Tomato Taste Test 2017

Discussion in 'Edible Gardening' started by JWK, Sep 13, 2017.

  1. JWK

    JWK Gardener Staff Member

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    Last year's thread here: Tomato Test Experiences 2016

    Please post your experiences :)

    Rated out of 10 for TASTE : RIPENING TIME (earliness) : YIELD

    e.g.
    Moneymaker : Taste 4 : Ripening 9 : Yield 1
    This means 4/10 for taste (Mediocre, nothing special taste wise)
    9/10 for ripening (i.e. Good, was very early)
    1/10 for Yield (i.e. Poor, had few fruit)

    I've also added BRIX which is sugar content (anything over 10 is very sweet)
     
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    • JWK

      JWK Gardener Staff Member

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      Best first:
      Floridity F1: Taste 10 : Earliness 8 : Yield 10 : BRIX 9.5 Firm, Sweet and Tangy
      Suncherry: Taste 9 : Earliness 10 : Yield 9 : BRIX 9.0 Firm, Sweet and Tangy
      Black cherry: Taste 8: Earliness 6 : Yield 8 : BRIX 8.0 Firm, Savoury
      Golden crown: Taste 7 : Earliness 6 : Yield 7 : BRIX 8.25 Soft, Mellow
      Sweet Aperitif: Taste 9 : Earliness 6 : Yield 4 : BRIX 10.5 Similar to Suncherry but later
      Sungold: Taste 7 : Earliness 5 : Yield 5 : BRIX 9.0 Soft and lots of splits

      20170908-P9080056.jpg

      I haven't rated the Bulgarian or SanMarzano, I've only eaten a few fried (they were nice) and dehydrated the rest. The yield for both has been poor.

      20170908-P9080057.jpg
       
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        Last edited: Sep 13, 2017
      • sandymac

        sandymac Super Gardener

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        My 2017
        Sungold Taste 8 early 10 yield 8
        Juane flame Taste 8 early 10 yield 7 Fruits small this year
        Tigrella Taste 7 early 10 yield 8
        Steak sandwich Taste 9 early 7 yield 10 Exeptional will grow again
        Big boy Taste 5 early 5 yield 8 poor
        Roma Taste 4 early 5 yield 8 poor
        Flamingo Taste 3 early 10 yield 7 hard even when ripe
        Sweet aperatief Taste 8 early 10 yield 6 Very small fruits

        Last four will not grow again Regards Sandy
         
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        • Scrungee

          Scrungee Well known for it

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          Will fill in the gaps shortly ...

          tom taste 2017.JPG


          Pics to follow ...



          EDIT:
          @JWK , an explanation of Brix for those (normally non-winemakers)unfamiliar with it:

          Brix is the % sugar:water weight:weight (w/w) and is for the juice, not the whole fruit.

          So a Brix reading of 9 does not mean the tomatoes are 9% sugar, as it is for the sugar content of the juice, and excludes the weight of solids in the whole tomato, so can't be compared to % sugar contents on supermarket punnets.

          Assuming a tomato is 85% liquid and 15% solids w/w, and all the sugar is dissolved in the juice used for the reading, 9 Brix means 7.65% sugar w/w of whole fruit (9 x 0.85 = 7.65).

          Nor can it be directly compared to the likes of fruit juices, 9 Brix tomato juice is not 90g/L carton tomato juice as those sugar contents are % w/v and don't take specific gravity into account.

          As 9 Brix tomato juice has an SG of 1.0359, the sugar content would be 87g/L (9 ÷ 1.0359).
           
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            Last edited: Sep 14, 2017
          • JWK

            JWK Gardener Staff Member

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            @Scrungee I see you rated Magic Mountain poorly, that variety was on my list to try next year as it is described as blight resistant. But if the taste is poor then I won't bother.
             
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            • BeeHappy

              BeeHappy Total Gardener

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              @JWK[​IMG] whata great thread LUV it :wub2:watching with great interest :yes: as i intend to grow more veggies next year = well im gonna try me best :noidea:and new varieties of Toms are on the top of the list.So :ThankYou:
               
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              • sandymac

                sandymac Super Gardener

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                I have already bought seeds for mountain magic disappointed to see that rating especially at £3:99 for 5 seeds

                Regds sandy
                 
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                • Scrungee

                  Scrungee Well known for it

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                  :yikes:

                  I bought mine when T&M were doing something like buy 4 pkts get 5th free, and we were ordering 4 cheapo pkts (totalling £5) and then adding something really expensive and getting it for free, then getting all the others for nothing by using the £5 codes issued with every order Online Code - Free £8.99 T&M Seeds of your choice for £1.95 P&P
                   
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                  • Linz

                    Linz Total Gardener

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                    1505387710468974772660.jpg
                    From the top, left to right. No brix scale.. 'cuz I'm a clueless bat. Take my earliness rating with a pinch of salt, I've had no sun.

                    100s and 1000s- Taste: 9. Earliness: 7. Yield:10 Will grow again. Sharp, acidic and strong flavour, love them.

                    Minibel- Taste: 5 Earliness: 6 Yield: 8 Quite bland, very compact plant. Won't grow next year.

                    Black icicle: Taste:6/7 Earliness: 4 Yield: 9. Very spindly plants, sickly looking but can give a very sweet and heavy crop. Suffers BER badly.. could well be me though. Might grow again.

                    Heinz/san marzano. Taste: 5 Earliness: can't comment. Yield: 7/8 Started about a month or 2 after the rest so can't comment on earliness, looks a good cropper though. Slight BER. Tastes "green" . Won't grow again.

                    GERMAN Lunch Box Taste: 8 Earliness: 5 Yield: 10. Won first prize with one truss. Thick walled, pastey..but lovely juice. Will definitely grow again.

                    Black Russian: Taste: 9 Earliness:6 Yield: 7. Slightly Smokey taste, thick tom. Can split if left a bit. Slight BER. Will grow again.

                    Super marmande: Taste: 2 Earlyiness: 3 Yield: 4. Not sure what happened here thought this was supposed to be "super". Won't grow again, bloody awful.

                    Striped stuffer: Taste: 9 Earliness: 6 Yield: 6. Good, sweet, thick tomato, Didn't get to stuffing size but lovely all the same. Will grow again.

                    Tumbling tom red: Taste: 4 Earlyiness :5 Yield:5. Crud. Not a patch on 100s and 1000s. Not growing again.

                    Dancing with smurfs: Taste 8(previously 10) Earliness:2 Yield: 5
                    Think this may actually be indigo blue. Takes forever to ripen. Curly/crispy leaves. Growing diff black cherry tom next year.

                    Heartbreaker vita f1: Taste: 4 earliness: 7 Yield: 10 Looks fantastic, neat compact heavy cropper but poor tomato.

                    Latah -no pic/see other thread: Taste: 7/8 Earliness:7 Yield:5.
                    Nice tom but can be over ripe in flash. Bush tom but was topped and sideshooted by someone who looked after it when I was away. Will grow again with no topping!

                    Have sungold and super sweet 100 to go, these were bought reduced very late on.. just need to ripen.
                     
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                    • Susieshoe

                      Susieshoe Gardener

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                      I grew this as it's blight resistant - taste is mediocre. Certainly won't try again next year. Sticking with Crimson Crush which is a million times better and also blight resistant - although a few patches did appear.
                       
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                      • HsuH

                        HsuH Super Gardener

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                        1) Alicante - taste 5, earliness 6, yield 7
                        2) golden nugget - taste 7.5 earliness 7, yield 6 It is growing outdoors which cut its yield a lot compared to when I had it grew in GH in the past. The fruits have more acidity than other cherry tomatoes.
                        3) Roma - taste 5, earliness 7, yield 7 Since it is growing outdoors, I personally think it ripens fairly early.
                        4) 100s & 1000s - taste 8, earliness 9, yield 6
                        5) Tigrella - taste 6, earliness 6, yield 5
                        6) Floridity - taste 9, earliness 8, yield 8
                        7) Heinz - taste 5, earliness ?, yield 6 This one is growing outdoors as well. The fruits set and turn red more or less the same time as Roma. However they remain very hard for a long time and I couldn't take them off the vines unless I cut them off., so I'm unsure how to judge its readiness
                        8) Sweet aperitif - taste 9, earliness 8, yield 9
                        9) Sungold - taste 9, earliness 8, yield 8
                        10) Black cherry - taste 8, earliness 7, yield 9

                        I've been looking for some tasty standard and beef tomatoes for awhile. I grew marmande for a couple of years and would have given its taste as 5 and yield as 4. Recently I bought a package of super marmande seeds, thought it might be an improvement on its predecessor. I'm really quite down hearted to hear your result. I supose I'll have to keep on looking...
                         
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                        • sandymac

                          sandymac Super Gardener

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                          Hi HsuH I too have been searching for a great tasting beef tomato and thought I had found it with Beef master but I only had one year of really good taste, this year I have had my best ever tasting beef tomato it is Steak sandwich. It is not one of the really big ones most were around 400grms but a large crop six trusses with 6 to 8 toms per truss
                          regds Sandy
                           
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                          • Redwing

                            Redwing Wild Gardener

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                            Great thread! :dbgrtmb: Which of any of these recommended varieties have people grown successfully outside a greenhouse? I don't have a greenhouse anymore but do have a south facing wall which might work.
                             
                          • JWK

                            JWK Gardener Staff Member

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                            Great feedback so far, thanks folks. Keep them coming in, even if you only grew one variety let us know what you thought of it please.

                            Looks like I will be trying Crimson Crush instead of Magic Mountain next year - thanks @Susieshoe and for a beefsteak I'll give Steak sandwich a go.
                             
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                            • HsuH

                              HsuH Super Gardener

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                              Thanks @sandymac , your steak sandwich sounds great. I'll give it a try next year.
                              I'll also try out @Susieshoe 's crimson crush since blight is such a big problem here in the West Country.
                               
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                                Last edited: Sep 15, 2017
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