Well, we've pretty much tasted them all. The winners...

[nctomatoman]

[out of our 200 plus plants - these stood head and shoulders above the rest

B]Indeterminate varieties:[/B]

Nepal (always does well, always tastes great to us)
Brandywine (another spectacular showing, flavor wise)
Lillian's Yellow (ditto)
Ruby Gold (aka Gold Medal) - haven't grown it in years, but it seemed to agree with the weather - just delicious - best its tasted in my experience
Hugh's (another I've not grown in years that shone this year)
the Cherokee threesome - Purple, Chocolate and Green
Polish (Bill Ellis version)
Yellow Oxheart (another I've not grown in years - wow!)
Mortgage Lifter, Halladay's
Sungold and Mexico Midget, of course
Egg Yolk (large yellow cherry) and Lemon Drop (medium nearly white cherry - very pale yellow) - new to us this year - really nice
Don's Double Delight (just gorgeous and tastes as good as it looks)

Dwarf varieties

Summer Sunrise
Summertime Gold
Dwarf Sweet Sue
Dwarf Mr. Snow
Dwarf Emerald Giant
a newly named early generation selection from Cheerful - Dwarf Black Angus (medium sized incredibly delicious purple - the Cheerful line is a result of Summertime Green X Sweet Adelaide) - I named this after my wife's dad's family name
a newly named early generation selection from Fancy - Dwarf Emerald Isle (medium sized green heart, faint pink blush, wonderful flavor - the Fancy line is a Sunny F3 orange fruit X Orange Pear - Sunny is Tipsy F2 X Orange Heirloom - so go figure - where did the green and heart come from? Recessive traits going wild!) - I named this after Ireland (the Emerald Isle)

[AKmark]

Several varieties you mentioned I have not tried, but I do have 4 types of Brandywines, and they seem to taste better and better as the season goes on, wow. I had a really ripe OTV tonight and it was so good, absolutely fantastic, I may dream about that taste tonight. I have 49 varieties this year, and tried several others, and I cannot say anything is better than the Brandywines, some are too different to compare as better, but they rule the red-pink tomatoes in my world, tastewise. I'm all ears though.

[nctomatoman]

My go-to is the real thing - Brandywine, as originating via Ben Quisenberry from the Sudduth family. My seed is connected to that original seed through a seed saver's transaction with Roger Wentling - Roger got it from Ken Ettlinger, who got it from Ben himself. I've grown it regularly since 1988 and it rarely if ever disappoints!

[carolyn137]

Me be confused. Was this a tomato tasting, I thought there wasn't one this year, or were they ones you grew for the book?

Most I agree with, as you might expect, some not so much, as you might expect as well.

Carolyn

[Lee]

Not Craig, but no, it wasn't Tomatopalooza[tm]. I'm guessing, it was a mini "get these ripe tomatoes off my dining room table" tasting and canning session.

I've had a few "mini-tastings" over the past couple of weeks with friends, neighbors, and co-workers.
The standouts have been, in no particular order
Big Beef
Don's Double Delight
Sungold
Black Cherry
Green Giant
Cuostralee Heart
Summertime Gold

The Green Giants were fabulous, until I tasted the Summertime Gold... Wow!
Don's Double Delight was marvelous, until we tasted Cuostralee Heart which had an additional tart component to it that gave it a slight edge.

And of course, the neighbor's tasting among 7 of them proved that Sungold is always a favorite!

BTW, Cuostralee heart is neither..... It's a basic round, red, very firm, decent producing tomato. I wasn't expecting much in the flavor after
feeling the density of the fruit. It is much like many bland hybrids with that regard, but this one had a mild sweetness, balanced with a tart bite! Very nice indeed. Seed came from a friend at Tomatopalooza[tm] last year, but alas the pedigree remains a mystery as it is not a heart, nor does it resemble Cuostralee in shape or taste.


Lee

[nctomatoman]

Lee's got it right - no Tomatopalooza...but when you grow lots of tomatoes, you need to taste- Sue and I are the arbiters! (and, yes, we combine tasting with seed saving and sauce making and salsa making and canning!).

I was pleased that many of these tasted great for us, since many are feature varieties in my book - they hold a special place in my heirloom travels that started in 1986.

[wally mcgee]

Originally Posted by nctomatoman

My go-to is the real thing - Brandywine, as originating via Ben Quisenberry from the Sudduth family. My seed is connected to that original seed through a seed saver's transaction with Roger Wentling - Roger got it from Ken Ettlinger, who got it from Ben himself. I've grown it regularly since 1988 and it rarely if ever disappoints!

I just grew and ate my first Brandy wine (Sudduth strain) and was very impressed. My wife , a traditionalist, didn't like my German Pink because of the core, or my Cherokee Purple, because they are purple but she loved the Brandy wine. It had a great texture, no fiber, a perfect slicer and weighed over a pound. And to top it off it tasted fantastic. Everyone is happy

Are most of them like this, or did I just luck out?

Rob

[TomatoDon]

"Don's Double Delight (just gorgeous and tastes as good as it looks)"

Sounds very interesting Craig. Do you have pictures you could post?

Thanks!

[Lee]

Again, not Craig... but here you go. Oh, and this is a small one....




Here's another.

[nctomatoman]

It is a gorgeous red/gold stripe (not pink/gold) - nice crimson interior, wonderful texture and flavor - a true winner! That Brandywine X Tad cross was made by a very smart bee - it pops out so many good tomatoes....and there are many more to be found, I believe!

[TomatoDon]

Nice looking tomato! And thanks for sharing the pics. That one sounds and looks like one that could become very popular.

Craig,

Did you grow Dester this year and if so, how did it compare to your best tasting varieties?

It was the only variety in my garden this year that simply blew me away on taste. Another variety that came close to Dester and was a big surprise was Giant Belgium. I figured it was an old variety that everyone had grown and would provide very large tomatoes with washed out flavor. It had great flavor on medium large tomatoes.

I let my Brandywine Sudduth seed rest this year but will have to include it again in next years garden. Sometimes I get a pretty long list of good too great tomatoes and retire a few in order to try some others. The really good ones like Brandywine Sudduth don't remain in retirement very long. I think I will also give Cuostralee another try next year as well.

I also tried to do some research on Don's Double Delight but information was very sparse. What is the origin and source of the variety?

Ted

[Lee]

Originally Posted by tedln

I also tried to do some research on Don's Double Delight but information was very sparse. What is the origin and source of the variety?

Ted

STILL not Craig, but here ---> http://www.tomatoville.com/showpost....61&postcount=9

Also, can't compare dester to this year's crop because it has yet to produce a ripe fruit.....

Lee

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by TomatoDon

"Don's Double Delight (just gorgeous and tastes as good as it looks)"

Sounds very interesting Craig. Do you have pictures you could post?

Thanks!

As you can read, it's a variety Lee developed and I offered seeds for it in my recent annual Jan 2013 seed offer, so there should be some feedback for those who got seeds for it when I put up the performance thread in the Fall for all the varieties I offered.

Carolyn

Originally Posted by Lee

STILL not Craig, but here ---> http://www.tomatoville.com/showpost....61&postcount=9

Also, can't compare dester to this year's crop because it has yet to produce a ripe fruit.....

Lee

Thanks Lee!

In my garden, the striped, variegated, multicolor tomatoes advance from ripe to mushy overnight. At least that has been my experience with most of them. How well does Don's Double Delight retain its texture after ripening? After growing Virginia Sweets, Hillbilly, Dagmas Perfection and a few others this year with the same results, I decided that type of tomato may taste really good; but I don't like the texture.

I was in Walmart recently and noticed they had a display of "heirloom" tomatoes in almost every color of the rainbow. I have no idea how long the display had been out but most of the tomatoes were still in good shape. I'm sure most of them had been picked up, examined; and squeezed by a lot of curious people. The only varieties that seemed to be falling apart were a couple of black varieties and all of the striped, multicolor varieties.

Ted