SSE Tomato Tasting....Just returned - an amazing trip!

**nctomatoman** · September 5, 2012

Sue and I just got back (near midnight last night!) from attending the SSE Tomato tasting - we tacked on a few days before and after just to chill out and vacation. It was just an incredible trip for so many reasons - both Sue and I will be doing blog entries on it over the coming days, but on to the tomato tasting.

Unlike last year, when the weather was unkind to the tomatoes (and severely curtailed the selection and impacted those that were ripe quite negatively), there were lots of varieties, lots of tomatoes, and generally fine condition. But in a tasting like this, we all here talk so much about the number of variables - seed source/truth to type, growing conditions, happiness of a variety with the climate, etc - so it was instructive to find some that do great for me in Raleigh were just as good, many others, not so good - and a few new favorites popped up as well.

For me, the best tomato was Cherokee Purple, followed closely by Italian Heirloom (what was interesting is that It. HL was the first tomato tasted - and won the tasting - last year, Dester was first - and won the tasting. Placement bias, perhaps?). There were 70 varieties to taste and Sue and I tried them all - I used a +/~/- quick rating then went back and applied numbers.

The following were my + tomatoes: Brandywine (Sudduth), Cardinal, Cherokee Purple (best of the tasting for our palate), White Currant (which is actually Coyote of course), Dester (my second favorite), Egg Yolk (small yellow cherry - this was excellent), German Pink, Ingleheart Yellow German Cocktail (another excellent yellow cherry), Italian Heirloom (close second for us), Dwarf Beryl Beauty (the only one of the new dwarfs - and it showed really well - probably our third favorite), John Baer (I've never had this, amazingly, and it was really fine - old fashioned, very tart side of flavor), Lemon Drop (superb pale yellow cherry), Mexico Midget (though it is not true Mexico Midget - they have some authentic strain from me finally growing - I got to inspect the tomato fields, and this was showing wonderfully in the test plot), Mortgage Lifter Halladay, Purple Calabash, Sioux (in my top 5 - another that really surprised me, and new to me), Tiny Tim Yellow (yet another small yellow cherry with really intense, fine flavor - new to me), and Trophy.

Second tier - so-so in flavor - Amish Paste, Almetia, Auld Sold, Black Sea Man, Carry On-Carry On, Emmy (though this is just beautiful - new to their collection, medium true vibrant orange, plant is quite determinate - this nearly edged into the + category and is well worth growing), Gold Medal (AKA Ruby Gold), German Purple (which is a fairly recent pink), Great White, Green Zebra, Heirloom Kentucky Pink, Hugh's, Kentucky Heirloom Viva, Jaune Flamme, Large Red Cherry, Peach Blow Sutton, Red Zebra, Rose, Nebraska Wedding, Southern Night, (not - it was a large pink instead - it came from one of their test fields - so I got to tell them that this was not the real deal!) - most of these werer 5 to 5.5, a few at 6. Many did not taste as good as they can.

Lower tier - the rest - some of these were truly awful, and I know some are potentially much better - Baranski Plum, Black Krim, Pearly Pink Cherry, Droplet, Giles Mullis Plum, Hillbilly Potato Leaf, Hungarian Heart, Lenny and Gracie KY HL, Little Fleeta, Mamie Brown's Pink, Marizol Purple (really poor showing for a good tomato), Pink Peach, Pink Plum, Plum, Warren Sames Plum, Potato leaf White, Soldacki, Sugar Beefsteak PL, Sweet Pea Currant, Velvet Red, White Beauty, White PL, White Tomesol, Peron.

They did a fairly large scale grow out of whites, obviously - and we all agreed that, by and large, white tomatoes can be really quite bland tasting. I thought White Tomesol tasted best of a weak lot - and I know Great White can taste better than what I experienced.

The other news - I got to see 8 of the Dwarfs growing, and they looked spectacular - Tom and Jessica (SSE, commercial) were amazed at the health, vigor, etc - clearly and expectedly Dwarf varieties are not really familiar to many people. We got to sample Dwarf Beryl Beauty (incredible productivity, true to type), Dwarf Emerald Giant (ditto - large!), and Summertime Green (ditto). The others - Dwarf Mr Snow, Rosella Purple, Dwarf Jade Beauty, Dwarf Wild Fred, and Tasmanian Chocolate - were all 100% healthy, vigorous, and loaded with green fruit of the appropriate size and shape - just a week or two from ripening (different fields clearly had different microclimates).

The punchline - the Dwarf Emerald Giant could have been the best tomato I tasted there - the flavor blew Tom and Jessica (and me!) away - and Summertime Green, just a tad underripe, was right there with them.

So....tired, pleased, and now on with finishing up the season, getting on with the book and the mag article, and weighing whether I go back to my old company for a bit of consulting (when it rains, it pours!).

Texas Blues · September 8, 2012

I've never been to a tomato tasting.

What is the criteria for judging that qualifies a tomato as tasting the best?

Obviously texture is one part of it I am aware.

What are the others? Sweetness? Tartness?

ScottinAtlanta · September 9, 2012

Craig, Thanks for this excellent report. I just ordered Italian Heirloom and Trophy from Heirloom Seeds on the strength of your report. Looking forward to tasting them next year.

DeanRIowa · September 9, 2012

I had been to the past three and missed this one, to bad, as it sounds like the tomatoes were on track this year for taste. Thanks for the report I might order a couple of those for trailing next season.

My tomatoes only 80 miles away have done great as well, but they have been late.

thanks,
Dean

meadowyck · September 9, 2012

Glad you had a good tasting, thanks so much for your rankings.

**nctomatoman** · September 10, 2012

Here are a few blog entries on the trip

My wife Sue's - http://seedlingssewn.weebly.com/1/po...orah-iowa.html

And my first one - this is on where we stayed - will do another on the tasting soon

http://nctomatoman.weebly.com/1/post...the-cabin.html

remy · September 10, 2012

Excellent! Sounds like it was wonderful time.
You know you're always welcome to come to Niagara Falls and our party one year.

Deborah · September 10, 2012

How cool ! I wish there was one here. Just wine and beer tastings out here. I would have LOVED to go to the Carmel one !

September 5, 2012	#1
nctomatoman Tomatoville® Moderator Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Hendersonville, NC zone 7 Posts: 10,385	SSE Tomato Tasting....Just returned - an amazing trip! Sue and I just got back (near midnight last night!) from attending the SSE Tomato tasting - we tacked on a few days before and after just to chill out and vacation. It was just an incredible trip for so many reasons - both Sue and I will be doing blog entries on it over the coming days, but on to the tomato tasting. Unlike last year, when the weather was unkind to the tomatoes (and severely curtailed the selection and impacted those that were ripe quite negatively), there were lots of varieties, lots of tomatoes, and generally fine condition. But in a tasting like this, we all here talk so much about the number of variables - seed source/truth to type, growing conditions, happiness of a variety with the climate, etc - so it was instructive to find some that do great for me in Raleigh were just as good, many others, not so good - and a few new favorites popped up as well. For me, the best tomato was Cherokee Purple, followed closely by Italian Heirloom (what was interesting is that It. HL was the first tomato tasted - and won the tasting - last year, Dester was first - and won the tasting. Placement bias, perhaps?). There were 70 varieties to taste and Sue and I tried them all - I used a +/~/- quick rating then went back and applied numbers. The following were my + tomatoes: Brandywine (Sudduth), Cardinal, Cherokee Purple (best of the tasting for our palate), White Currant (which is actually Coyote of course), Dester (my second favorite), Egg Yolk (small yellow cherry - this was excellent), German Pink, Ingleheart Yellow German Cocktail (another excellent yellow cherry), Italian Heirloom (close second for us), Dwarf Beryl Beauty (the only one of the new dwarfs - and it showed really well - probably our third favorite), John Baer (I've never had this, amazingly, and it was really fine - old fashioned, very tart side of flavor), Lemon Drop (superb pale yellow cherry), Mexico Midget (though it is not true Mexico Midget - they have some authentic strain from me finally growing - I got to inspect the tomato fields, and this was showing wonderfully in the test plot), Mortgage Lifter Halladay, Purple Calabash, Sioux (in my top 5 - another that really surprised me, and new to me), Tiny Tim Yellow (yet another small yellow cherry with really intense, fine flavor - new to me), and Trophy. Second tier - so-so in flavor - Amish Paste, Almetia, Auld Sold, Black Sea Man, Carry On-Carry On, Emmy (though this is just beautiful - new to their collection, medium true vibrant orange, plant is quite determinate - this nearly edged into the + category and is well worth growing), Gold Medal (AKA Ruby Gold), German Purple (which is a fairly recent pink), Great White, Green Zebra, Heirloom Kentucky Pink, Hugh's, Kentucky Heirloom Viva, Jaune Flamme, Large Red Cherry, Peach Blow Sutton, Red Zebra, Rose, Nebraska Wedding, Southern Night, (not - it was a large pink instead - it came from one of their test fields - so I got to tell them that this was not the real deal!) - most of these werer 5 to 5.5, a few at 6. Many did not taste as good as they can. Lower tier - the rest - some of these were truly awful, and I know some are potentially much better - Baranski Plum, Black Krim, Pearly Pink Cherry, Droplet, Giles Mullis Plum, Hillbilly Potato Leaf, Hungarian Heart, Lenny and Gracie KY HL, Little Fleeta, Mamie Brown's Pink, Marizol Purple (really poor showing for a good tomato), Pink Peach, Pink Plum, Plum, Warren Sames Plum, Potato leaf White, Soldacki, Sugar Beefsteak PL, Sweet Pea Currant, Velvet Red, White Beauty, White PL, White Tomesol, Peron. They did a fairly large scale grow out of whites, obviously - and we all agreed that, by and large, white tomatoes can be really quite bland tasting. I thought White Tomesol tasted best of a weak lot - and I know Great White can taste better than what I experienced. The other news - I got to see 8 of the Dwarfs growing, and they looked spectacular - Tom and Jessica (SSE, commercial) were amazed at the health, vigor, etc - clearly and expectedly Dwarf varieties are not really familiar to many people. We got to sample Dwarf Beryl Beauty (incredible productivity, true to type), Dwarf Emerald Giant (ditto - large!), and Summertime Green (ditto). The others - Dwarf Mr Snow, Rosella Purple, Dwarf Jade Beauty, Dwarf Wild Fred, and Tasmanian Chocolate - were all 100% healthy, vigorous, and loaded with green fruit of the appropriate size and shape - just a week or two from ripening (different fields clearly had different microclimates). The punchline - the Dwarf Emerald Giant could have been the best tomato I tasted there - the flavor blew Tom and Jessica (and me!) away - and Summertime Green, just a tad underripe, was right there with them. So....tired, pleased, and now on with finishing up the season, getting on with the book and the mag article, and weighing whether I go back to my old company for a bit of consulting (when it rains, it pours!). __________________ Craig

September 9, 2012	#5
meadowyck Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2012 Location: Brooksville, FL Posts: 1,001	Glad you had a good tasting, thanks so much for your rankings. __________________ Jan “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” -Theodore Roosevelt

September 10, 2012	#6
nctomatoman Tomatoville® Moderator Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Hendersonville, NC zone 7 Posts: 10,385	Here are a few blog entries on the trip My wife Sue's - http://seedlingssewn.weebly.com/1/po...orah-iowa.html And my first one - this is on where we stayed - will do another on the tasting soon http://nctomatoman.weebly.com/1/post...the-cabin.html __________________ Craig

September 10, 2012	#7
remy Buffalo-Niagara Tomato TasteFest™ Coordinator Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Z6 WNY Posts: 2,354	Excellent! Sounds like it was wonderful time. You know you're always welcome to come to Niagara Falls and our party one year. __________________ "I wake to sleep and take my waking slow" -Theodore Roethke Yes, we have a great party for WNY/Ontario tomato growers every year on Grand Island! Owner of The Sample Seed Shop

September 8, 2012	#2
Texas Blues Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: Republic of Texas Posts: 35	I've never been to a tomato tasting. What is the criteria for judging that qualifies a tomato as tasting the best? Obviously texture is one part of it I am aware. What are the others? Sweetness? Tartness?

September 9, 2012	#3
ScottinAtlanta Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Atlanta, Georgia Posts: 2,593	Craig, Thanks for this excellent report. I just ordered Italian Heirloom and Trophy from Heirloom Seeds on the strength of your report. Looking forward to tasting them next year.

September 9, 2012	#4
DeanRIowa Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: 5a - NE Iowa Posts: 416	I had been to the past three and missed this one, to bad, as it sounds like the tomatoes were on track this year for taste. Thanks for the report I might order a couple of those for trailing next season. My tomatoes only 80 miles away have done great as well, but they have been late. thanks, Dean

September 10, 2012	#8
Deborah Riding The Crazy Train Again Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: San Marcos, California Posts: 2,562	How cool ! I wish there was one here. Just wine and beer tastings out here. I would have LOVED to go to the Carmel one !