Behind every great cheese stands a great cheese maker. In Oregon, we’re lucky to have some of the most innovative and creative minds in the business! This year, Oregon cheese makers continued to rack up awards for their cheeses. We want to congratulate our cheese makers for their hard work and ingenuity and to invite others to take a bite out of the challenging and rewarding world of cheesemaking.

Thank you to all our cheesemakers who attended the American Cheese Society in Portland this year! Back after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the event welcomed cheesemakers from across the world. Congratulations to Briar Rose Creamery, Face Rock Creamery, Rogue Creamery, Don Froylan’s Creamery and Tillamook who won awards at the prestigious conference this year.

Rouge Creamery President and Lead Cheesemaker, David Gremmels, was the recipient of the ACS Lifetime Achievement Award for his 30 years of professional accomplishments in the artisan cheese community.

Tillamook was honored this year with four Gold, one Silver and two Bronze awards at the 125^th International Cheese & Dairy Awards (ICDA). The ICDA is the oldest and largest dairy show of its kind in the world. Tillamook took home medals for it’s cheddar cheese, smoked cheese and cream cheese spreads.

Tillamook was also honored at the annual World Cheese Awards. The Tillamook County Creamery Association took home three Bronze Medals for their Farmer’s Collection Smoked Black Pepper Cheddar, Very Veggie Farmstyle Cream Cheese Spread, and their Original Farmstyle Cream Cheese Spread. 

Tillamook also won Dairy Foods Magazine’s coveted “Processor of The Year” award for the it’s incredible longevity, impressive sales growth, tremendous efforts to stock retailer shelves during COVID-19, outstanding sustainability efforts, and much more.

Umpqua was honored for a number of it’s products this year, along with being honored with Quality Checkd’s Irving B. Weber Award which recognizes dairy plants that have earned the highest annual scores from their organization in the areas of business leadership, quality, sustainability, customer/consumer satisfaction, employee safety and personnel development. The processor picked up 1st Place at the World Dairy Expo for it’s 2% Chocolate Milk and 1st place at the Oregon Dairy Industries Annual Awards for its Vanilla Ice Cream and Chocolate Ice Cream.

Rogue Creamery, in Central Point, Oregon, also medaled at the World Cheese Awards, taking home two Bronze for their Crater Lake Blue and their Cheese Is Love Cheddar, one Silver for Oregon Blue, and one Super Gold for their Bluehorn Blue. Rogue’s Bluehorn Blue was one of only 96 cheeses worldwide to win a Super Gold medal.

Rogue Creamery previously won the competition’s top honor, World Champion Cheese, at the 2019/2020 international cheese competition in Bergamo, Italy, for their Rogue River Blue Cheese, created annually during the Autumn Equinox.  

Want to know what it takes to be a great cheesemaker? World Cheese Award-winner and founder of Rogue Creamery, David Gremmels (aka “Mr. Blue”), shares his thoughts with those who want to start their own cheese-making business.

To learn more about Oregon cheeses and cheesemakers, visit OregonCheeseGuild.org.