Tillamook Cheese {Review & Giveaway}

{This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations, Deborah Wellenstein!}

As with everywhere, there are some stereotypes about Wisconsin that aren't necessarily true. Sure, we have cows and yes, we have sports fans that wear those cheesehead hats proudly. But no, we're not all farmers and we don't have beer and cheese with every meal.

Although... okay... cheese is pretty darn good stuff. And, up until recently, my family was getting along just fine eating the standard cheese that we found in the grocery store. Everything from block to shredded to sliced, we tended to buy whatever was on sale and were happy with it.

Then we tried Tillamook. And I wondered first if we were the only people in the U.S. to not have heard of or sampled Tillamook cheeses before and second, how in the world would we go back to regular cheese again?

A 101 year old farmer-owned dairy company in Oregon, Tillamook makes a variety of cheeses, ice cream, yogurt, butter and sour cream that follow their commitment to being the utmost highest in quality. Over the years, they have earned a reputation for consistently producing the best-tasting dairy products and are now nationally recognized for their delicious dairy products.

As not all Tillamook products are available everywhere, they do have an online store and a store locator to help find a retailer near you to purchase their tasty items. For me, I was fortunate that there was one store listed for my area... but not as fortunate that when I arrived there and found the Tillamook section that it wasn't very large.

I was really looking forward to tasting the much-talked-about, award-winning Medium Cheddar 2 lb Baby Loaf as well as many of the sliced and shredded varieties, but was still able to happily walk away with both the Medium and Sharp Cheddar Cheese 8-oz blocks. Yum!

As both Big Sister E and Little Sister B are big fans of cheese, when lunchtime rolled around and we had the opportunity to pull out our Tillamook cheese slicer and give this a taste, we were all pretty excited about it.

I was glad to see that Tillamook cheeses are made from only the highest quality milk from cows not treated with artificial growth hormones - because who wants to feed those to their kids?

Naturally aged over 60 days to develop its rich, creamy, smooth flavor, it wasn't hard to see why Tillamook recently earned the title of World's Best Medium Cheddar at the 2010 World Championship Cheese Contest. The deep, nutty flavor and perfectly creamy texture feels and tastes different than... well, any cheese that didn't just win a World Championship title. It's delicious!

Containing only natural ingredients and nothing artificial, cheese from Tillamook is a great snack or included in a multitude of recipes (their website has a lot of great ones)! Available in a variety of sizes, you not only get the high quality taste and unmatched flavor, but without any use of artificial growth hormones you'll always know that you are feeding your family something safe and healthy.

Have you already tried Tillamook? Are you one of the thousands and thousands who love it? Thanks to their generosity, one person will have the opportunity to enjoy their favorite flavors of this yummy cheese, because...

One lucky person will win a Baby Loaf box containing 3 coupons for free cheese (your choice!), a slicer and a heart-shaped sandwich cutter from Tillamook Cheese!

To enter to win: Visit Tillamook Cheese and tell me something that you learned there or which of their tasty products you would like to try.

Extra Entries (available after the mandatory entry above is completed; please leave a separate comment for each entry in order for them to be counted).

1 Extra Entry (per method) if you follow Tillamook Cheese on Twitter and/or Like them on Facebook (a great place to connect with other cheese fans, trade recipes and find coupons for Tillamook products)!
1 Extra Entry (per giveaway entered) - Enter any (or all) of the giveaways running on Thanks, Mail Carrier for the duration of this giveaway.
1 Extra Entry if you follow me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway by copying and pasting the tweet below and leaving me the link. Tweet daily for an extra entry every day!

#WIN a Tillamook Cheese Baby Loaf box of cheeses, slicer & heart-shaped cutter (ARV $25)! #thxmailcarrier http://bit.ly/aDZlsl #giveaway

2 Extra Entries (per follow method) if you follow me with Google Friend Connect, subscribe to my RSS feed, subscribe to Thanks, Mail Carrier by email or become a fan on Facebook.
3 Extra Entries if you put my cute button up on your blog. Please leave an address where it can be found.
3 Extra Entries if you blog about this giveaway linking back to Thanks, Mail Carrier and Tillamook. Please leave an address where it can be found.

Giveaway will end on December 10th at 11:59pm CST. Do me the favor of leaving an email address or making absolutely sure it is visible in your profile, I have to have a way to contact the winner. The winner will be chosen by random.org and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to contact me or respond to notification or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.

A big thank you to Tillamook Cheese for providing a Tillamook Cheese Baby Loaf box for me to review as well as for one lucky giveaway winner. The opinions shared are my own and honest and if you really need to see more, click here to see how I roll.