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Fans of Tillamook cheese...I give to you Valhalla (with lines)! Bring a small empty suitcase because they have some really tasty stuff there. I was personally surprised by how great their garlic cheese was.
There was only one problem. Lines. Really long lines. So be prepared.
I had a craving for some ice cream last night and didn't want to hit up Coldstone (too sweet) or Baskin-Robbins (too artificial) so I stopped by my Freddy's to check out their selection. I was happy to spot the Tillamook Ice Cream in the freezer and it's large selection of flavors...I finally settled on the Rocky Road after debating flavor choices for about ten minutes. The first bite into this creamy goodness brought back lots of fond memories from this summer when my family and I attempted the 38 Flavor Ice Cream Tour, not once but twice!
For those who might not know, the tour is a huge platter of all 38 flavors that the creamery offers and is a great way to try them all to see what you like. The scoops are junior-sized and were shared by at least 10 of us each time and there was definitely more than enough to go around. We loved all the flavors (except for white licorice!) and it was a fun experience! Be ready for their special ice cream song!
The creamery is a tradition whenever we're out camping at the coast and although the cheese factory tour itself is pretty fun the first few times around, pros like me come for the 2-foot long pepperoni sticks, cheese blocks that are cheaper than we can usually get in the city, squeaky cheese, and of course the ice cream flavors that we can't get in a gallon container at the store such as Lemon Blueberry Pie. Their freshly made waffle cones are also fabulous! Hmmm....it sounds like a trip to Tillamook this weekend is what I need to cheer up from this wet weather we've been having!
dairy HEAVEN
tons of ice cream flavors available. tons of food options (burgers, sandwiches, mac and cheese, salads, etc). tons of free parking. huge dairy related gift section. free tastings. squeaky cheese (i.e. chees curds, a canadian favorite, not found anywhere else in the states!). highly informative walkway with windows into the cheese making factory. very easily accessible right off highway 101. 'nuff said. check out the pictures.
minus one star for being very crowded and having to wait in lines all over the place (i hate lines).
Every time I go to the Oregon coast, I have always stopped here- tradition.
Tillamook is affordable quality. Simple as that.
The parking can be a bit crowded- but that ought to tell you something: this place is a worthy landmark. The self-guided tour is fun to go through, you get to sample their cheese at the end, and finish off with their delicious ice cream.
Now that I'm down in Texas, its harder to find their cheese- especially their heavanly vintage white. If you are not from the NW, or have never tried their aged cheese, here would be a good place to pick some up. Like I said before- high quality for a good price.
I hesitated between 3.5 and 4...but since there is no 3.5...I'd go with rounding up!
The ambiance: BUSY! Lots of people on a July 4th weekend! That's to be expected. Large food court area so people don't feel crowded.
The food: We ordered the 5 scoop ice cream - marionberry pie, mudslide, pistachio, expresso mocha, and hmm...the centennial. They were all very good (creamy and soft). Loved the waffle dish - probably the best I've had (soft and ever so slightly crispy). We also ordered the grilled cheese sandwich + clam chowder...those I weren't such a big fan of. Grilled cheese was good, but not as good as the one I had in Pike Place in Seattle. The bread wasn't as firm as I'd like it to be and the clam chowder was a bit too salty for my liking. But hey! They also give you free cheese samples, so can't complain!
The service: Prompt and friendly. I forgot to request a waffle dish with our 5 scoops of ice cream but the server went ahead and helped to change my order even though she could've asked me to go back into the line and start over. They were really busy, so I definitely appreciated the gesture!
The price: Good. About $5 for the 5 ice creams and about the same price for a grilled cheese + chowder bowl.
Overall, great experience. Gotta love the cheese! :)
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Squeaky Cheese!! Enough said... come here and get some of the cheddar cheese curds. You can't get them (Tillamook) anywhere else (AFAIK) and they are delicious. You'll see what I mean when they say they squeak when you eat them. Here's a little tip, if they start to lose their squeak you can microwave them for just a few seconds to restore some of the squeakiness.
The ice cream here isn't bad also - they have some unique flavors that you can't get at your local store that are made just for the factory. I think overall the prices are pretty reasonable and they also have some other unique varities of cheese (aged cheddars etc). The medium cheddar is one of the smoothest you'll get.
The tour did leave a little something to be desired, but there was plenty of information about cheese, it just wasn't very exciting.
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I had already anticipated a self-guided tour (according to their website) but I had no idea that it was basically just peering through the large windows to see an inactive factory floor/production line (turns out they're not in operation on Saturdays) except for a machine mixing something (curds?) and blocks of cheese being weighed and boxed. I thought I was going to see the actual cheesemaking process here because I was so excited to visit especially since I've enjoyed eating Tillamook cheese while living in CA.
At least there were a few samples of their cheeses to be had, my favorites being the curds and aged vintage white sharp cheddar (oh so tangy).
After the "tour", we walked around the shops to pick up cheese, bought some Tillamook fudge (they make their own -- some flavors include creamsicle, marionberry cheesecake, amaretto), ate grilled cheese with tomato soup from their cafe and had some lemon-blueberry pie ice cream from their ice cream section. At least the eating part and cheese-sampling part (and the fact that it's near the coastline---oh how I miss living near the ocean) made up for the nearly 2 hour drive from Portland.
The gift shop was a trip though...why is it that gift shops sell the most random items? You can buy your signature Tillamook mugs and keychains AND an official Disney licensed Little Mermaid coloring book and inspirational plaques for the favorite teacher/parent/friend in your life.
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Do not be fooled, the self guided tour is basically this: You walk up a flight of stairs and you look onto one factory floor where they package the cheese, then you walk up a shorter flight of stairs and you look out onto the place where they make the cheese in big vats. Besides a couple dozen displays and informational videos, that is all that the tour is.
One other thing is that the centennial grilled cheese sandwich came on sweet white bread and not sourdough as had been advertised on the web site: "It's a premium sandwich featuring plenty of Tillamook Sharp Cheddar and Tillamook Vintage White Cheddar on fresh, extra large slices of flaky Sourdough bread."........way to disappoint.
As for the cheese tasting section of the tour you basically walk past an unmanned table with 5 different cheeses sitting out on it with a bunch of toothpicks on the side...nothing special, similar to what you might find in a grocery store...
Speaking of grocery stores, if you are looking to stock up on tillamook cheese then the grocery store is your best bet because the cheese at the factory store is not cheap at all. So unless you want one of the uncommon flavors, no need to make the trip.
They also sell fudge and ice cream in the shop, and the line to buy anything is huge because they are undermanned and have maybe 4 registers working at any given time.
If this place had been close to Portland, then maybe it would have been worth the trip but as it stands it was more effort than it was worth.
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I am enough of a geek that I enjoyed the displays while all of the production lines cranked out cheese blocks below.
One of the lines broke down so we even got to watch a repair job :-)!
My problem was in the gift shop. The prices were higher than the Fred Meyer grocery store down the highway. There were some off cuts for $4.50 a pound and some cheese spreads we don't get in Seattle, but the majority was a local area food fest and not feature the cheese enough for me.
The ice cream was good. I've never had a black walnut flavor before and it was as strong and crunchy as I expected.
This place is great but a bit of a drive to get there. Bobby, Eli and I decided to check out the OR coastline and we had to stop by.
Free cheese tasting and tour. Ice cream and fudge in the same building...heaven!
Too bad we had to head back to make it for an UYE. We ate free stuff, picked up some cheese and scrammed!
BTW, the aged sharp chedder is the best!
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There's not a whole lot to this place. The 'tour' just lets you look down on the factory floor, and there's some displays about their history and advertising. I wasn't expecting a whole lot there to be honest. The cheese samples, and store there were great, and the icecream was better than getting it in a tub at the store. There are two shops in the place, one is where you get food products and other tillamook branded things. The other has branded objects and random stuff that isn't Tillamook or Cheese related at all. Mostly kitsch of varying types that you could get anywhere. The cafe there was okay. I had a grilled cheese with bacon and tomato. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't anything to write home about either.
All in all, if you really like cheese, this is a fun place to visit. If you're making a trip to the area, I'd definitely suggest stopping by, if nothing else than for the $2 icecream.
I don't really remember much of the factory except for the Jewish guy making kosher cheese. Other than that, it is a factory that makes excellent cheese.
When I was little I never drank milk. When I was a baby I of course did but as a little tony g, I didn't. Unless, of course, it was strawberry milk. In order for me to get my calcium my mom would give me Tillamook cheese every night, and gosh darn it, it was delicious. Back in those days I would get the medium cheddar cheese but tonight I picked up the extra sharp cheddar which I think is probably in my top two favorite cheeses.
I want a t-shirt that says "I heart Tillamook!" Can someone get this done for me?
Zipzap Zubidy Bop!
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I agree with Brandon T. I thought a visit to the most recognized Cheddar cheese companies would provide a more memorable and awesome experience. I left the self-guided tour and enormous gift shop with long lines of people a bit disappointed. I don't know what exactly I was looking for, but something a bit more memorable and a bit more awesome.
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Reviewing simply as an ice cream shop...for the HUGE line with tons of people, it went really fast and found a table for four right away. Lots of happy people sampling any combination of 38 (!!!) different flavors. Loved to see the array of local ingredients (walnuts, marionberries, blackberries, and of course the milk itself!).
Very pleasantly surprised to see a couple of non-dairy options for my dairy allergic child.
I love cheese but I hated this "tour". The displays upstairs are the only reason this tour is getting 2 stars. The place was loud, cramped, and more interested in selling you kitschy tourist stuff than in educating you about cheese and the Tillamook brand and history. The few cheese samples provided are available in any grocery store. The ice cream was fine, but not worth the wait in line as you can buy that in any store too. The food at the restaurant was poor quality and the place was dirty.
I've had the god fortune of a real cheese factory tour (Heine's in Amish Country in Ohio) where you can watch the process, sample over 50 cheeses and experience a new culture while you're at it. Don't waste your time or gas on a trip to Tillamook.
Fun place to stop if you are in the area. It is right on the 101 and quite easy to get to. We found parking right away, which was great. My husband is a big fan of both ice cream and fudge so he was quite excited to visit the Visitors Center/factory.
We personally did not like watching the factory workers, we felt slightly uncomfortable with that. We said to each other that we both wouldn't like someone watching us as work much like hundreds upon hundred of tourists doing it. That being said, the other folks watching the self guided tour all seemed to be enjoying it...both adults and kids.
My husband loved his ice cream. He got peaches and cream and black raspberry. I tried a couple bites and wow, talk about delicious. It was so sweet and flavorful...quite good. Although I love sweets I am not a fan of really sugary ice creams and was quite pleased to see that they had several different 'sugar free' flavors. I ordered two sugar free scoops: black raspberry and butter pecan. After we paid and went to get our scoops I was less than pleased to see that not all of the flavors that they said were sugar free were actually sugar free. Some were no sugar added which can be quite a different deal. Plus, none of the sugar free flavors were made on-site or were even Tillamook flavors. I was quite bummed, I wouldn't have gotten anything if I knew either of those things.
The fudge that we got was delicious. I got the sugar free chocolate nut and the pumpkin chocolate fudge. I was pleased that you could get a small amount, as I wouldn't really eat all that much of it. It is sitting in my fridge and although both are delicious they are quite rich. I loved the pumpkin fudge, it was so delicious but so sweet and sugary. Although they were quite good, I will probably not finish them. My husband on the other hand, loved his chocolate nut fudge and will have no problem at all finishing it.
This is a fun touristy place to visit. We were not there all that long but enjoyed it. There were a wide range of age groups there and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.
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Oooh yes, cheese, ice cream and lots of white, fat, buttery faced Oregonians... yuummmmmm I will eat them all!
So suit up, and take the cheese factory tour. Notice, all the "legal" workers. This isn't the Kosher Slaughterhouse filled with 14 year old illegal Guatemalans running around while getting verbal abused by a Rabbi. http://www.portfolio.c...
They will even give you cheese curds to taste.
But buy some of their special cheese, especially if you're from out of state(sob...like me...sad). California's belligerent attitude about their cheese only provides us with the very basics Tillamook has to offer. Oh, but there is much more! The vintage cheese! I'm peeing my pants now just thinking about it.
Tillamook, I love and miss you!
I miss the fact that Oregonian McDonald's sells your ice cream.
The ice cream! I just love their vanilla bean - it is just damn good ice cream - and that's how you know, if their plainest flavor is good. Indulge in it all, and you won't feel guilty with all the fat people around.
No crowds, no need to make an appointment. Just stop along the road and get after it!
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I don't mind when the cheese factory is full of people because it makes my going through the cheese sample line 4 times less conspicuous.
I.
LOVE.
TILLAMOOK.
CHEESE.
I have never had a bite of it that didn't agree with me... classic cheddar, pepperjack, squeaky (curds) or otherwise. The education aspect of the factory isn't bad, even if I feel a bit awkward staring through the glass like it's an ant farm.
The wonder doesn't end at the cheese, though. No, no. Even during our last visit (late January) we had to have ice cream! My wife and I have a shared affinity for Tillamook's chocolate peanut butter ice cream. Before we even dated, we had both independently decided that it was the best ice cream on the planet. Tillamook is a place of destiny, my friends.
I've only eaten in the little cafe once. It was on the last day of our honeymoon and we had ~$6 burgers with fries. My wife said that it was the best meal of trip. I wasn't sure how to take that.
So we're in Oregon visiting from Texas and my sister in law is raving about this place. We MUST go! We literally run in because they we're closing in 10min and we didn't want to be "those" customers. We're in line and the girl at the register says "you came in the exit, you need to move over here".Okay. We're at the register trying to decide what we would like to order and she rudely points out the menu below, I do mean rudely. There is a discussion going on between family members and the cashier jumps in with her opinion on how sharing an ice ream sounds reallllllly disgusting to her personally. Really? I'm sorry- but we didn't ask for your opinion. My review pretty much comes to this....the cashier was a horrible rep for the company. The ppl making our ice cream and the ice cream itself was very good. She however needs to brush up on her customer service skills. Oh....my ticket says my helper was Marlaina, lets hope she wasn't signed in under someone else's name. So thumbs up to the servers and food.....nada for you Ms. Cranky!
Definitely worth a pit stop, and the free cheese samples. I wouldn't go on a guided tour, I'm just not that intrigued by cheese production. I just went to the second level viewing floor and ogled the engineering and contemplated how awful it must be to work on a factory line. Both interesting lessons in humanity if you ask me.
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Hey All,
I was here the 2nd week in December 2008. It is a very nice place to visit and the prices for the cheese products are pretty moderate. They have some bulk packages with end pieces and such for lower prices. I got a little container of fudge for my mother, and a bag of cheese snacks for myself. A friend with me got some cheese curd. I did not care for the curd. The regular cheeses were creamy and very good. We then got a scoop of the black walnut ice-cream. It was very tasty and delicious. The people were friendly and the place very clean. I just hate that we came at the end of the day and they rushed us out because they were trying to get ready for a party. They also have the basic tourist trap gift shop with all the nicknack's. If you are near the pacific northwest coast then by all means stop in. You should enjoy your visit.
Hordes of people in the summer time, but still worth a stop just for the ice cream! It's open every day of the year except Christmas.
Take the self guided tour to be mesmerized by watching the assembly line. I've seen it over and over and each time I go back I find something new and interesting.
If the line downstairs for the ice cream is real long and it's summer time, just go upstairs and there is another ice cream stand which is always quicker. Personally I hate them, but if you've never tried cheese curds (squeeky cheese), this is a great place to get them. They have really good homemade fudge!
The Tillamook Cheese Visitor's Center is one of Oregon's most popular tourist attractions; more than a million visitors come here every year!
Take the self-guided tour and watch cheese being sliced and packaged and sample Tillamook's numerous cheeses (of which the vintage white cheddar was my favorite.)
Not a whole lot to see here in the way of cheese production but you do get free cheese and who can argue with that? Additionally, the gift shop is well stocked with the expected cheese but also many snacks and candy too. There's also a deli, an ice cream counter and a fudge counter.
An extra star goes to the Tillamook County Creamery Association for standing up to Monsanto by requiring all members to stop using genetically engineered hormones on their dairy cows!
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For $3 we got two scoops of ice cream (peaches and cream and peanut butter chocolate) in a waffle… Read more »
The Tillamook Cheese Factory is a great little tourist attraction! Yes, it has the ubiquitous tchotchke-filled souvenir shop, the ice cream scoop shop, the food-court-style "farmhouse cafe", ye olde fudge shoppe and the "press your own penny souvenir" machines, as well as the more-cheese-than-you-can-shake-a-stick-at cheese shop, but the self-guided tour? Totally worthwhile. (Cue music: Powerhouse, by Raymond Scott.) Polished video presentations, touch-screen kiosks, and interestingly informational wall-plaques aside, and even discounting the dusty museum of cheesemaking equipment, I LOVED the viewing windows onto the cheesemaking and packaging floor of the factory! Automated madness at its most fascinating... I even got one cheesemaker who grandstanded for his audience! Too cool.
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For those taking a trip along the Oregon coast, stopping at this place is an absolute must. Trust me, your taste buds will thank you.
The Tillamook Creamery is literally the most delicious holy land of food I've ever been to in my life. Tillamook County is famous for its family-run tradition of raising happy cows and making scrumptious cream, and boy does it live up to its reputation. As soon as you walk into the visitors' center you are hit by a wave of sweet aroma emanating from the ice cream bar. Not only do they make the ice cream fresh every day (with lots of delicious original flavors), but they also make their own waffle cones (check out the dozens of waffle irons lining the eastern end of the kitchen). The bf and I got a few scoops each in waffle bowls, and it was one of the most heavenly things I've ever put in my mouth.
But the tastiness doesn't stop there! After sampling at least half a dozen varieties of their homemade Tillamook fudge, we made our way to the main attraction of the creamery: the cheese factory. Upstairs visitors can get an up-close and personal view of the factory employees at work. And it's... fascinating. We stood there for at least 45 minutes trying to figure out the different jobs of each individual person as they happily worked away slicing, dicing, packing, and quality-checking huge blocks of cheddar cheese. And believe me, these workers looked HAPPY. Hardly matching up to my image of factory work being dull and drone-like, these people were chatting each other up, smiling, laughing, and appeared to be having a blast. Hell, if I got to eat cheese all day, I'd be happy too.
After getting our fill of the factory view, we finally made our way back downstairs to sample six or seven varieties of cheese. The vintage white is to DIE for. Other favorites were the cheese curd (perfectly salty) and the extra sharp cheddar (of course). We went back in line again and again, each time loading up our sampling toothpicks with 3-4 cheese squares each. Perfection.
We spent a small fortune buying a variety of cheeses and sauces (all made at Tillamook) at the small grocery store located inside the creamery, and have cooked many a delicious meal with our souvenirs. To round out our day of indulgence, we finished our tour with a couple of Tillamook grilled cheese sandwiches at the cafe. My only complaint? The fact that they don't have tomato soup as a regular menu item, for a perfect comfort food combo.
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BEST ICE CREAM EVER! It seriously tastes better there at the factory :)
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so good we went twice...drove over an hour just for the ice cream....
Tour: not as good as the jelly belly factory, a little confusing. Wish I learned more...It was great seeing the assembly line...there was a lady just staring at cheese packages through a mirror...I thought wow what a rediculus job...but then she hit the mirror and a defective package shot out and she fixed it... we claped and gave her a thumbs up. she smiled and fake wiped the sweat off her brow...wish there was more samples of cheese.
Food:
the grild sandwish with ham was ok. the fudge was good...but the Ice cream was the best I've ever had...(geloto or custurd is difrent) Favorite Flavors: Chocolate peanut butter, mint Chocolate chip, strabery cheese cake. The German Chocolate cake is good if your into that type of thing. the ice cream is better by its self don't get the shakes..
Ah try to watch out for the lines when there are buses. the lunch crowd can get crazy....(tip if your buying fudge you can buy it over at the gift shop if the Line is too long at the one by the fudge/cheese area
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A MUST STOP FOR MY LONG DRIVE THROUGH OREGON. THE VISITORS CENTER AT TILLAMOOK IS A FUN PLACE TO SEE THE CHEESE MAKING PROCESS AND GRAB SOME ICE CREAM IN A FRESH BAKED WAFFLE CONE. THEY HAVE MANY GREAT FLAVORS SO IT'S A TOUGH CHOICE. HERE'S WHAT THEY HAVE TO OFFER....
Banana Split
Black Walnut
Blueberry Cheesecake
Bubble Gum
Caramel Butter Pecan
Caramel Pecan Praline
Caramel Toffee Crunch
Chocolate
Chocolate Orange
Cookie Dough
Mint Chocolate Chip
Chocolate Peanut Butter
Coffee Almond Fudge
Cookies and Cream
Espresso Mocha
French Silk
French Vanilla
German Chocolate Cake
Marion berry Pie
Mountain Huckleberry
Old-Fashioned Vanilla
Orange Cream
Oregon Black Cherry
Oregon Strawberry
Peaches and Cream
Peppermint Candy
Pistachio Pecan
Pumpkin
Rocky Road
Root Beer Float
Strawberry Cheesecake
Tillamook Mudslide
Udderly Chocolate
Vanilla Bean
White Licorice
Wild Mountain Blackberry
AND THEN THERE IS THE GREAT FUDGE COUNTER AND THE SWEET GIFT SHOP AND THE FARMHOUSE CAFE. WELL IF YOU WANT A PRETTY DARN GOOD GRILLED CHEESE THIS IS THE PLACE TO GET ONE FOR SURE. THE PACIFIC WAS SOMETHING NEW FOR ME AND SO SCRUMPTIOUS. IT WAS GRILLED SOURDOUGH, FRESH PACIFIC SHRIMP AND TILLAMOOK CHEDDAR. THIS PLACE IS BAD IF YOUR ON A DIET SO COME HUNGRY.
HAROLD AND KUMAR NEED TO GO TO TILLAMOOK!! LOL
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Mildly interesting tour, but the best part is the tasting at the end. ;) I didn't know they made so many different flavors of cheese - and ice creams, too! A wonderful stop while you're driving around the area.
Came here on a weekend, which meant no cheese production was going on. You have to come on a weekday in order to watch they physically make the cheese.
On the other hand, i got to sample different cheeses, from curds (if you like rubber) to cheddar to pepper jack. yum! i'm never eating kraft ever again.
if it wasn't such a cold and windy day i would've had some tillamood ice cream. then again i could go to mcdonald's at by school for that.
I didn't even know Tillamook made ice cream too. There was a ton of flavors to choose from. You can also get sample dishes of 3 or 5 different flavors in tiny scoops. The junior scoop is the perfect size and it is only 1.25!! and it's in a cute little skinny sugar cone too! The ice cream was very creamy. The line is superlong but they have a system going on... pay in one line and they give you a receipt then u stand in the next line and wait to be served... this way it gives you more time to change your mind and really decide what you want.
No trip along the Oregon Coast is complete without a stop at this venerable institution. I've been coming to this Cheese Factory/Creamery every time I've been on this stretch of coastline for about 30 years.
The ice cream was great, the self-guided tour was very educational, and the variety of cheeses sold in the vast gift area is enough to put a smile on any cheese connoisseur's face.
A must for cheese lovers touring the Oregon coast. Don't leave without snagging some of the vintage white, and a waffle bowl of fresh ice cream. Be sure to go on a weekday so you can watch the cheese factory in action on the self-guided tour.
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This place rocks!
First of all, they have more than just the cheese you buy in the stores. They had what is called a "curd" cheese that is basically yummy, buttery with a bit of sharpness curdled cheese. They also have a white cheddar I don't see often in stores.
Walking through the factory you get to view everything happening down below. The huge tables full of cheese are so tempting that i just wanna find the employee entrance infiltrate that place. I love the statue of the cow at the front that shows how to milk a cow.
My mom grew up in this town and so I have been here countless times. The ice cream is the best I have ever had. They don't distribute it very far though. We, the unfortunate, here in California will probably never see this brand of ice cream in the freezer section. The only chance we get is going to Oregon or visiting the factory. They also make yogurt(oh damn!), butter(I only use their butter for baking) and sour cream that is perfect heated up and drizzled on top of a steak and onion sammich. Hungry yet??
Time to plan another trip to visit Grandma, Aunt Linda and Aunt Pat and have them take us to this wonderful cheese factory. Besides, I ran out of my huge box of Tillamook fudge and I really don't want grandma to try and care-package that through the mail again.
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Touristy... too crowded and they only have the same cheeses you can buy in the grocery store. People waiting like 15 min to get a free taste of cheddar cheese? Weird! Anyway, I love cheese and was very disappointed. Ice cream is good, but not worth the line to wait as you can buy that in any store too. Skip this and head to the Rogue Creamery if you head inland on your trip.
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The ice cream was pretty good and they had a great system for serving lots of people fast. The waffle cones were fresh and there were lots of ice cream flavors to choose from. If you are even remotely interested in ice cream you will like this place.
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This place is worth visiting in Tilamook, Oregon, but wasn't nearly as great as I hoped.
We enjoyed our boys seeing cheese being made; as fascinating as it is to see automation at work, it is even better to serve as a teaching experience for why it is good to learn skills more marketable than factory line work.The tour is not nearly as informative of how cheese is made as we wanted. The whole show mostly serves to guide the line of tourists along to the areas to buy cheese, ice cream and other products. We were really pleased to discover that Tillamook Cheese makes a Vintage White version of their cheddar, giving us a new appreciation for products from this brand. Several decent samples were displayed to try, and a gift shop that is practically a stocked supermarket is quite impressive. To the operation's credit I came away sold on spending a little more for cheddar with as nice of undertones as Tillamook Cheese can have. I now expect a little more of a cheese variety I've normally considered ordinary.
Nonetheless, unlike many other factory tours, there's not much of a bargain to find here that you couldn't find just by watching the sales at your local grocer who stocks Tillamook Cheese. Didn't even find any interesting cheese versions (read: edible souvenirs) that I can't find by looking around a little here in Utah.
It's still fun to grab a bag or two of "squeaky cheese" (fresh cheddar curd) along with the rest of the tourists. Most also flock to the large creamery, that, in my opinion, stands as a fattening salute to what is wrong with the state of American ice cream. Instead of focusing on clean, bright, natural flavors, "premium" ice cream becomes dimly overburdened with cream. Tillamook Factory, I wish I could pack you up and ship you off to eat gelato in Italy, to learn it is possible to have creamy texture without all the butterfat.
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