When I first found that fresh garlic was available on Amazon, I was stoked. We go through LOTS of garlic at home, to the point where we'd be buying at least six large heads of garlic every week. Super, I thought, three pounds of garlic delivered so I'll be stocked all the time! The price for the size of the bag was very good, I thought.
When I received the garlic, however, I was very disappointed in the quality. I began using the garlic the very night I received it, so it was not sitting in my pantry for months. Here is what I found: Fully half the bag was either rotten, shriveled, or sprouting. This is indicative of garlic that has been sitting around for some time and/or improperly stored. When stored properly, fresh garlic remains fresh, firm, and crisp for weeks... or months. Many of the heads in the bag were completely rotten all the way through. Some were just light for their size and the cloves were wrinkled and shriveled. An equal number were in an advanced stage of sprouting. Those that were suitable for use were OK, but only just that. These were not fresh heads of garlic.
Very disappointed, I contacted Casa de Fruta via email. After my second message, they were kind enough to ship a brand new bag immediately. To their credit, the new bag of garlic arrived very quickly. It was definitely better than the first, but I still lost about 10 heads of garlic to rot and shriveling; that's still a lot in a 3 pound bag, and what would have been a great deal for a full bag of fresh, crisp garlic turned out to be just a real disappointment and a bad deal for a bag of average-to-poor-to-unusable garlic. For reference, I went through the entire second bag in less than a month, and it was stored in a cool, dry environment. It was stored properly, in other words.
So, at this point I don't know what to think. I based my original purchase on the few - and all excellent - reviews and, indeed, I would have rated the garlic at 4 stars + had the second bag contained what I was expecting from the reviews. That was not my experience, however. It is possible, I suppose, that I was just twice unlucky. Still, you'd think that the company would have made certain that the second bag sent, DUE to a customer complaint of quality no less, would have been totally primo. I've got to go with the odds on this one then, and take my garlic business elsewhere.
One final note: Had it not been for courteous and timely response from the vendor, I would have rated this product at one star rather than two based on the quality.