Black garlic and raw garlic both start as the same bulb — but the similarities stop there. Fermentation transforms almost everything about the clove: its colour, flavour, texture, aroma and how it behaves in cooking.
How they're made
Raw garlic is simply harvested, cured and eaten fresh or cooked. Black garlic goes through an extended fermentation process — at The Garlic Factory, we age our garlic for over 720 hours (30 days) in a carefully controlled, low-heat, high-humidity environment. Over this time, the Maillard reaction slowly breaks down the garlic's natural sugars and amino acids, turning the cloves a deep black colour and completely changing their chemical makeup.
Flavour and texture
Raw garlic is sharp, pungent and can be overpowering, especially uncooked. Black garlic is the opposite: soft, almost jammy in texture, with a sweet, rich, umami flavour often compared to balsamic vinegar, molasses or tamarind. There's no harsh bite — just a deep, savoury sweetness.
Smell and aftertaste
One of the most noticeable differences is smell. Raw garlic contains allicin, the compound responsible for its strong odour and the lingering garlic breath many people try to avoid. The fermentation process breaks allicin down, so black garlic has a much milder aroma and doesn't leave the same aftertaste.
How to use each in cooking
Raw garlic is a workhorse — minced into sauces, sautéed as a base for countless dishes, or used raw in dressings for a sharp kick. Black garlic works differently: because it's already soft and deeply flavoured, it's best mashed into a paste and used to add depth to aiolis, marinades, dressings, glazes — or even stirred into desserts for a surprising sweet-savoury note. It doesn't need to be cooked further, so it's often added toward the end of a recipe or used as a finishing touch.
Which one should you use?
They're not really interchangeable — they serve different purposes. Raw garlic brings punch and pungency; black garlic brings depth, sweetness and umami. Many cooks use both: raw garlic as a foundational aromatic, and black garlic as a flavour-boosting finishing ingredient.
Curious to try it for yourself? Shop our slow-aged black garlic or browse our recipes for ideas on how to use it.