When the American Cheese Society (yes, it exists and no, I don’t know if they are hiring) announced the winners of its annual cheese competition, Oregon cheesemakers brought home five first-place medals.
And while all of those wins are feathers in our state’s noble cap, one win feels especially important: Best string cheese, two years in a row.
And no, the award didn’t go to Tillamook. Guys, Tillamook doesn’t even make string cheese.
This string cheese comes from Salem and looks, truly, like it deserves the honor: Don Froylan Creamery’s Liliana’s String Cheese.
“This cheese was created with love for and named after our daughter Liliana,” said Don Froylan’s owner and cheesemaker, Francisco Ochoa, in a statement sent out by the Oregon Cheese Guild (also real).
“You can come and see it stretched by hand every day at our tasting room in Salem,” Ochoa …