Champagne Cherry

[carolyn137]

Some of you have grown this cherry and like it very much. I got more interested when last summer Adam Gleckler said he couldn't tell the difference between the two varieties CC and Coyote, both of which had been sent to him from folks who participated in my call for varieties to help him get going with his tomato section. So I tried to track down the origin and background and came up short with some saying it originated in Europe, but not documented proof and most having no idea where it came from.

I admit I had problems with thinking that the French would have named a variety Champagne Cherry, just not quite the French way of doing things.

This AM at another message site someone was also looking for background info on CC so I went to Ventmarin again, where is was described as a "cerise" type and there was a picture, I looked at Terra Edibles, where it's sold and there's a picture, I looked again at Tania's site where there's a picture but she has no background info either and I looked at the picture of Coyote at Gleckler's.

I could not distinguish the pictures of CC from Coyote. But what about taste? Maria ( BLue Ribbon Seeds) was one who told me that she had grown both and they tasted differently. Maria, I don't know if you grew both in the same year or not, and I don't know if others have done that same comparison in the same season.

I know lots of folks like the taste of Coyote, some don't, and I know CC has been grown less often than Coyote and I know from feedback that most like the taste of CC but haven't compared it to Coyote.

Again. I honestly could not tell the difference between the pictures of Coyote and Champagne Cherry.

But then in yet another Google Search I came up with the following link:

http://www.sunsetproduce.com/product/tomatoes/champagne

I linked to the page where CC is featured but if you move around you'll see that they're an international marketing firm and they sell some TM ( trade marked) varieties such as Campari, Kumato and others.

They refer to CC as a "cocktail cherry" and it too is trademarked.

Since it's known that some of the large international marketing firms, and Sunset is one of them, have been known to change the names of some tomato varieties for marketing purposes, it makes perfect sense to me that Champagne Cherry IS Coyote renamed. If one were to contact Sunset I rather think that if they did so, they perhaps wouldn't say so, but to trademark a variety indicates a proprietary claim.

And if they do market internationally it also makes sense that CC would turn up in Europe as well.

So this is my current hypothesis on the origin of Champagne Cherry based on all I've said above.

Craig LeHoullier was the one who got the seeds for Coyote from Dominga ( Maye) Clemente and the seeds were from Vera Cruz, Mexico and Craig first listed it in the SSE Yearbook in 1992.

If anyone else here has additional information or comments, please do post.