Best-Tasting Tomato Varieties for the Home Gardener

 I see lists all the time about plants to grow, but they usually don't talk about flavor. That is the number one thing I grow tomatoes for. So when I go to learn about new varieties, I want to know how they taste. 

Brad Gates says that 80-90% of heirloom tomatoes don't taste good. When I told her that, Emma commented recently that all the tomatoes we grow taste great. That is because now I look hard before buying new varieties. We've grown bad varieites before.

Here are my favorite tomatoes (any of them could be a favorite if grown all by themselves). Cherry tomatoes are small and perfectly round. Grape tomatoes are smaller but not perfectly round. Slicing and beefsteak are bigger.

• Sungold (cherry)--The best there is.
• Green Zebra (medium sized)--Very Tangy.
• German Pink (huge)--Emma loves these.
• Chocolate Cherry (cherry)--These might be my favorite from this year.
• Sunrise Bumblebee (cherry)--An interesting surprise, these are fruity.
• Pink Bumblebee (cherry)--These taste like big tomatoes in a small package.
• Cherokee Purple (Huge)--I've grown some that I saved from a tomato that I was given and told was Cherokee Purple. They are excellent. I've bought seeds before under that name that were not very good. There is a chance that Craig Lehoullier will send you some of the original seeds if you write him.
  

All we are growing this year are cherry and grape tomatoes. We miss bigger tomatoes, but we picked almost 10 oz. containers of tomatoes today for lunch. Each day gets better.