Fan of the Month Emily with Ella, her new little "Baby Loaf."

I’ve personally had a glimpse inside the fridge and freezer of Emily Boullet, our June Fan of the Month, and one thing was immediately clear: Emily’s house is a Tillamook house! She was stocked up on every type of Tillamook product — cheese, yogurt, sour cream, butter, and ice cream. It was like she had a mini Cheese Factory in her kitchen!  

Thanks for being our Fan of the Month, Emily! We appreciate your Tillamook “Loaf Love.” We’ll be sending a tasty cheese-filled gift box your way — hope you and your family enjoy it!

Q: How long have you been eating Tillamook dairy products? When did your “Loaf Love” for Tillamook begin?
A: I’ve been eating Tillamook products for as long as I can remember. One of my earliest memories was when I was 5 years old and my Great Great Uncle Rex (who lived in Warrenton, OR) and I walked down to the community market cafe. He bought me an ice cream cone with a scoop of Brown Cow (now Udderly Chocolate Ice Cream).

Q: What’s your favorite Tillamook product?
A: Cheese!! Classic cheddar is my favorite! Although I still do have quite a weakness for the Udderly Chocolate Ice Cream (there’s usually 2 containers of it in my freezer at all times)!

Q: What’s a random fact about you (something most people don’t know about)?
A: My husband proposed the night after we toured the Tillamook Cheese Factory in November 2006. I had purchased a yummy bar of soap in the gift shop that day, so I emailed the local maker and ordered that soap as our wedding favors!

Q: Anything else you can share about your love for Tillamook?
A: I only use Tillamook products! Cheese, sour cream, yogurt, ice cream, etc. Not only do I LOVE it, but I am proud to support our local economy! I’ve even sent cheese as gifts to out of state family members!

By Loafy

What’s just as good as eating cheese? Finding really awesome photos of cheese! I just had to share this one with you that was taken by a visitor in the cheese packaging department at the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

Great photo Blue Temora – thanks for sharing it in the Tillamook Cheese Flickr Group!

By Gillian

Next Stop TV interviewing me at the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

Recently, Jon Olson of Next Stop TV, a travel show featuring unique destinations, visited the Tillamook Cheese Factory to film a segment for their July 30 episode! We had fun working with Jon, but I had a hard time getting him to focus… all he wanted to do was sample cheese! Go figure.

Remember to watch Next Stop on July 30! I can’t wait to see how the segment turns out.

By Heidi

Here we are, just a week away from the unofficial start to summer at the Cheese Factory! What better way to start off a new season than with a new name for our popular café. From now on when you dine with us, you’ll be enjoying your cheesy meal at the Creamery Café! All your favorite menu items are still here, as well as our delicious daily specials.

In honor of our new name, and to help celebrate National Cheeseburger Month, we have some awesome burger specials to offer at the Creamery Café starting this Sunday. Here’s the mouth-watering line up:

Sunday, 5/22: Tillapeno Cheeseburger with Hot Habanero Jack. If you like it hot and spicy, this is the burger for you!
Monday, 5/23: Pizza Cheeseburger with Mozzarella and Marinara. When in Rome. . . .
Tuesday, 5/24: Garlic Cheddar Cheeseburger with roasted garlic spread. This one should keep the vampires away.
Wednesday, 5/25: Smoked Black Pepper Cheddar Burger Hoagie. Steak au poive’s baby brother.
Thursday, 5/26: Squeaky Cheeseburger. How do you make a burger squeak? Add some Cheddar Cheese Curds, of course!
Friday, 5/27: Muenster Patty Melt with grilled onions on rye. Creamy, mild Tillamook Muenster tames the tang of grilled onions – no tears here!
Saturday, 5/28: Swiss Mushroom Cheeseburger. Nutty cheese and earthy mushrooms for a hearty weekend lunch.

Join us this week at the Cheese Factory to sample our celebration burgers! Let us know which one is your favorite and it could become a regular feature at the Creamery Café. We look forward to seeing you here!

By Tillamook

Making and packaging "Club Cheese" cheese spreads, 1949.

Cheese spreads, the yummy product that can be spread on crackers, celery sticks, bread, or whatever else you have a mind to spread it on for tasty snacks.

We first dived into making cheese spreads, called “Club Cheese” at that time, in the late 1940s. When our plant was constructed in 1949, it included a packaging room for rindless cheese and Club Cheese production. Club Cheese was made from trim pieces that resulted in cutting down the larger rindless blocks into smaller consumer-friendly weights. To make the spreads, the trim pieces were ground up and mixed with flavorings. It was then “packaged in a sausage-shaped pliofilm wrappers that keep the cheese fresh and moist,” so stated a 1951 promotion. It could be spread or sliced, making it the perfect size to serve on crackers.

We started with simple flavors: aged cheddar, garlic flavor, and smoke flavor. Then we got a little more adventurous and added onion and bacon flavors to the line of Club Cheeses.

This photo from 1949 shows the steps in the process: The grind machine to grind the trim pieces, the mixer to add in flavors, the “stuffer” to package the cheese into the casings, and the final weighing of the packaged product.

Today, we offer four flavors of cheese spreads, which are only available at the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

By Chandra

Carol Abrogoua, winner of the 1st Annual Tillamook Cheese Factory Grilled Cheese Contest

The three finalists in our 1st Annual Tillamook Cheese Factory Grilled Cheese Contest competed last Saturday, April 23rd at the Cheese Factory to determine who among them makes the best darned Tillamook grilled cheese sandwich. From a field of 48 entries, narrowed to 10 semi-finalists, three grilled cheese lovin’ finalists did their best to impress six judges. And impress they did with three very different, unique, and cheesy recipes.

Karen Bernards of McMinnville, OR brought her Garlic Ranch Chicken Melt, with lots of Tillamook Garlic White CheddarCheese, while Courtney Lund of Salem, OR grilled a cool, zesty Cilantro Lime-Spice Grilled Cheese with our Pepper Jack and Swiss. But, at the end of the day, the sweet and savory Ooey Gooey Maple Fruity Grilled Cheesewalked away with the $500 Grand Prize, along with 24 pounds of Tillamook Cheese and a gift basket chock-full of Tillamook Goodies. Carol Abrogoua from Tillamook, the sandwich’s creator, packed plenty of the World’s Best Medium Cheddar and America’s Best Monterey Jack between thick sliced sweet Hawaiian rolls, then added maple bacon and crisp Granny Smith apple slices for a delicious winning combination!

Visitors at the Cheese Factory sampled all three of the contestants’ sandwiches and voted for the People’s Choice Award. While the voting was closer than close, Carol’s sandwich also took the People’s Choice prize home – another goodie basket and $100 in cash. As you can see from Carol’s smile, she was one excited and happy winner!

Thanks for celebrating National Grilled Cheese Month with us this April! We look forward to next year!

By Susan P.

From fine dining to fast casual, it seems grilled cheese sandwiches are the “It Girls” of the moment.  Everyone is meltin’ and grillin’ and servin’ up unique and delicious grilled cheese recipes.  So why should the café at the Tillamook Cheese Factory be any different?  Especially during April – after all, we are celebrating National Grilled Cheese Month!

Every week this month, the café is featuring a specialty grilled cheese sandwich certain to make your mouth water with anticipation of the creamy, gooey, melty goodness of your favorite Tillamook Cheese stuffed between two slices of bread, with… well, check out our specials below!

April 3 – 9
Spinach Artichoke Dip Grilled Cheese – Fresh spinach and marinated artichokes with our Tillamook Vintage White Medium Cheddar and a special garlic cream cheese sauce, grilled on thick garlic parmesan crusted bread.
(OH NO –  time’s run out on this one.  But believe us, it was delicious.  So good, in fact, that it will definitely make a frequent special appearance on our menu!)

April 10 – 16
Pepperoni Pizza Grilled Cheese – Pepperoni and Italian sausage smothered in pizza sauce and paired with Tillamook’s award-winning Monterey Jack Cheese, grilled on thick sourdough bread.  Served with fries and a side of warm marinara for dipping.

April 17 – 23
Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese – Crispy chicken pieces with our award-winning Tillamook Monterey Jack Cheese, blue cheese crumbles, and a couple (or more, if you like it hot!) splashes of Franks Red Hot sauce.  Served with fries.

Don’t forget to finish off your scrumptious grilled cheese meal with your favorite flavor of Tillamook Ice Cream.  Maybe, if you have all your family and friends with you, you’re up for the challenge of the 38 Flavor Ice Cream Tour.  One scoop each of all the creamy, delicious flavors of ice cream that we make – give it a try!

We’re looking forward to seeing you and your appetite at the Cheese Factory this month!

By Susan P.

Do you have the best tasting, best melting, most unique and utterly irresistible grilled cheese sandwich recipe out there?  Then enter the Tillamook Cheese Factory Grilled Cheese Contest!  From March 29th through April 12th, submit your one-of-a-kind recipe and you could be one of three finalists who will compete in a live cook-off on Saturday, April 23rd at the Cheese Factory.  A panel of judges including chefs, local personalities, and professional cheese tasters (yes, that is a real job) will pick a winner who will get bragging rights for the best darned Tillamook Grilled Cheese sandwich on the planet – oh, and a really cool prize!

How to enter:
Three easy ways…
- Email your name, city, daytime phone number and Grilled Cheese recipe to grilledcheesecontest@tillamook.com, or
- Stop by the Cheese Factory for an entry form, fill it out and return it there, or
- Print out an entry form and mail it to us!
- Please do NOT leave recipes in the comments section of this blog.

Prizes:
- The grand-prize winner will receive: $500 cash, 24 pounds of Tillamook Cheese, and a Tillamook goodie basket
- First runner up will receive: $250 cash, 10 pounds of Tillamook Cheese, and a Tillamook goodie basket
- Second runner up will receive: $100 cash and a Tillamook goodie basket
- The “People’s Choice” winner will receive $100 cash and a Tillamook goodie basket
- All recipes will be featured as menu items at the cafe at the Tillamook Cheese Factory

Hurry – deadline for entries is midnight Tuesday, April 12th.  Click here for all the contest details and official rules!

You say you’re not much of a cook but still LOAF to eat Tillamook grilled cheese sandwiches?  You’re in luck, because every week in April, the café at the Cheese Factory will be serving up a new specialty grilled cheese sandwich for lunch.  We’ve had our thinking caps on and have come up with some really creative and tasty new combos of cheese and bread and… well, the rest is only limited by your imagination.  How does Spinach Artichoke Dip Grilled Cheese sound?  We served that one last week and it was a big hit!  Or Pizza Grilled Cheese?  You never know what we may come up with, given that there are sooooo many tasty varieties of Tillamook Cheese!

Come celebrate National Grilled Cheese month at the Cheese Factory this April!

By Susan P.

Free cheese samples!

Are you a Food Factory Tour junkie? Here are the top 20 Food Factory Tours (as chosen by trekaroo: kids. trips. tips.).

The Tillamook Cheese Factory was ranked higher than Coca-Cola, Jelly Belly, and Ben & Jerry’s! Plan your trip, take the tour, and get ready for free cheese samples, fudge, ice cream, and more!

By Gillian

What's your favorite flavor?

What better way to show your Loaf Love than a Spring Break visit to the Cheese Factory!  Check out the latest edition to our Loaf Love Tour mini-bus fleet right at the entrance to the factory. We’ll be introducing our “bus” YUM 101 on March 18th!  Bring your camera, climb on in the bus and you’ll feel like you’re on tour with Tillamook.

What trip to the Cheese Factory is complete without, well, cheese?  Our Farmhouse Café will reopen tomorrow, March 12 (we had a fire in January) and will be serving up the cheesiest omelets, perfectly-melty grilled cheese sandwiches, and the tastiest, juiciest cheeseburgers all featuring the World’s Best Medium Cheddar Cheese.  If you need to whet your appetite at the sample counter first, we don’t mind!

But we all know Spring Break is not complete without that creamy, delicious, summer’s-around- the-corner waffle cone filled with Tillamook Ice Cream.  Try one of our tempting new flavors, Cinnamon Banana Bliss or Udderly Peanutbutterly. Or opt for your tried and true favorite flavor.  The best part of your visit?  A buy one-get one free ice cream cone coupon when you help us help others.  Between March 19 – March 27, bring 2 cans of food with you to support the KGW Great Good Drive and the coupon is yours!

So come on down to the coast this Spring Break and we’ll see you in Tillamook!

By Susan P.