TILLAMOOK, ORE. – Tillamook County Creamery Association (TCCA) earned gold in the frozen desserts category at the Specialty Food Association's (SFA) 2024 sofi Awards.

The SFA’s panel of specialty food experts, buyers and media chose Tillamook Sea Salt & Honeycomb Toffee Ice Cream as the best frozen dessert among the variety of nominees.

Tillamook director of product excellence Jill Allen said the winning product consists of a honey ice cream base with crunchy honeycomb toffee and sea salt.

"We are thrilled to win our first-ever sofi Gold Award for our amazing Tillamook ice cream," Allen said. "We dedicate tremendous care to delivering truly extraordinary dairy for Tillamook fans to enjoy every day. To be recognized in such a highly competitive category for our unwavering commitment to great taste and incredible quality means so much to all of us at TCCA."

Per SFA, the process for selecting winners involves anonymous tastings held at the Rutgers Food Innovation Center, in Bridgeton, NJ, where products are judged on flavor, appearance, texture, aroma, ingredient quality and innovation.

Bill Lynch, SFA president, said sofi Gold Award winners “have accomplished something really extraordinary.”

Added Lynch: "They have risen to the top of incredibly competitive categories. Every year, we see a flood of superstar specialty food products submit for sofi consideration – those that earn top marks from our judges really are the best of the best."

Earlier this month, Tillamook introduced a fresh brand platform and campaign, emphasizing its "Extraordinary Dairy” products. Citing IRI data for 2023, Tillamook shared that its family-size ice cream dollar sales improved by 28%, while its volume sales grew by 20% and the products made their way into 726,000 new homes in the United States.