Sue and I did a dream tasting tonight for our appetizer

[nctomatoman]

I didn't tell her which varieties I used, but cut up big slabs of 11 different tomatoes, all in their prime. I arranged them around the plate and just wrote down her impressions (and my ratings) as we tasted and discussed them - just a drizzle of olive oil and a few cracks of black pepper.

Varieties used: Brandywine (16 oz, pink oblate), Cherokee Green (12 oz, oblate, amber skinned green flesh), Nelson's Golden Giant (16 oz, smooth oblate, pale orange), Nepal (8 oz, red, round), Black from Tula (9 oz, smooth oblate, purple), Amana Orange (12 oz, slightly oblate, pale orange), Summertime Gold (8 oz, light yellow, pale pink blush, oblate smooth), Polish (16 oz, pink oblate), Dester Amish (8 oz, pink, flat oblate/lobed), Fred's Tie Dye (8 oz, slightly oblate, smooth, purple with green stripes) and Caitlin's Lucky Stripe (4 oz, oval, pink with yellow shoulders).

Working backwards (least liked to best):

Nelson's Golden Giant - just a beautiful tomato - small seed locules, juicy, good texture - but very mild in flavor, tending toward sweet - we liked it, didn't love it - I would have rated it a 6.5-7 on a 10 point scale. An SSE member included this with seeds this spring, saying it was their favorite tomato.

Amana Orange - also beautiful, larger seed locules, juicy, good texture, also mild in flavor with just a tad more zinginess than the Nelson - after knowing about this since joining the SSE in 1986 I figured it was time to grow it....I would rate it as a 7 - a good tomato - but blown away by....

Black From Tula - very nice, as always larger locules and more seeds than the similarly colored Cherokee Purple - and the flavor is balanced with a tendency toward slight tartness - a very good tomato - we both liked it, didn't absolutely love it - my rating 7.5.

Caitlin's Lucky Stripe - this is a mini project of mine (still very much a work in progress, as the selection I grew this year didn't have the stripes) - in fact, looked like a pinker version of Little Lucky, but smaller locules and firmer. Just a delicious tomato with the sweetness really poking out, nice salad tomato - 7.5+ for me. Origin - one of my Little Lucky plants a few years ago produced medium sized, oval pink tomatoes with vertical gold stripes. I saved seed - and got a repeat the following year...saved seed from that and this is the result - clearly part of continuing segregation from the BrandyTad accidental cross. I will keep trying - probably will grow a few next year to seek out the larger one with the nice stripes. That BrandyTad cross is the gift that keeps on giving (one of the best tomatoes this year is one Lee found in working with selections from that cross - he calls it Don's Double Delight - very large, oblate smooth red fruit with golden vertical stripes, a home run in flavor, at least an 8, deep red interior - superb variety, can get as large as one pound - he named it after his dad).

Fred's Tie Dye - one of the Dwarf project tomatoes, this is from seed sent to me by fullmoon (nice selection, Lyn!). Just gorgeous fruit, deep crimson interior with green around the seed gel, typical interior for black tomatoes. Very balanced, rich, full flavor - yummy - it snuck into the 8 category - this will probably be the lead selection to take forward for Fred's Tie Dye (named by Vince). I think this one will be really popular once we finish with it!

Nepal - nice to find that the tomato that got me converting from Better Boy to OPs in 1986 is still wonderful - this is from seed that I can trace all the way back to those 1986 fruit. Perfect, typical tomato interior with fairly large seed locules, plenty of seed - very full, rich, well balanced flavor - as Sue said, "it really has something extra" - it's rather ordinary appearance doesn't prepare you for the big flavor - and I have that nice 8 ounce size coming in. A clear 8 out of 10 in flavor.

Summertime Gold - this is a bingo in our reselection of this released Dwarf variety (we aren't happy with what we ended up providing the seed companies, so I grew quite a few slightly older/alternate selections so we can clean it up a bit) - this came from seed saved from a fruit Lee brought over to taste, and is F8 generation. Just gorgeous inside and out, very small seed cavities and small seed - bright, sunny, intense, sweet flavor that is a joy to eat - at least an 8.

The following were all 8+ - outstanding, nearly brought us to tears with their flavors - hard to distinguish between them flavor wise in terms of excellence, though there were subtle differences. Brandywine (this is from seed that descends from the very first time I got the real deal back in 1988, from Roger Wentling, who got it from Ben Quisenberry) - nearly a perfect flavor, perfect balance, sweetness, tartness, intensity, texture - wow. Polish - this is from Bill Ellis (which he called brick red in color) - I've had this since 1990, and as Sue said, "this and Brandywine seem pretty much identical in flavor" - shape, seed locules and productivity vary a bit - I call Polish a slightly more dependable, prolific Brandywine type. Flavor was just as superb. Cherokee Green - we just love this tomato - in a way this had the most mouth-filling flavor of all of them, but maybe by just a hair - Sue noted that all of these highest scoring ones almost tasted sauteed in butter - melt in your mouth, creamy.....and the final winner was one of the few tomatoes that I really thought tasted great at last year's SSE tomato tasting in Iowa - it won the tasting, in fact - Dester Amish. I got them to share just a few seeds with me - it is a very large, flat pink (there is an 18 ounce one waiting to be eaten tomorrow), and has the excellence, complexity, texture, balance of Brandywine or the other 8+ point tomatoes in this last group. Amazing to have a tomato that looks so much like German Johnson (regular leaf plant, pink, productive) - but where I give GJ a 5.5-6 in flavor (it has that really odd, off, musky flavor character in some large pinks), the Dester Amish is amazing - really. It was the last one we ate, and Sue just couldn't believe these tomatoes went from strength to strength.

So....what did this tasting tell us? A few things - that you can grow great - and large - tomatoes in containers. That you can get great tomatoes even in horrific weather conditions. That having to water every day in the heat doesn't dilute the flavors. and best of all - that some of the ones we've loved for years are still tomatoes we love!

Just thougth I'd share this little tasting story with you.

[sprtsguy76]

Yes I agree that great tasting tomatoes CAN be grown in containers! Its funny because my mother in law was over tonight and we a little tasting session ourselves and everything I threw here way she just loved and so did I. A few of tonights varieties included Green Giant, Brandywine, Sun Gold and Green Doctors.

Sooooooooooooooo where can I find this Dester Amish??????????

Damon

[nctomatoman]

Damon, I noted that Dester (which is how they now list it at the SSE site) is available in one of their expensive collections. I hope to save a good bit of seed (it isn't a seedy tomato - we shall see) - but let's see how it goes....

[kath]

I really enjoyed reading about your taste testing, Craig- you made it quite an event! At our house tastings are usually a very rushed appetizer- so DH doesn't lose interest. He quickly puts them in numerical order with the favorite being #1 as he makes his way around the plate tasting the bite-sized pieces I've prepared. It takes me a lot longer to decide which I like best and I usually need more than one taste.

Originally Posted by sprtsguy76

Sooooooooooooooo where can I find this Dester Amish??????????

Damon

I'm trying to save seed from Destor this year too, Damon. Nothing ripe on that one yet, but I'll be happy to share if successful.

kath

[nctomatoman]

I'm lucky, Kath - Sue will play "tomato tasting" with me as often as I need...and when she isn't available, Caitlin or Sara (if either/both are around) will play along as well! This was a relaxed tasting tonight complete with a French dry Rose (worked very well with the tomatoes).

[meadowyck]

Craig

I've always wondered that when tasting so many different kinds, is there something to drink or eat in between eat taste to cleanse the palate so to speak? (like wine?)

[nctomatoman]

We actually were sipping both wine and water. But as the annual Tomatopalooza has taught me, it doesn't take all that many tomatoes to blow out the palate a bit - I think 40-50 tomatoes is my limit - beyond that, it is all a bit of a palate blur (and canker sores (thanks for the spelling tip, Jan!!)

[meadowyck]

I hope your meant canker sores instead of cancer...??? Ok was wondering how many it would take before there is no way to know what tasted like what. LOL

[RobinB]

My DH is not very into this whole tomato thing. Sure, he will eat them, and wants a slice on his sandwiches, but beyond that... BUT, my tomato-loving 7 year old son is a different story. He takes the ratings of the dwarf tomatoes SO seriously, it's really cute!

[kath]

Craig and Robin, you are lucky to have a spouse/children who really enjoy playing. Our grandchildren will be visiting from CA in a couple weeks- two boys ages 8 and 9. Last year they were only interested in picking/eating cherry tomatoes and holding gigantic ones but maybe this year...

I think 13 varieties was the most I ever tried to push at one time here at home and I always went solo to tomato testings elsewhere. Water is the only palate cleanser I've tried and we test the tomatoes plain. DH never eats a plain tomato otherwise and basically just humors me in agreeing to test them, I think. As he says, I should just pick the ones I like because by the time he slathers them with condiments they might as well be store tomatoes because he can't tell the difference.

[nctomatoman]

I was actually thinking about my ratings of what we tested - the gap between the Amana/Nelson pair and the BW/Dester/ChG/Polish group was more significant than I noted in the numbers (but not the verbage) - a corrected assessment would probably be 6-6.5 for the two orange tomatoes and 9 - 9.5 for the others. I think I tend to sometimes be too easy on tomatoes that are average (slightly overrate them), and too hard on the great ones (slightly underrate).

But it would be hard to get better tomatoes than the quartet of stars we tasted!

and it isn't about color - I know that if Lucky Cross, Lillian's Yellow or Yellow Brandywine were in the tasting, from past experiences, they would be in the star group as well. It just so happens that quite a few of the yellow/red bicolors and pale orange tomatoes are on the sweeter and milder side.

[Fusion_power]

Interesting to me too since I have Amana Orange, Yellow Brandywine Platfoot, Yoders German Yellow, and KBX in my garden this year. This is one of those rare years that Amana Orange has been much better than normal. I would have rated it almost as good as KBX and distinctively better than Platfoot.

DarJones

[nctomatoman]

OK - we added four additional varieties in a mini-tasting tonight - Abraham Lincoln, 9 oz smooth oblate red (USDA seed source - not at all like any of the ones being sold by companies); Lillian's Yellow Heirloom - 24 oz, smooth oblate very pale yellow, a dwarf from the Tipsy family (Dwarf Blazing Beauty - 8 oz, smooth oblate, a beautiful medium orange), and Lucky Cross - 12 ounces, pink/yellow bicolor.

Abraham Lincoln tasted just like a great red old fashioned tomato - similar in flavor to Nepal - strong 7.5+. Lucky Cross was creamy, juicy, just a perfect example - very Brandywine-like with just a bit less tartness/more sweetness - 7.5-8. Dwarf Blazing Beauty was a stunner - definitely an 8 - best flavored orange colored Dwarf yet (and it is potato leaf - lots of work happening on this one, hope we can finish the selection and get it ramped up in one more year. Lillian's Yellow Heirloom stole the show - as it always does. Pretty much a solid slab of tomato meat, hardly any seeds, juicy, creamy, sumptuous - intense, balanced - another 9 - would have fit into our initial tasting perfectly with the very best. We just love this tomato!

Craig, I'm pretty sure you have compared the taste of Orange Minsk and KBX in the past. I grew both for the first time last year and was totally impressed with the taste of both. I wasn't really comparing them to anything in my unsophisticated like or dislike tasting. Does your memory serve you well enough to compare them to the orange or gold varieties in your most recent tasting?

Test

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by tedln

Craig, I'm pretty sure you have compared the taste of Orange Minsk and KBX in the past. I grew both for the first time last year and was totally impressed with the taste of both. I wasn't really comparing them to anything in my unsophisticated like or dislike tasting. Does your memory serve you well enough to compare them to the orange or gold varieties in your most recent tasting?

Test

Not Craig, that's for sure, but just wanted to make a comment about what you posted.

I've grown Orange Minsk quite a few times, original seeds from Andrey who found it at a farmer's market in Minsk, Belarus, and KBX as well and was one of the first to do so since Martha, gardenmama here, and I were both at the AOL Tomato Foum together many years ago, and I'd put OM ahead of even KBX.

I have my fave golds as well, but that's not something I would compare with the orange varieties of which there are other orange ones I also like as well. So will it be a taste contest of colors, golds vs golds, and oranges vs oranges?
Or throw out the color competitions and just rate varieties, any and all of them, according to personal taste?