That is like asking me which is my favorite child! I grew 10 varieties this past year, and the biggest and prettiest was my German Extra Hardy. That is the one that I would enter in the local fair and walk away with first prize, except that I need all my bulbs to reinvest towards next year, and couldn't do that with bulbs that had sat in a 90° room for four days. The remaining big kids on the block, in order of declining size, are: Chesnock Red, Purple Glazer, Spanish Roja, a local Rocambole, and Music. They all taste wonderful in their own rights, but the German Extra Hardy is the clear winner for aesthetics this year.

My favorite is the un-named Rocambole which I got at the farmer's market for $1 over 10 years ago. The farmer did not know the variety name. But this is the most reliable and produces large heads (almost as large as Musik and sometimes larger), has large purple-red topsets that can be used for cooking before the head is ready.

German Extra-Hardy is OK here, but size did not match the "Old Rocambole"

I went recently to visit relatives in Lithuania. On the street corner was an old lady selling a few items from her garden. I coveted one of the heads of garlic. It was large, brilliant red and white striped, appeared to be a double layer of cloves, and was probably as cheap as dirt! I did not buy it, though she saw me admire it. :-) I knew I couldn't bring it back to the US for planting :-(

Cheers
Maryanne in WMass

I am asked this question every week when I am selling my garlic at the farmers market. I always say it depends how I am using it.
Morado gigante is wonderful raw, Music is great baked and easy to peel, I really like spanish roja for its spicy taste. Shantung for its STRONG taste and persian star for sauces that are cooked alot. Elephant makes the best garlic powder. Kettle river makes the prettiest braids and Lorz is my longest keeper.
Sorry I can't narrow it down to one but what do you expect of someone who wears REAL garlic earrings!
The garlic Lady

I'd toss in my vote for Chesnok Red and also Locati.

I'm with Garlic Lady. There's no way I could narrow it down to just one.

For the best all-around garlic, though, I'd cast my vote for Shvelisi (Chesnook Red). It sort of defines garlic. Music would be a close runner-up.

I like the flavor of Samarkand Purple (Persian Star), but couldn't get it to size up the way it's supposed to.

For sentimental reasons, Gravel Switch is my favorite hot garlic.

And I'm developing a real fondness for Xian.

Lorz Italian is a good keeper, but for me, Italian Late keeps even better. In fact, I'm just using up those I harvested a year ago.

Chesnok just gets smaller for me and this year alot of it will end up as garlic powder or as earrings and necklaces for the garlic festival . We will probabaly discontinue chesnok because of its size.

Bummer to think that my Chesnocks might get smaller in subsequent years. Perhaps my colder clime will help avoid that phenomenon (winter suffering should be good for something).

I do think it is the southern clmate that keeps it from doing as good. Some hardnecks do ok here others don't

On the other hand, I had a perfect record with the only softnecks I have grown: out of 18 Mexican Red Silvers I sowed last fall, only four came up in the spring (several had tried to during indian summer), and even those were dead by mid-May).

Silverskins don't like it here either. Try an artichoke type they are easier to grow. Try something like NY White/polish white and you might get better results. I did a search for new york white and found farms in michigan and minnisota & New York that grow it. So you you want to try softnecks again i would try this variety.

I have already placed my orders for this season (of course), and they are exclusively hardneck. But, I am going to my local garlic festival (for the first time) in 10 days, and perhaps I can find a suitable softneck there.