A Salem creamery known for its traditional Mexican cheeses has picked up a major new honor in 2026, with Don Froylan Creamery’s Liliana’s String Cheese earning Best of Class at the World Championship Cheese Contest in Madison, Wisconsin. The result gives Salem a fresh business and food story with real weight: this is one of the cheese industry’s top competitions, and winning there puts a local producer in a very different category than ordinary regional recognition.
“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
For Don Froylan, the win says something more important than “nice award.” It shows that a company built around culturally specific, hands-on cheesemaking can compete at the highest level of international judging. Based in Salem, Don Froylan has built its identity around authentic Mexican cheeses made from family recipes and traditional methods. That focus is part of what makes the business stand out in Oregon’s food manufacturing scene, where most of the better-known dairy names are tied to more familiar mainstream cheese categories.
That is what makes this story stronger than a simple medal announcement. Oregon already has a well-established reputation for cheese, but Don Froylan expands the picture of what “award-winning Oregon cheese” looks like. The state is often associated with cheddar, blue cheese and other classic varieties from larger or more widely recognized producers. Don Froylan’s success shows that Oregon’s dairy reputation is not only deep, but broader than many people assume. A Salem creamery making Mexican-style string cheese is now part of the state’s upper tier of recognized producers, and that gives the story more substance than a one-off contest result.
The family story behind the business adds to that significance. Don Froylan grew out of the Ochoa family’s effort to make the cheeses they could not easily find after coming to Oregon. Over time, that need turned into a Salem creamery built on tradition, consistency and a clear product niche. In business terms, that matters because the company is not winning by trying to imitate larger brands. It is winning by doing something specific and doing it well enough that judges at the highest levels are recognizing it.
The 2024 recognition for Liliana’s String Cheese still matters here, but as background, not as current news. That earlier win established that the product already had national credibility, helping show that the 2026 result was not random. It was an earlier sign of the same pattern now playing out on a bigger stage. Framed that way, the current world-level honor looks less like a surprise and more like proof that Don Froylan has staying power.
For Salem, the takeaway is more concrete than civic pride. Awards like this strengthen a company’s brand, add credibility with retailers and customers, and help position local manufacturing businesses as serious players beyond the immediate region. Don Froylan’s latest win is a food story, but it is also a business story about how a specialized producer from Salem can translate quality, identity and consistency into recognition that reaches far beyond Oregon.
