Minced Garlic To Garlic Powder – A Kroger Garlic Powder Review

Garlic is one of those essential things to keep in the kitchen. And while I prefer to use fresh garlic cloves right out of my herb garden, now more than ever I can appreciate the value of shelf-stable spices. With fewer opportunities to go to the grocery store, I find myself eating a lot of bland food. Noodles, pasta (Check out my tomato sauce article), keto ranch dressing, soup, garlic bread, meat, pizza sauce… just about anything tastes better with a little (or maybe a lot of) garlic. Your grandmother kept one of these little metal shakers of garlic powder (also known as dehydrated garlic) in the spice drawer for a reason: when you need it, you need it. Make the switch from minced garlic to garlic powder.

Fresh Garlic To Garlic Powder

As far as brands go, I’ve been using Kroger Garlic Powder for years. This spice is in stock at Kroger.com and also available at your typical Kroger retailers, such as QFC and Fred Meyer.

Why Use Store Brand Garlic Powder In The Kitchen?

Let’s be real, powdered garlic will never live up to the real thing. That’s why I advocate for getting the cheap store brand stuff, because there’s no such thing as high-end dried garlic. Use the good stuff when you have it, and use the powdered stuff when you don’t.

Some people prefer to keep garlic salt, minced garlic, or diced garlic on hand instead. For me, garlic powder is the most useful form of shelf-stable garlic because the particles are small enough to sprinkle over any dish and there is no added salt flavor.

Kroger Garlic Powder Review

I find the steel tin package to be surprisingly nice looking. The retro-style blue on blue motif honestly looks better than the package of the more expensive competitors. You should care about how the package looks because it’s going to be in your kitchen for a long time.

Seriously, if you look at the photos you’ll see that the package expired in 2019 and hasn’t been opened yet. I got two of these things with a coupon for buy one get one free, and years later I still haven’t finished the first one! And I like garlic.

The rear of the container reads, “As a flavoring, garlic has no equal, but a little goes a long way.” This is possibly the most honest product packaging I’ve ever seen.

Minced Garlic To Garlic Powder

Garlic powder tastes like, well, garlic, but picky eaters will notice that it has less bite. Nonetheless, garlic powder is used to flavor all sorts of prepackaged foods. They use it for a reason: it’s cheap and it works. Next time you pick up something like garlic-flavored tomato sauce or garlic-flavored soup, check the ingredients!

Substituting Powder For The Fresh Stuff

One noteworthy property of any powdered garlic is that it does lose flavor with age. To some extent, you can compensate by adding more to bring back the flavor. For reference, this batch is well past the expiration date and I simply add about 20% extra to any dish, and it tastes fine. However, don’t bother with that 30-year old stuff in the back of Mom’s cabinet.

Not only is the taste “Just as good” as any other garlic powder, there are other advantages to checking out the store brands of local retailers. Personally, I save a ton of gas money by walking to my local store whenever I need a small item.

Conclusion

Garlic powder is the perfect fit for the “Off-Brand” mentality and lifestyle. Everyone would prefer fresh garlic, but sometimes this is all you have. Don’t spend any more money than you need to–Kroger Garlic Powder is the perfect thing to have on hand.