Porcelain garlic

Porcelain garlics (ophios) may be the most beautiful garlics of all and sometimes seem too beautiful to eat. Their bulb wrappers tend to be very thick, luxuriant and parchment-like and tightly cover their few, but large, cloves. The outer bulb wrappers are often very white to milky and light tan although some some, like Romanian Red, tend to some purple striping as you peel away the wrappers. Their appearance tempts one to wonder whether they were sculpted by some great artist rather than something grown in the ground. There are no smaller cloves as most cloves are large and fat (four to eight per bulb), this makes them a great favorite with chefs.

Georgian Crystal (porcelain hardneck variety)

It has large bulbs and cloves and has a mild flavor when eaten raw and a smooth buttery flavor when roasted. It is a long storing garlic. It is originally from the Gatersleben Seed Bank (#6819), also known as Cichisdzhvari. Averages 5 to 6 cloves per bulb.

Georgian Fire (Porcelain hardneck)

Similar to Georgian Crystal except averages 5 to 8 cloves per bulb. A raw taste is strong with a pleasant hotness. A good salsa garlic or salad warmer. (AKA Cichisdzhvari #4)

Music (porcelain hardneck variety)

The flavor is good, sweet and pungent, very hot when eaten raw. It is an Italian variety brought back to Canada by Al Music in the 1980s from his homeland. It has consistenly produced some very large bulbs for us and is super easy to grow; not fussy at all. When people see this one they often wonder if it's Elephant Garlic. Averages about 5 cloves per bulb.

Romanian Red (porcelain hardneck variety)

aka Red Elephant Garlic. Bulb size will be noticeably reduced if you lose control of the weeding around this variety. It has large easy to peel cloves so it's a favorite in the kitchen. Eaten raw it has a strong garlic flavor with a mild initial tingle, the garlic flavor lingers and sweetens in your mouth and ends with a nutty flavor. It is very good for storage for a hardneck variety. Averages 5 to 7 cloves per bulb.

Zemo (Porcelain)

aka Gatersleben #K 6307 This is a large bulbed variety. The cloves are well streaked on back but soft brown-pink with lines on the inside. Raw the taste is strong and pleasant with no aftertaste. Originally from the village of Zemo Surebi in the upper Supsa valley at the edge of the Adzaro-Imeretinian mountains, Cochatauri Province, Guriya Region, Republic of Georgia. It has been praised by Cook's Illustrated magazine. Averages 4 to 5 cloves per bulb.