Knock yer socks off flavor

[Cole_Robbie]

This thread is becoming my wish list for next year.

[RobinB]

Bower,
I like Malachite Box when it's got some orange showing MalachiteBox-ripe.jpgand it's all stripey and colorful. Sometimes I wait until there's not much green showing. This big one MalachiteBox-inhand.jpgwas from last year and it weighed 18.7 oz!

[natural]

I forgot one. This is BKX. My first time growing it. One of the best dark tomatoes of this season.

[kenny_j]

So glad I started this. Yes Caroline I know everyone's taste is different. My wife and I disagree often. She tends to favor blander tomatoes with lots of sweetness. I like sweetness but its gotta have some kick to it too. "Balanced and assertive flavor" is the best simple description I could give it. I know many including Caroline love the hearts, but I have yet to taste a true heart that knocks my socks off. My standards are high for this thread, I have varieties I like and will grow every year for one reason or another, but for wow factor, I have only had just a handful out of several hundered varieties sampled. I need to get to one of the big tasting events and broaden my horizons faster than trying to grow myself. Hopefully from this thread if one finds someone who's taste matches theirs, they can try some of their recommendations for varieties. So keep em coming, WOW factor only, please. BW Cowlicks is one of my faves, and has done well flavor wise in the poorest of conditions and the best for several years now, that is important too.

Dester........again!

Cherokee Green and Malakhitovaya Shkatulka did everything other folks observed this year except have a really good taste. I left a lot of them on the vine until they turned into bags of water and fell to the ground. I believe it is my fault because I probably don't have the genetics which allow other folks to detect and appreciate subtle flavors. I will get a second chance to try both varieties this fall because both varieties have generated new growth and started blooming again. Spring and fall tomatoes sometimes taste different in my garden even when produced on the same vines.

KBX as usual is one of the few varieties which cause me to start salivating in the middle of winter when remembering some of my summer tomatoes. The very thought of a thick slice of KBX on a BLT helps me make it through the winter.

Ted

[efisakov]

Ted, you should try Claude Brown’s Y. Giant....

[nancyruhl]

There are a couple of WOW's that come to mind from this years growouts. Tonight we sampled Elgin Pink from Gary's seed exchange. Besides awesome flavor, the tomato was all meat and extremely few seeds. If I didn't know better, I would have thought I was slicing up a heart tomato. And speaking of hearts, Grightmires Pride got a WOW out of all of us tasting it. Also nice and meaty. A couple more with exceptional flavor this season have been Blush and, kinda hate to say it, Momotaro. I had tried it before and didn't like it. This year it has great flavor. Go figure.

[ScottinAtlanta]

Ted is right about KBX. I am now in the wow camp with the rich slightly tart flavor of Spears Tennessee Green. Wow!

[Lindalana]

Grighmire Pride made place for Mayo delight and Alice in this house. Both are great varieties from Tania. Fresa was not too behind, Lovely hearts and very productive.
Tedln, I am not fan of green tomatoes at all, and I do not like Malakhitovaya Schatulka to eat, it is too fruity for me, but it is superb in freshly made juice.

[decherdt]

Fish Lake Oxheart, semi shade grown at 781 ft elev, I could just almost hear the colors..

[KarenO]

Two words: Margaret Curtain.
yum
KarenO

Originally Posted by Lindalana

Grighmire Pride made place for Mayo delight and Alice in this house. Both are great varieties from Tania. Fresa was not too behind, Lovely hearts and very productive.
Tedln, I am not fan of green tomatoes at all, and I do not like Malakhitovaya Schatulka to eat, it is too fruity for me, but it is superb in freshly made juice.

The only truly green tomato I like is Lime Green Salad. It tastes nothing like the other GWR varieties I've tried. I have to admit I may not have given the GWR's a fair shot not having tried Humph which many folks claim is the best. Cherokee Green and Malachite Box are also highly rated but they didn't have any flavor that appealed to me.

I should get some production from both varieties this fall and intend dehydrating some. That may work well. I can't imagine drinking green tomato juice. It seems like a scene from Dr. Seuss, but it may go well with green ham..

Ted

[kenny_j]

Once again, as I am so very prone to do, I have stuck my foot in my big fat mouth. I have been raving this season about Santa Maria, a paste I bought seed for from The Sample Seed Shop. Washing tomatoes and putting them on the shelf, I noticed that they are all heart shaped, and inside very meaty, but a little juicier than most pastes, and if I remember correctly Remy describes it as a heart, and I said I have never eaten a heart that I thought was all that good. Shame on me, Santa Maria is excellent, with a Wow factor for me because I bought it for saucing, and it is way better than any sauce or heart I have ever tasted.

[b54red]

Kenny the only true knock your socks off heart I have ever eaten was Donskoi and it made it into my top 5 again this year as it has nearly every year since I started growing it. A couple of other hearts that I find have a little more flavor than the usual are Anna Russian, Fish Lake Oxheart and Kosovo.

Far and away the best tasting tomato this year was German Johnson. The others that topped the charts were Cowlick's Brandywine, Donskoi, JD's Special C Tex, and Limbaugh's Legacy. All my black varieties have been superb this year along with many others that rated just under the top 5. All though I think KBX is the best of the gold tomatoes it is near the bottom in flavor for me among my favorites that are now the only ones I grow. Like most golds the flavor is just a little too subtle and I like big bold flavors. If I remove about 10 varieties next year KBX may not make the cut even though it was very productive this year. I much prefer Virginia Sweet with its bold sweet flavor with a nice bit of tang and a vine that is more resistant to foliage diseases.

Last year my favorites were in order Giant Belgium, Barlow Jap, German Johnson, and Donskoi. All of the blacks were terrible because of the heavy rains last year up until fall when JD's, IS, and Carbon were okay.

In years past others that have been in the top 5 in flavor for me are Black Krim, Spudakee, Cherokee Purple, ISpl, Paul Robeson, Druzba, Marianna's Peace, Stump of the World, Neves Azorean Red, Frank's Large Red, Rose, Frank's Large Red, Pruden's Purple, Aunt Ginnies Purple, Grubs Mystery Green, Green Zebra, and Red Siberian.

Bill

[efisakov]

Does anyone like Peg’s Round Orange? I picked it green, they ripened nicely and tasted great. But picked green... not sure what it would taste ripened on the vine.