With hesitations and reservations, I post the following list of 151 tomato varieties which I consider among the best for flavor among the 2,000+ varieties which I have sampled over the past few years.
Hesitation for the following reasons:
- There remain more than 500 varieties for which I have not transcribed field notes or prepared pictures or descriptions. Doubtless many of these belong on this list. I am working on this project, but it’s not easy to finagle the necessary time.
- This post is essentially an addendum to my post of December 19, 2018, Best Tasting and Biggest Tomatoes of 2018 – but there are discrepancies which might present a challenge to resolve.
- As mentioned in that previous post, mine are just one set of taste buds; there are micro-environmental differences; my criteria for “super tasty” might very well not match yours. etc. – multiple opinions are recommended.
- Short-changed especially are many outstanding varieties that I received from Russia which have been sitting on the back burner for up to three years – varieties which I have shared in list form only so far.
- I have concern that other growers might restrict their options to just this list, when there are hundreds and hundreds of other varieties that I would strongly recommend, depending upon what you are looking for in a tomato.
That being said, I have taken a few hours to go through my databases, descriptions, online publications, and those faulty memory banks between my ears, and come up with this “short” list of varieties which have especially tickled my taste buds. Although I make a concerted effort to not exaggerate, to not use superlatives, to be forthright with my descriptions, somehow I still managed to come up with 151 varieties for which I have used descriptors for flavor such as: Fabulous, Outstanding or Wonderful.
In alphabetical order:
Absinthe
Alex Popovich Yugoslavian
Alice’s Dream
Altaiskiy Oranzhevyi
Amazon Chocolate
Ambrosia Gold
Amish Paste
Amish Potato Leaf
Arad’s Pink Heart
Arbuznyi
Ashleigh
Aunt Ruby’s German Green
Barlow Jap
Belarusian Heart
Berkeley Tie-dye Heart
Big Cheef Pink Potato Leaf
Big Zac
Biyskiy Rozan
Black
Black and Brown Boar
Black Bear
Black Cherry
Black Crimson
Black Krim
Black Mountain Pink
Blue Ridge Mountain
Boloto
Bosanski Stari
Brandywine from Croatia
Brandywine, Cowlick’s
Brandywine, OTV
Brandywine, Pink
Brandywine, Sudduth’s
Bulgarian Rose
Bulgarian Triumph
Bych’ye Serdtse Vystavochnoye
Carbon
Catwell
Chang Li
Chapman
Cherokee Purple
Chocolate Cherry
Crnkovic Yugoslavian
Da Chilo Orange
De Barao Rozoviy
Dester
Domaca Pfarrgarten
Donskoi
Dr. Lyle
Dr. Wyche’s Yellow
Dwarf Mr. Snow
Dyvo
Earl’s Faux
Eastman Pink Heirloom
Everett’s Rusty Oxheart
Gajo De Melon
Gold Medal
Goose Creek
Grandfather Ashlock
Grub’s Mystery Green
Guernsey Island Pink Blush
Hamilton
Hanging from Vesuvius
Hawaiian Pineapple
Hillbilly
Indian Stripe
Ispanskaya Roza
Iva’s Red Berry
Japanese Oxheart
Jewish
Kayleigh’s Large Pink
KBX
Kellogg’s Breakfast
King Pineapple
Kiyevlyanka
Korol Gigantov
Korol’ Londona
Kozula 161
Large Black and Red Boar
Leadbeatter’s Lunker
Lemon Drop
Levino
Little Lucky
Loxton Lad Dwarf
Lyagushka Tsarevna
Maddeline’s Vine Candy
Maiden’s Gold
Mallee Rose
Mammoth Cretan
Manyel
Marianna’s Peace
Marizol Gold
Mary Reynolds
Mawlenowe
Milka’s Red Bulgarian
Momotoaro (OP, offtype)
Mr. Underwood’s Pink German Giant
Noire de Crimee
Orange Minsk
Orange Paruche
Orlov Yellow
Osburn Oxheart
Peacevine
Persimmon
Pierce’s Pride
Pink Berkeley Tie-dye
Pink Sweet
Polish Pink
Portuguese
Prue
Purple Not Strawberry
Purple Passion
Rebel Yell
Red Butter Heart
Reinhart’s Chocolate Heart
Rhoades Heirloom
Rosalie’s Big Rosy
Rose
Rose Quartz
Rozovaya Krupnaya
Rozoviy Syrayeva
Rozovyi Shlem
Russian 117
Russian Rose
Seek No Further Love Apple
Sinister Minister
Slankard’s
Star
Sugar Plum Fairy
Sugary
Sungold
Sunsugar
Sweet Apertif
Tadzhikskiye
Tennessee Suited
Terhune
Tsar-Kolokol
Tsindao
Tzi Bi U (aka Violet Jasper)
Uluru Ochre
Veras Paradeiser
Vinson Watts
Virginia Sweets
Waltingers Fleisch aus Indien
Weisnicht’s Ukrainian
West Virginia Sweetmeat
Wild Thyme Purple
Yasha Yugoslavian
Yoder’s German Pink
Yusupovskyi S Fergany
Zorica’s Sebastian’s Bull’s Eye
Following is some mid-winter “eye candy” of some of these varieties; seeds available at:
Delectation of Tomatoes Seeds on Offer
Or drop me an email with your list of seeds wanted – it’s easy enough for me to just send you an electronic invoice.
A brief update about micro-dwarf indoor tomatoes – Micro Tom was the first to bloom, 55 days from seed sowing:
In an effort to support and encourage those who grow food and sell to people in their local community, Delectation of Tomatoes is now a member of Utah’s Own !
Fresh food that is grown and consumed locally and organically typically tastes better, is more nutritious, has fewer potentially harmful chemicals, leaves a smaller carbon footprint (on average, vegetables consumed in the USA travel more than 1,400 miles from farm to table!), supports small local farmers (rather than mega-monocultures and international corporate farming practices), keeps more of a community’s hard-earned money at the local level, helps create jobs for the community, and helps support the tax base of local and state governments.
That’s a big part of what Delectation of Tomatoes is all about: encouraging and facilitating gardeners and farmers working small farms to provide the freshest, most nutritious, most flavorful and most interesting fruits and vegetables for their families and communities.
In their favor, BIG corporate farms have the economy of scale, millions of dollars to spend on marketing, expensive machinery, big subsidies from governments, and the power of habit of 100+ million shoppers who frequent big box stores. Yet in the midst of this gigantic agro-industrial complex, there should still a place for the artisan seed saver and grower, especially as more people become aware of viable and sensible alternatives to the status quo and as they take advantage of these alternatives.
Delectation of Tomatoes, etc. 