Tillamook is home to some of the most delicious food around—and we don’t just mean cheese! Fruit from our Pacific Northwest is known for its full flavor, size and natural sweetness unparalleled in the country. That’s why we put it in our yogurt. It’s one way we #GoNatural.

So what exactly makes the local berries that go into our Light and Lowfat Yogurt so special? The Pacific Northwest is blessed with climate that produces extraordinary fruit. Our warm summer days and cool, crisp nights coupled with abundant rainfall makes for fertile soils to grow a variety of delicious fruit, including strawberries, marionberries and raspberries. Here’s how some of summer’s best make it into our yogurt:

Strawberries – June and July
Our strawberries are grown right in Oregon and their tastiness is amplified by our cool spring and warm summer months. The berries stay on the vine and ripen slowly, allowing the natural sugars to increase before they’re harvested and added to our Light Oregon Strawberry Yogurt.

Bing Cherries – June and July
Our Bing Cherries are found up and down the banks of the Columbia River, blanketing the orchards of the Willamette Valley. Their dark red color and sweet flavor are precisely what make our Light Dark Cherry Yogurt so irresistible.

Raspberries – June to August
Nearby Willamette Valley is the place our raspberries call home. The unique climate here allows the taste and sweetness of the berries to mature slowly and fully. We use Meeker Raspberries in our Light Raspberry Yogurt, which are known for their radiant red color and powerful taste.

Marionberries – July to August
Our marionberries are ubiquitous and can be spotted throughout Oregon. In fact, the marionberry is the only blackberry native to the West Coast. Their bold, sweet and earthy flavor has earned them a place in our Light Marionberry Yogurt as well as the nickname “The Cabernet of Blackberries.”

Visit us in the Tillamook Yogurt Yum Factory and mix up some yogurt for yourself!

What’s your favorite yogurt fruit flavor? Let us know using #GoNatural

By Tillamook

Tillamook was lucky enough to spend the weekend down at Sunset Celebration Weekend! The sun was out and the weather was hot, but that didn’t stop the 23,000 people who walked all around Sunset Magazine’s headquarters in Menlo Park! The festival was full of the best food, wine, gardening, travel, and home design in the West. We are so happy we were able to be a part of it, giving away tasty Tillamook Yogurt and parfait toppings to the festival-goers.

In our booth, Tillamook provided empty yogurt cups and craft supplies, and we were totally floored by the awesome ideas people came up with! I saw everything from bird mask, to 3-foot-tall music maker, to glasses, to flowers in a flower pot – it was wonderful seeing our fans be so creative with empty yogurt cups!

Thank you to everyone who stopped by the Tillamook booth, and a huge thank you to the Sunset Magazine staff for providing such an awesome weekend!

By Katie

If you’ve ever been to Austin, TX you know how cool it is (well, scorching hot, but in a cool way)! If you haven’t been – it’s cool! Of course the music scene is one of the best in the US and you can catch live shows at almost any time of day in any genre. As I walked around Austin and checked out some of the bands playing, it became evident that Austin believes in something I believe in as well – nothing goes better with great music than great food and drinks?!

Because of this amazing food scene, last week I had the opportunity to go to Austin to shoot our newest Tillamook Kitchen restaurant. This restaurant has been recognized as having The Best Hamburger by the Austin Chronicle, is on the top 15 best hamburgers list on Eater National, and is run by some pretty cool guys who believe in the power of great food. It’s called Hopdoddy Burger Bar and it is a must have!

Since opening their doors in 2010, co-founders Larry Perdido and Chuck Smith, have been grillin’ and chillin’ the highest quality, most delicious burgers, fries, and shakes in Texas in the uber cool neighborhood of South Congress (they’ve also added locations in North Austin and Dallas – and they’re not done yet!). They use high quality ingredients (they grind their own meat, make their own buns and have used Tillamook since day one) which allows their food to speak for itself as the star of the show. We’ll be sharing recipes, tips and videos with you soon, but here are some teasers to whet your appetite in the meantime.

If you find yourself in Austin or Dallas please go to Hopdoddy Burger Bar. It might just end up being the best thing you do!

By Matt

We’re so excited that Tillamook is a part of Sunset Celebration Weekend 2013, held at Sunset Magazine’s beautiful headquarters in Menlo Park! Will you be there? Stop by and visit us by the Willow Road entrance for samples of Tillamook Yogurt and crafts for all ages!

By Katie

The numbers have been tallied, the food has been weighed, and Tillamook is extremely proud to have been a part of making this year’s KGW Great Food Drive the most successful ever!

Thanks to generous individuals and companies, this year’s Great Food Drive raised more than 1.2 million pounds of food for the Oregon Food Bank, more than DOUBLE this year’s campaign goal of 600,000 pounds, and far surpassing last year’s campaign results as well. Here at Tillamook, we’re thrilled to have contributed $30,000 from the sales of our cheese in Oregon and southwest Washington during the month of March. Additionally, our Tillamook employees alone donated more than 13,000 pounds of food to the Great Food Drive during March as well.

Overall, this year’s campaign raised enough food to provide more than 900,000 meals to those in need in our communities. Knowing that we were part of making a positive impact on that many lives here in our home state of Oregon means so much to us.

We had a lot of fun seeing our fans at food collection events throughout the state and welcoming our good friend and KGW NewsChannel 8 morning show personality Drew Carney to the Tillamook Cheese Factory to help promote the cause!

To all of the Tillamook fans that bought extra cheese in March to support this very worthy cause, thank you!

The problem of hunger is a year-round issue for adults and children across our state. To find out how to support the Oregon Food Bank throughout the year, visit www.OregonFoodBank.org.

By Tori

If you have ever had passion for something, you’ll know why the newest Tillamook Kitchen chefs create some of the best food in Portland. They are passionate! About what they do. About where they’re from. About where they are. About eating local. And about good food. That’s a whole lotta passion and when you take it all and put it in one unbelievably good biscuit, or piece of fried chicken or bowl of grits…sit down. It’s that good!

If you live in Portland, I’m sure you’ve heard of them – you may have even been there. If you’re from out of town, you might have heard of them from Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives where they wowed Guy Fieri with their southern cookin’ done right in Portland, OR. Now you can learn about the guys that make it all possible and how their food is just so dang good (hint: it has something to do with passion.). Pine State Biscuits is joining the fold of great chefs on the Tillamook Kitchen. Show them a warm Tillamook welcome and eat some biscuits…and fried chicken…and grits…and honey…and fried okra…you hungry yet?

By Matt

We’re so proud of our Dairy Products Quality Manager, Jill Allen, who had the incredible honor of judging at the 2013 United States Championship Cheese Contest®. At Tillamook, Jill and her team taste test hundreds of cheese samples every day to make sure each little loaf delivers the consistent quality our fans love. Although Jill didn’t judge any Tillamook Cheese at the competition, she put her fine-tuned taste buds to good use by grading several cheeses from across the country. Jill wasn’t the only one to receive recognition at the championship; check out the awards our own Tillamook cheeses took home! I had the opportunity to chat with Jill about her exciting experience.

Q: Was this your first time judging a cheese competition?
A: Yes, this was my first professional judging competition. I was very excited to judge at a National Level.

Q: How were you selected to be a judge?
A: I obtained my Wisconsin Cheese Graders License, and then was nominated to judge by other grading professionals.

Q: Which types of cheese did you taste?
A: I graded Flavored Semi-Soft Cheeses, Smoked Hard Cheeses, Reduced Fat Soft and Semi-Soft Cheeses, and Reduced Fat Hard Cheese.

Q: What were you looking for in each category?
A: We judged the cheese based on flavor; body and texture; makeup and appearance; color; and rind development.

Q: How many samples do you think you tasted altogether?
A: Probably around 100.

Q: Can you talk a little bit about the judging process? Did you eat or drink anything to cleanse your palette in between samples?
A: I was partnered with another judge and we worked as a pair. Each judge had to be precise and assess the cheeses individually, but also collaborate as a team. After each tasting we cleansed our pallets with tart green apples and water.

Q: Did you learn anything surprising during the competition?
A: It was great being able to experience the excitement of judging at the US National Cheese Contest®. Judges came from all corners of the country. It was an experience like no other; to be part of an elite judging team that gets to experience and choose the best cheese in the United States.

Q: How much cheese do you taste each day at Tillamook, and do you ever get tired of eating it?
A: Tillamook has a grading team of 6 members, and together we probably grade around 400 pieces of cheese a day. My team loves what we do and loves Tillamook cheese!

Q: What’s your favorite type of Tillamook Cheese?
A: My favorite Tillamook Cheese is any of our Cheddars, Yellow or White.

Q: What is the weirdest type of cheese you have ever tried?
A: At the 2010 World Championship Cheese Contest, I tasted a semi soft cheese, wrapped in seaweed!

By Callie

We’ve got some good news! Three varieties of Tillamook Cheese were voted “America’s Best” at the 2013 United States Championship Cheese Contest®!

Tillamook Colby Jack took “Best of Class” with a score of 99.40. Colby Jack is a veteran on the winners’ stand, previously earning “America’s Best Colby Jack” at the 2011 U.S. Championship! Tillamook Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar was voted “Best of Class” receiving a score of 99.45 out of 100, as well as second place in the Aged 2 years or longer Cheddar Category. Tillamook Sharp Cheddar scored 98.65 earning “Best of Class” for Sharp Cheddar aged 6 months to one year. We’re honored to be able to offer these “America’s Best” cheeses to all of our fans!

Held last week in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the U.S. Championship Cheese Contest® had a record-breaking total of over 1,700 entries, up 100 entries from 2011!!!

By Tillamook

To help curd-loving fans across the country, and to support our partners at the Oregon Food Bank, we released the curds to our Online Shop for one day only on our 104th birthday! Squeaky Cheese Curds are highly perishable and start to lose their “squeak” after just a few days, so we’ve never been able to facilitate shipping them on a daily basis before. In order to ship these squeak-packed bags of curds, the Tillamook Marketing team took several days away from our regular jobs to personally hand-pack and ship orders from the Tillamook Cheese Factory! Here are some photos from our adventures in shipping Squeaky Cheese Curds.

Here come the curds! The curds we sent were taken fresh out of the vat at 6am (boy, was it early!) so we had time to pack all the boxes.

Good morning! We shipped brand-squeaking fresh curds with overnight shipping, to ensure optimal squeak when they arrived at their final destination.

Here are some empty boxes, waiting for their curds! Each box of curds was handpacked with two bags of curds, an ice pack, a packing slip, and lots of love.

Here’s our UPS truck, squeak-packed with our first day’s shipment of cheese curd orders.

We had a fun time packing all 700+ orders of cheese curds! Thanks again for supporting Tillamook and celebrating our 104th birthday. We hope you can visit us soon at the Tillamook Cheese Factory, where you can get cheese curds all year round.

Yours cheesefully,
The Squeaky Cheese Team

By Katie

A new Tillamook advertising campaign will begin airing in Los Angeles and San Francisco today. The campaign, called “California meets Tillamook” depicts a road-trip taken by two familiar characters from Oregon, Luke and Dale, as they travel throughout California in a Tillamook Baby Loaf Bus introducing the cheese that hails from their home state of Oregon. Check out the commercials below to meet Luke and Dale as they share their love of the loaf with California!

Dear Moguls
Luke and Dale always want to lend a helping hand. Here they give some friendly, sage advice on how Hollywood can make better movies.

Golden Gate
After watching this spot, you’ll want to sample Tillamook Cheese…and possibly the Golden Gate Bridge.

Road Trip Song
Every great road trip — sponsored by a cheese company from Tillamook, Oregon — deserves its own song.

Sasquatch
Oregon and California have many, many things in common. One is that both love great cheese.

Why The Ship
Luke and Dale tell the history of Tillamook Cheese. Why? Because we actually have one.

9 Months Old, Cypress
Luke and Dale know everything about cheese. Trees on the other hand…

State Cracker
Tillamook Cheese goes with all your favorite foods…even if they’re not officially endorsed by the state.

By Mary