What are your favorite "tasting" tomatoes?

[rzr]

I am new and cannot really participate, but I am very interested in knowing what everyone likes. I was thinking of 2 catagories: A cherry catagory, and an anything larger catagory. Lets say top 3 of each catagory, 1 being your favorite.

Regular

1. Better Boy (Because its the only one I've tasted home grown and ripened in my EB's so far. It was way better then store bought.
2. Grocery store: The big ones tend to taste better to me but are usually 20 cents or more per pound.
3.

Cherry

1. Sunsugar (the only ones that I've tasted fresh off the vine) I have sungolds not ripened yet.
2. Nature Sweet tomato's have been the best tasting for me from the store.
3.

[tomatoguy]

I'm not a big fan of cherries but here goes.

1. Husky Cherry Red (hybrid) - big cherries, decent taste
2. Sweet Quartz - not bad in salads
3. Haven't found any other tolerable ones yet

Non-cherries.

1. New Big Dwarf - big, tangy, powerful flavor and excellent texture
2. Earl's Faux - same as above but not quite as tangy
3. Tie - Brandywine Sudduth's and Gregory's Altai - both are great but GA splits worse than any tomato I have ever grown. BWS is definitely the more powerful taste of the two but GA is very popular with my family and friends.

mater

[pooklette]

Since I try more and more 'new to me' OP tomatoes every year, this list will likely change. Each year I find at least one or two blockbusters. So far, here are some of my favs:

Cherries:

1. Sungold ~ these guys were so sweet and rich, they reminded me a lot of Sangria
2. Galinas ~ these were much more mild than Sungold but they had a light, slightly sweet flavor that was nice
3. Don't have another one because I haven't grown many cherry types yet

Big 'uns:

1. Big Rainbow ~ mild, slightly sweet and the fruits are HUGE
2. Kellogg's Breakfast ~ mild flavor, kind of lacking that tomatoey bite I'm used to in other varieties...not flavorless by any means though
3. Brandywine Sudduth's ~ very rich flavor, well balanced blend of sweet and tomatoey oomph...

Geez, it's hard to explain flavors. Clearly, I lean toward the mellow, sweet end of the tomato spectrum. A bunch of varieties I tried last year at a local heirloom festival seemed to have the potential to dethrone one or more of the maters in my list above. I'm trying those varieties in my own garden this year, so we shall see...

[Suze]

Black Cherry and Sungold are my favorite cherry types. I also like several others including Mexico Midget, Galina's, Snow White, and Gardener's Delight. I also love Jaune Flammee, but it's golf ball sized - not really a cherry.

Here are some med to larger fruited varieties that I really love the taste of that also do fairly well in Texas -- Prue, Cherokee Green, Kalman's Hungarian Pink, Dora, Aunt Ginny's Purple, Gary O'Sena, Cherokee Purple (or Chocolate), Carbon, Black from Tula, Lumpy Red, Lucky Cross, Paul Robeson, Earl's Faux, Green Giant, Kosovo.

[jerseyjohn61]

To follow up on Suze's lead; last year, Black Cherry and
Sungold were excellant. SG was as sweet as candy and
BC had a lovely, rich, grape-like-fruity taste.

Juane Flamme too had an excellant flavor for such a wee
little bugger, productive also.

Paste size; Kalman's Hungarian Pink won outright, Opalka
was a distant second. DW has informed me that KHP is a
"forever grow" variety and is her favorite for fresh eating
as well as slicing into a salad. This makes me very happy...

Last year was a bad one for larger toms here in central NJ.
Good tasting with great production was Brandywine OTV.
Good production with great taste was Cherokee Purple.
Between the two were the best of last years production.

Aunt Ginny's Purple, though few in fruit, did win last years'
overall taste test over Brandywine(Sudduth). First year for
both AGP and did outnumber BWS. Both were NICE to taste.
Grandfather Ashlock has a very honer mention here as well. Anyway, the typical BW "pinks" were subpar last year
as AS WELL, so I'm looking forward to another and
better growing season here for these varieties and
many others.

Wish you good growing too RZR....JJ61

[Fert1]

Cherry - SunGold. What's not to like?


Large - Pink Brandywine, Rose, Cherokee Purple, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Prudens Purple, an unknown bi-color I grew one year by accident.

That is basing it on flavor alone. Brandywine doesn't do well this far south - very little fruit set.

If you think Better Boys are good, just wait until you taste some of the better heirloom varieties! I find Better Boys to be rather bland.

[mresseguie]

Cherry:

I love Sungold, but find its skin too easily splits. This year I'm growing its even sweeter cousin, Sunsugar, instead.

Larger sizes:

Hmmm. Here are four of my favorites: Tiffen Mennonite, Mortgage Lifter, Black Prince, and Pineapple.

I'm only in my fourth year of growing tomatoes, so my opinion keeps changing each year. I have yet to find that "WOW! THIS IS IT!!!" tomato though a couple have come close (Pineapple and Tiffen Mennonite).

Hopefully, I still have another 40 years to find the one best tomato. In the meantime, I'll just have lots of fun.

[shelleybean]

My favorite tasting tomato overall is Stump of the World. If I had to choose a cherry, I think I'd have to say Lollipop, a yellow one.

[duajones]

I havent grown that many varieties as of yet, but to this point my favorite tasting tomato is cherokee purple hands down. I also like New Big Dwarf very well despite all of the fused fruits this year. Azoychka is also very good. I have my first Brandywine ripening on the counter right now so this may change.

[PaulF]

My "every year" tomatoes are Cherokee Purple, Stump of the World, Caspian Pink, Neve's Azorean Red and Kellogg's Breakfast; all are grown for their flavor. Last year Carbon tasted better than Cherokee Purple and every year some other variety jumps in with exceptional taste. Last year Soldacki and Zogola were good. This year I am expecting a few more surprises out of the ten "new to me" varieties in the garden.

I am not a fan of cherry tomatoes, but my wife likes Fox Cherry both for taste and size

[bbjm]

My favorite Cherry varieties have been Husky Cherry Red and SuperSweet 100. I have Sungold growing this year, so we'll see.

The first and only OP I grew was Cherrokee Purple last year and it died on me after two ripe fruit. The first fruit was all wrong on the inside (not correctly formed) and tasted off. The second was eaten by a friend that had volunteered to water the plants while we were on vacation. She had no idea what it was, but said "that strange colored tomato" was by far the best tomato she, and her family, had ever tasted. I'm growing it again, along with BW and several others this year...

[nctomatoman]

In my 28th year of gardening, after growing hundreds of different types, I decided to grow only favorites as my pot grown indeterminates this year. Stump of the World, Cherokee Chocolate, Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Green, Lucky Cross, Sungold, Mexico Midget, Green Giant, Lillian's Yellow and Hugh's.

[rzr]

I have Cherokiee Purple, Sungold, Black Cherry, Keloggs Breakfast, Sunsugar with nice green fruits. So I just need to be patient. Looking forward to tasting these so called real tomatos

[Tormato]

For cherry types, Sungold. I've only grown a few cherry types, though.

For large varieties, Aunt Ginny's Purple is my favorite of the hundreds of varieties I've tasted. Prudence Purple, Rose, Polish Ellis, Kellogg's Breakfast, Marianna's Peace, along with several others (mostly hearts and beefsteaks), aren't far behind.

Gary

[Liz]

Hello!!!
It's so touching, really sincerely, touching, that 3 of your favorite tomatoes are Cherokee. Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Green, Cherokee Chocolate.... no that's knowing your tomatoes. I'm growing Black form Tula, how does that taste compared to any of the Cherokee's ? So far my fav. taste tomato is Brandywine, but it really doesn't do well here in our ever so hot summers. Be well, Bethy