftsmanship, collaboration, and attention to detail at every stage of production.

A Prestigious Benchmark in the Tea World

The Golden Leaf Awards are widely regarded as a global benchmark for quality in tea. Producers from around the world submit their best blends, often after months or years of refinement. The competition spans multiple categories, from traditional black and green teas to herbal infusions and specialty blends.

What makes the awards so respected is the judging process. Entries are evaluated through blind tasting. Judges do not see brand names, packaging or marketing materials. They assess the tea on its own merits. Aroma, clarity of liquor, balance, mouthfeel, finish and overall character all play a role. In herbal categories, judges look for purity of flavour, natural sweetness or brightness and how well the ingredients work together.

Consistency matters, too. For the Best Tea Bag Blend category, judges also consider how the tea performs in a bag format. That includes infusion strength, even extraction and how closely the brewed cup matches what you would expect from a loose-leaf version. Tea bags often face higher scrutiny because it takes skill to preserve quality in a more convenient format.

The Botanical Brothers’ CherryHill Cherry Tea impressed on both fronts. It stood out as a carefully balanced herbal blend and as a tea bag product that delivered a full, expressive cup.

CherryHill Cherry Tea: A Focus on Real Flavour

CherryHill Cherry Tea is built around a simple idea: let the fruit speak for itself. Rather than relying on artificial flavourings or overpowering additions, the blend highlights real cherries grown at CherryHill Orchards.

The base is a thoughtfully chosen herbal blend designed to support and lift the natural fruit notes. When brewed, the tea offers a deep ruby colour, a bright cherry aroma and a smooth, rounded body. The flavour opens with fresh cherry sweetness, followed by gentle tartness and a clean finish.

That balance is what helped it earn Gold for Best Tea Bag Blend in the Herbal category. Judges noted the clarity of flavour and how well the cherry profile carried through in a bag format. It also secured Silver for Fruit Infusion in the Herbal category, reinforcing its strength as a fruit-forward blend.

Collaboration with CherryHill Orchards

Behind this success is a close partnership with CherryHill Orchards. The collaboration began with a shared goal: create a tea that truly represents the orchard’s fruit, not just the idea of cherry.

CherryHill Orchards has built a reputation for high-quality cherries grown with careful attention to soil health, harvesting practices and flavour development. The Botanical Brothers saw an opportunity to translate that quality into a tea format.

The process started in the orchard. The team worked directly with CherryHill growers to select the right cherry varieties. Not every cherry works well in tea. Some are too mild once dried. Others become overly sharp or lose their character during processing.

They tested different harvest windows as well. Cherries picked at peak ripeness offer deeper sweetness and more complexity. That timing proved critical. Slight changes in sugar content and acidity can dramatically affect how a fruit infusion tastes once steeped in hot water.

From Orchard to Teacup

Once the cherries were selected, the next challenge was processing. Drying fruit for tea is not the same as drying it for snacking. The pieces need to retain aroma, colour and flavour while being cut or milled to a size that works well in blending and in tea bags.

The teams experimented with different drying methods to preserve volatile aroma compounds. Temperature control was key. Too high, and the fruit loses its bright top notes. Too low, and moisture remains, which can affect shelf stability and infusion quality.

After drying, the fruit was blended with complementary herbal ingredients. This stage involved multiple rounds of tasting. Small pilot batches were brewed and evaluated for balance. The Botanical Brothers adjusted the ratios until the cherry flavor felt natural and complete, not masked or exaggerated.

They also tested the blend specifically in tea bag format. Particle size, cut style, and blend distribution all influence extraction. A tea that tastes perfect loose-leaf may need refinement to perform well in a bag. Achieving Gold in the Best Tea Bag Blend category shows how much care went into this step.

Why the Awards Matter

For The Botanical Brothers, these awards are not just trophies. They are validation of a process built on sourcing integrity and hands-on development.

The Golden Leaf Awards’ blind judging format removes brand recognition from the equation. A small producer stands on equal footing with established global names. That makes every medal meaningful.

Winning Gold for Best Tea Bag Blend in the Herbal category signals that CherryHill Cherry Tea delivers quality without compromise in a format many consumers rely on daily. Winning Silver for Fruit Infusion in the Herbal category confirms that the fruit profile itself stands out among international entries.

Together, the awards reflect both technical skill and flavour excellence.

Raising the Bar for Herbal Tea

Herbal tea and fruit infusions are sometimes underestimated compared to traditional teas. But the level of precision required to produce a balanced fruit infusion is significant. Unlike black or green tea, which bring their own structure and tannins, herbal blends depend entirely on ingredient harmony.

CherryHill Cherry Tea shows what is possible when growers and blenders work closely together. It demonstrates that convenience and quality can coexist. It also highlights how thoughtful collaboration, from orchard soil to final packaging, can elevate a simple idea into an award-winning product.

For CherryHill Orchards, the recognition brings their fruit to a global stage in a new form. For The Botanical Brothers, it reinforces their reputation for careful craftsmanship.

In a crowded market, authenticity stands out. Real fruit. Real collaboration. Real attention to detail.

The 2025 Golden Leaf Awards have confirmed what many loyal customers already knew: CherryHill Cherry Tea is more than a flavoured infusion. It is a carefully built expression of orchard and blender working as one, now recognised with Gold and Silver on one of the industry’s most respected stages.

Try it for yourself

Try the double award winning CherryHill cherry tea for yourself. Buy now online and receive within 2-3 days.