Forum Topic

Garlic no longer has any taste

Where oh where can I buy GHar.ic that really tastes?   Over the years the garlic one buys in both super markets and even at Farmers' Markets has stedy declined in flavour.   I thought it was possibly because garlic grown in the UK lacked the harsh hot sunshine of the Mediterranean but now even garlic carried back by a friend from Turkey lacks flavour.   Onions too seem to have declined in taste - at onetime I cried buckets slicing one, nowadays, not a tear in sight!   According to report today, veg grown on Mrs is much beter and full of nutients.  Apologies for typos as I can't see  well - just had eye op, cataract and glaucoma - gradually improving but still very blurred.  Left eye is next in 2 weeks time.

Jennifer Selig ● 2434d18 Comments

Is it a dish you could use spring onions with, they have more flavour, agree onions just not the same, cannot eat garlic it upsets tum.

Janice Evans ● 2434d

Yes increasingly using more spring onions and chives, also leeks but I want the old fashioned proper garlic  - used to buy from the bicycling French onion (& garlic) sellers - not seen one of those for years.

Jennifer Selig ● 2434d

In a few weeks time you will be able to collect wild garlic leaves (ramsoms). Make a pesto with them, keep a jar in the fridge. A teaspoonful of that in anything will garlic you to allium heaven.

Ken Munn ● 2434d

I'd forgotten about wild garlic.  Ir used to be overpowering in my back garden, so much so that a gardener last year dug it all out  How daft can you get - hope when Spring comes, if it ever does, some roots will have survived and I can collect some leaves.

Jennifer Selig ● 2434d

Firstly, good luck with the upcoming eye operations.
Try an Asian supermarket or food store, the garlic and ginger they sell is far more flavoursome.

N V Brooks ● 2434d

We are growing our own at the moment - bit of a long job, but you could try getting some Garlic from the Isle of Wight Garlic Farm?

Vanessa Smith ● 2434d

Incidentally, and apropos not very much at all, heard on the radio the other day that much of the garlic and ginger in the shops comes from China.

Ken Munn ● 2434d

Really? Garlic doesn’t taste? If I have only a bit it stays with me for days and doesn’t always go well with the cornflakes.

Vivienne Cox ● 2434d

Apparently you should be looking for hard-necked garlic.  I understand that this type doesn't plait well. I always thought that the purple and white skinned type was stronger.Here is something I came across:https://www.beaconfoods.co.uk/news/really-strong-garlic-time-after-timeI know that I tried a very large (elephant) garlic and was disappointed.I also agree about the onions.  I can't remember when I last cried chopping them.  Is it the onions or is it us?I've discovered that I can use the whole of the leek - well almost.  All those dark leaves at the top can be sliced and can go into soup - and they cook quite fast in stock. They just need thorough washing first.  No just eating the lower paler part - as I caught a friend doing.  I was sure my parents cooked more of them - you don't waste much when you grow it yourself!

Philippa Bond ● 2433d

I also read some time ago that they bleach the garlic in China so that it looks white. This inevitably gets into the cloves themselves and is not very desirable.

Beatrice Harper ● 2433d

Taste buds also change as we age.

Keith Iddon ● 2433d

Oral thrush and some medications can also mean you lose your sense of taste or it changes.  Mineral deficiencies can also cause changes in taste and tiredness etc - I think it is lack of zinc with taste and smell.

Philippa Bond ● 2432d

I think Keith is on the right track.Also, eating pine nuts can sometimes cause a temporary taste disturbance that makes everything taste metallic.  It happened to me once.Returning to garlic, Mackens sell smoked garlic which is pretty hard-core!

Alastair Banton ● 2432d

The garlic taste is a chemical reaction and I've been give this advice:Smash the garlic up and leave it to sit for 10 minutes before you use it, it'll intensify the flavour.  It needs a good pounding to get the chemicals working. Don't slice it if you want flavour.And apparently don't cook it for too long as that removes the flavour as well.

Tania Bapuji ● 2432d

If garlic and onions no longer have the same strength of taste as in yesteryear (I wouldn't like to say myself), then I suspect it's because supermarkets are catering to their customers' tastes and getting farmers to breed strains which aren't so acrid and don't cause so many tears etc.I remember when I was in California some years back, I passed near Vidalia, which was billing itself as "The Sweet Onion Capital of the World" (or somesuch promotional guff):https://www.sweetonion.com/the-vidalia-onion-story/

Richard Cathcart ● 2432d

and that would by why sweetcorn has become oversweet.I thought that there was something else that happened about pine nuts.  I remember a lot of discussion some years back.The enjoyment of coriander is apparently actually dependent on your genetics.

Philippa Bond ● 2432d

I regularly order Ocado branded large garlic bulbs as I need them, 2 every 2 weeks, and find it quite flavourful. I believe keeping garlic tends to dull the flavour. The best onions and garlic come in my OddBox, it is delivered weekly and I get to know the contents in advance but it’s not always guaranteed there will be “crying” onions and breathy garlic, but when it does, my cooking efforts are improved...

Victoria Temple ● 2431d

Agree re Ocado. I don't eat a meal I have cooked with garlic from Ocado if I have a meeting the next day :)

Claire Moran ● 2431d