Noosa Black Garlic was founded by wife and husband team,Teneille and Tony Newton in 2021.
What started as a deep passion for food and flavour has exploded into an award winning, premium and gourmet food brand.
If you haven't heard of Noosa Black Garlic, or tried it for yourself you really are missing out.
We are obsessed with their Black Garlic Paste, and are incredibly grateful that Teneille took some time out to answer a few questions for us to share the
Noosa Black Garlic story with you all.
We love what you do. What inspired you to enter the world of Garlic?
Noosa Black Garlic really began with a love of exceptional food, an appreciation for Australian-grown produce and a little bit of curiosity.
After years in our corporate careers, we wanted to build something of our own that combined food, wellbeing and provenance. While travelling throughout Vietnam we discovered black garlic, fell in love with the flavour, and became completely fascinated by the transformation - taking beautiful Australian garlic and, through nothing more than carefully controlled time and temperature, creating something sweet, deeply savoury and almost balsamic in flavour.
We started experimenting in our own kitchen, sharing what we made with friends and family and eventually taking it along to local markets. The response was incredible. People would taste it, stop in their tracks and ask, “What is this?” That reaction still makes us smile.
What started very small in 2021 has grown into Noosa Black Garlic - now Australia's largest and most awarded black garlic producer, and today we work with wonderful Australian growers and produce an entire range around an ingredient we still think is pretty extraordinary.
What is your favourite thing about what you do?
The people - without question.
We obviously love creating beautiful food, but there is something incredibly rewarding about standing in front of someone, giving them their first taste of black garlic and watching their expression change. We still get genuinely excited when someone comes back to us and tells us how they have used it, what they have cooked with it or that it has become a staple in their kitchen.
We also love the relationships we have built along the way - with our growers, chefs, fellow producers, stockists like Mumbleberry and customers all over Australia.
There is a real sense of community around good food, and being able to make something here in Australia that people are excited to serve, gift and share is enormously satisfying.
We are constantly inspired by the gorgeous produce we find. Who or what do you draw inspiration for your range from?
Our starting point is always the ingredient.
Black garlic has such an extraordinary depth of flavour that we are constantly asking ourselves, where else could this work? From there, we look at ingredients and products we genuinely love to have in our own pantry and think about how black garlic could make them even more interesting.
That is how our range has grown from our Black Garlic Cloves into pastes, honey, extra virgin olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, salt, sauces and aioli.
We are also hugely inspired by chefs, our customers and other Australian producers. Some of our best ideas have come from conversations at events or from someone telling us about an unexpected way they have used one of our products.
Ultimately, we want everything we make to pass a very simple test: it has to be delicious, beautifully made and genuinely useful in the kitchen. We never want to create something simply for the sake of having another product on the shelf.
We are so proud to be supporting Australian artisans like yourself. Who are some of your favourite artisan producers here in Australia and why?
This is probably the hardest question because one of the absolute joys of what we do is meeting so many brilliant Australian food producers - the list is very, very long!
We have a particular soft spot for cheesemakers and charcuterie producers because black garlic works so beautifully with both. We love producers who are genuinely obsessive about their ingredients and their craft - the ones where you can taste the provenance, skill and care that has gone into every bite.
We have been incredibly fortunate to collaborate with Tasmanian Cheesery, who use our black garlic in their incredible double Gold medal-winning Black Garlic Brie. Closer to home, we are huge fans of Woombye Cheese - especially their washed rind - and Kenilworth Dairies.
Then there are so many other favourites we’ve discovered around the country: Vanella Cheese, Long Paddock Cheese, Milawa Cheese Company and the beautiful cultured butter from Del Bocia. And I have to mention City Larder - I am rather partial to their pâtés and terrines, which are some of the best around.
Honestly, we could keep going. One of the great privileges of travelling to food events all over Australia is getting to meet the people behind these products, taste what they are creating and build genuine friendships along the way.
There is an extraordinary amount of talent in Australian artisan food, and we love being part of an industry where small producers collaborate, recommend one another and champion Australian-made. It makes the whole food community stronger - and gives customers the chance to discover some truly exceptional products.
We are passionate about giving inspired and delicious gifts with meaning. Do you have a secret gift-giving weapon that always makes you the winner with friends and family that you can share with us?
Food. Always food.
Our favourite gifts are the things people might not necessarily buy for themselves - something beautifully made, a little indulgent and, most importantly, absolutely delicious.
For us, the easiest way to impress is with two of our favourites: our signature Caramelized Black Garlic Paste, which is also our number one best-seller, and our Champion-winning Black Garlic Honey.
They are both incredibly easy to use, but have that wonderful “what is this and where did you find it?” factor. The Caramelized Black Garlic Paste can instantly elevate everything from cheese and charcuterie to steak, burgers, pasta or a simple piece of sourdough, while the Black Garlic Honey is magic with cheese, roasted vegetables, pizza, glazed meats - or honestly, just eaten by the spoonful.
Pair them with a beautiful Australian cheese, some artisan crackers and a good bottle of wine and you have a gift that feels thoughtful, luxurious and a little unexpected - without making it complicated.
That, for us, is the secret: give people something delicious they haven't tried before, but will immediately wonder how they ever lived without.
