Interesting question. Thanks for asking.
My answer to 'can I taste much of a difference in garlics' is no, (maybe yes to the wine). Thats why I continue to limit the varieties I grow and try to keep it to about 5. The differences are less about taste and more about appearance, harvest time, storability and how well they grow in my climate.
-Mark

At one time, wine tasting was a serious hobby of mine (which has morphed more into wine drinking these days ;-). After many tastings and thousands of bottles over the past 40 years I have developed a fairly decent palate for red wine. Yet with so many variables affecting wine, vintage to vintage, style to style, bottle to bottle, and even day to day, I still struggle to identify the grape. I have met some true connoisseurs who can, but I've concluded that the majority of those who name seven fruits in the wine's nose are just winging it.

Garlic is even more difficult to develop a palate for as the stuff burns! I've been to raw garlic tastings and after the first few tastes my tongue is numb and they all start to taste the same. I detect some differences in strength and less in flavor, but only temporarily and not consistently.

Plus, like you say, I rarely eat garlic raw? I use copious quantities in cooking where the flavors meld with so many others, but the occasional nibbles of raw cloves yield no expertise.

Therefore I grow garlic for yield, ease of peeling, and storage capability. I like big fat cloves, 4-6 per big fat bulb, with good intensity and long storage. Porcelains fit this bill quite well, and Music is the best I have found. I also grow a strange stain of German Red which has short, squat plants with beautiful globular red streaked bulbs - really pretty. Russian Red and Estonian Red round out my needs. I've grown dozens of varieties over the years and refined it down to these four, and I'll probably stick with them.

But can I tell them apart in a raw tasting? Nope.

TomVA

This post was edited by wcthomas on Tue, Sep 9, 14 at 9:06

Yes, this makes sense. It seems some people grow more than 10 varieties just for the hobby. But I would not want to pay $15 for 1/2 pound, just to try it, if you've already grow several kinds of it.

In general, there are some differences from different families people can tell, but not on a variety by variety basis. There are many many varieties.

Most of the consumers can't tell and would not even care. They just want to get $2/lb garlic, not the $20/lb garlic.

I can't understand there is still a market for $20/lb garlic.

You spend the money to try the varieties, to see whether it gives you what you want, but once you have several varieties that work well for you, you save cloves from that batch to plant the next fall. I would only need to purchase again if there was a total fail of some kind, but after about 25 years of growing garlic, I just don't see that happening.

"The differences are less about taste and more about appearance, harvest time, storability and how well they grow in my climate."

I agree, especially if 'appearance' includes bulb & clove size. If looking for a new garlic to grow, bulb size is my first consideration, followed by clove size. A garlic with tiny cloves, no matter how good it tastes, becomes tiresome after you have peeled 20 bulbs worth of cloves.

Different garlic cultivars do have different flavors. Could I positively identify a garlic by its taste? Not likely, although I might recognize one I have grown previously. I grew 13 garlics for a few years, before it was all wiped out by disease. That collection is mostly restored now, and with the addition of another 20 varieties this Fall, I hope to grow about 30 different garlics.

Taste differences are very pronounced raw... but I seldom use garlic that way. I either cook with it fresh, or dehydrate it into garlic "chips", which are added whole to dishes (they keep their shape) or ground into powder as needed. The dehydrated garlic retains much of the raw flavor, and it is the powder which I taste test. The flavor can vary substantially from year to year; those grown in wet years tend to be milder. Some are mild, some are richly flavored, and some are all fire. The powders can be blended to get the desired flavor.

The main advantage of taste testing the powder is that you don't need to fry your palate. Just dip the tip of a dry finger in the powder, and taste. You'll get the flavor, but it won't linger. A few minutes later, after a palate cleanser, you can taste another one.

I haven't done much experimentation with roasting yet... a project for the future.

As a cook, I like to have several types to choose from because they differ in how they behave in food. I would never use a Music clove in bruschetta, but they're great for baking whole or in pickles. I admit to getting frustrated with the little cloves in the middle of the softnecks.

In my experience, cooks who have only known softnecks really like the way rocambole cloves line up so even and pretty. You enjoy cooking more when you're working with beautiful bulbs.

As a cook, how often do your hear your customers praise the taste of the garlic? Most of them can't tell.