Haven't we all heard about black garlic already? I started reporting about it back in 2012, and even joked about finding it on a clip strip as an impulse item at The Berkeley Bowl. That's a heck of an impulse.
Some garlic shippers told me recently that they're seeing renewed interest. Check out the search line from Google Trends Food & Drink:
What gives?
Turns out the meal kit delivery people picked it up and put it in a few recipes.
Blue Apron, in particular, has featured it several times over the past few months.
So, what is black garlic?
It's fermented at a high heat for about 30 days, then aged for 20 days at room temperature. The process renders it soft, sweet and spreadable.
It's also worth noting that several sources out there link black garlic to cancer fighting properties. Take that however you'd like to, but you can see when you swap the Google Trends search to Health instead of Food & Drink, search velocity is way up over there, too.
But wait, there's more!
Have you ever seen Bob's Burgers? It's on Fox and the Cartoon Network, but isn't really for kids, unless you're talking about Millennials. Bob's signature burger?