Best flavoured tomato ?

[Odsox]

I resurrected this post because (a) I still haven't found the tomato I'm looking for. but also (b) I remembered one of the answers from last year from MMM who said .....

I bought some cherry sized plum shaped toms from Lidl and they were the tastiest I've ever eaten, unfortunately they don't say what variety they are. Oh and I'm a GD fan too and have some growing amongst others this year, and these Lidl ones tasted better!

So, I was in Lidl today and lo & behold there were punnets of plum shaped cherry tomatoes from Spain. We bought one (first veg* we've bought in many a year) and I have to say that although they are not really ripe, they do taste like Gardeners Delight, or possibly even better as they must have been picked fairly green and shipped all over the place.
So like G.Aura I think I will save some seed and see what they grow like.

Getting back to (a), I'm picking Tommy Toe which is supposed to be Australia's tastiest tom, but I'm not impressed. They do have a rich tomato taste but no acidity which I think makes them bland.
Also growing Black Russian and Brandywine, neither of which are ripe yet, but the brandywine is a very shy fruiter and doesn't seem to like high temperatures (above 25c) and Black Russian has such odd shaped fruit it looks impossible to peel ... and that's the one I'm growing for purée. But they may yet redeem themselves by being the ones I'm looking for.

* Sorry MKG, tomatoes of course aren't vegetables.

[Durgan]

Over the last four years I have been grwoing some of the black tomatoes both cherry and normal size. There are various names but essentially the same. Black cherry, Russian Krim, Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, and Black from Tula are a few names.

These have been tested on various people and universally they consider them the best tasting tomatoes encountered. Some also ripen early. Most are palm size and an excellent slicing tomato. The Black Cherry is far superior to any other cherry that I have grown, and there are some nice cherry tomatoes. The inside flesh is a dark purple going to a shade of black.

Lemon boy is a yellow tomato, and almost all the fruit is perfect with few blemishes, and the plant is the most prolific tomato cultivar that I have encountered. I eat them but still prefer my tomatoes to have a lot of red color. This may be culture.The size is almost uniform and probably fist size when mature.

I grow about thirty plants and two or three of any one variety for comparison purposes. This year the plants are excellent, but none have ripened so far. I was late getting plants, since I was away. Usually I have some ripe tomatoes by the end of June.

[Millymollymandy]

I bought most of my toms this year due to being on hols and bought a pack of 6 different cherry toms so it will be interesting to see what they are all like. Some I know (Sungold, my fave*, which is already ripening), yellow and red pear (flavour never particularly interesting) and the ones I don't know called Pepe, Apero and Mirabelle Jaune, which has massive amounts of flowers on one truss which has branched off into many mini branches, I've never seen anything like it and I've had to prop the first truss up on a forked stick. This one would have been more suited to a pot than in the ground (some of my plants are in pots, some in the veg patch).

I also grew Sweet Million from seed in early May (as an experiment to see if I could start so late and still get toms!) and only one is flowering so far.

Also have two different big toms, a beef one (Marmande) and a regular one (Fournaise). Still trying to grow a non cherry without green collar!!!

On top of these I have been propagating from the side shoots so I have quite a few more of some of the varieties

......and I must go to Lidl!

* not specifically for taste, it was for its hardiness, this was the plant that survived blight and continued producing ripe fruit outdoors into November!

[Green Aura]

It's probably a daft question Tony but have you tried Moneymaker - they tend to get forgotten these days but they're really tasty and are good all-rounders.

OH and I have spent years trying different varieties and try to grow a mix of cherry, salad and cooking.

There seem to be a lot of decent cherry toms - they've already been mentioned. One we won't be growing again is Jongold (or Sungold can't remember which) they were really early which was great and initially they were delicious but after a few weeks they became sooooooooo sweet they actually made me feel sick. I never thought I'd find anything too sweet

Apart from Moneymaker, we also like Lemon Plum they were heavy cropping and are one of the tastiest (and the least problematic) in the salad category that we've tried.

Cooker, probably the best variety we've grown are Heinz - yes the ones bred for the ketchup - yummy.

[Odsox]

It's probably a daft question Tony but have you tried Moneymaker

Yes Maggie, along with just about everyone else, it was THE tomato to grow 40 -50 years ago. I was given some a couple of year ago and that is precisely the taste I'm trying to avoid.
As I probably said in the original post, I'm looking for a regular sized tomato (not cherry) that has a distinct acid rich tomato taste and grows as a cordon.... and I haven't found one yet.
I know, I'm a fussy blighter.

[Christine]

Have you looked at the Real Seeds site? I bought some different varieties a couple of years ago and the 'early bush' variety was a decent size and very tasty. It was one of the bad summers, though, so they weren't particularly early.
The storing tomatoes (colgar) were an interesting experiment - eating your own tomatoes in January - but they are cooking tomatoes with tough skins (which is presumably why they store).
I'm afraid the best tomato of the type you mention was 'Pete's' - seeds from delicious tomatoes gifted by my parents' neighbour Pete. I lost the last planting of these to blight last year so have no seed.

[Green Aura]

I know, I'm a fussy blighter.

Yup

I'm guessing you need to look at heritage varieties - new ones seem to be bred to remove any sharpness.

Have a look here http://heritageplants.co.uk/index.php?o ... &Itemid=26
and here http://www.seedman.com

[pelmetman]

We used to be members of the RHS and they did a tomato taste test, with the chef Raymond Blanc.

Apparantly the winner was a variety called Floridity, never been able to find it though even in the RHS shop

[grahamhobbs]

I'm growing Floridity this year. Also growing Black Cherry, Black Krim, Black Russian (mine are not usually knobbly), Pink brandywine (supposedly the best brandywine), Gardeners Delight, Ailsa Craig (best tasting standard tomato), Sun Gem, Sungold, as well as San Mazano and Roma.

Don't really like eating tomatoes, so feedback on taste will come from the OH.

[Odsox]

I would be very interested in what your OH thinks of Black Krim and Floridity Graham, particularly if they have an acid tang or not. I quite like Ailsa Craig too but it does suffer badly from greenback, or at least it does when I grow it.

You are certainly growing a lot, especially for someone who's not that keen on them, and I thought I was a wee bit excessive with my 7 varieties (soon to be eight as I'll be sowing some more next week)

[Millymollymandy]

I've got 9 different varieties! Apero are forming into plum shaped cherry toms........ here's hoping! And Sungold (both original plants) are ripening before all the others - they certainly are quick and tough old plants that crop for the longest period. Ate my last Sungold on Boxing Day last year.

[phil55494]

The Heritage Seed Library list http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/hsl/varieties.php quite a few tomato varieties, perhaps one of those would fit your requirements.
If not why not breed your own! You don't have to go down the route of doing your own cross either, the nice people at real seeds already have done - http://www.realseeds.co.uk/breedveg.htm
I'd try it but with no greenhouse, I've not had a ripe homegrown tomato for quite a few years now (they seem to have got blight or just done poorly with the summer weather over the last few years)

Phil

[grahamhobbs]

I've already decided against Floridity, unless the taste is reckoned by OH to be outstanding. I think the name comes from its habit, its growth could be described as florid to say the least, it is spindly and all over the place.
Can't say I've been troubled by greenback myself with Ailsia Craig, I like it because it is a straightforward sort of plant and OH likes the taste very much.
I got the names of the yellow varieties wrong, this year they are Golden Gem and Golden Sunrise. Oh and I remember I've got one Tigeralla plant.

I'll report back what the OH thinks of the various tastes and I'll comment on how they grow.

Others I can remember grown in previous years and have got the thumbs down are Moneymaker, St Pierre (standard french tomato, not quite as good as Ailsa Craig), Garden Pearl (pinkish cherry, not particularly tasty), Big Boy (very big beefsteak, but not that tasty), Inca F1 (not as tasty as San Mazano for bottling), Mission Dyke (seemed to split easy and otherwise nothing memorable about it). Golden Cherry got a lot of thumbs up if eaten straight from the bush but lost its flavour quickly.

[pelmetman]

We are growing about 6 different varieties this year both inside and out, but seem to have lost the labels again
Where did you manage to find the Floridity seed Graham, as I can never find it

[Odsox]

Have you tried here .... http://www.seeds-by-size.com/vhtoc98.htm
He sells just about every variety of tomato going.