Query about garlic

Over the last year or so I have noted a quite unpleasant odor when slicing commercial fresh garlic. It is a definite odor of dirt and not a clean, fresh dirt . This has applied regardless of origin - California, Mexico, China as well as season. Home grown fresh garlic does not have this odor, even as it ages.
I am wondering if this has always been and I am now just aware or is this something others have noticed as well. It is so off putting I always hesitate to use but fortunately it disappears with cooking but would be unusable raw.
It perhaps is a product of age and storage but I use a lot of garlic and have never been aware of this odor before.
Any thought or comments?

[Robin Garr]

Christina, I can't say I've noticed this, but we usually get garlic from a local specialty store that carries garlic from regional farms, a kind that I particularly like because it has big cloves, but not deficient of flavor like elephant garlic.

If it were seasonal I might suspect it going off after a winter in storage or something, but the short answer is that I haven't noticed that.

Anyone else?

It is not consistent where I shop; I assume they are getting bulbs from different places (...of different species, maybe of different storage). Some bulbs smell fine, some come apart too easily (I think that means they're drying out), some do smell a little like a basement. It's not steady enough for me to guess what it might be.

[Jenise]

I use a LOT of garlic, easily a bulb per week on average, and I haven't noticed what you speak of. Sure, some is better than others, but origins aside (I love the red Mexican garlic I sometimes get at our local Food Co-op), but because it's only available "sometimes" I buy from various vendors and I'm guilty of sometimes buying more than I can use before it gets too dry. I'm unable to attribute any differences I notice to anything outside of my own capricious buying habits.

My wife buys a LOT of garlic from local producers - four different kinds last year - and I haven't noted any untoward odours. Am making a home made pizza tonight with Red Russian (which is paradoxically pale violet) tonight. Huge cloves, twice as big as normal garlic.