I’m happy with Big Beef. It bears well and resists cracking
1 Like
Reviving an old thread. My top three slicing tomatoes I’ve tasted 2020:
1st by wide margin: Kelloggs Breakfast. Best I’ve ever tasted.
Tie for 2nd: Green Giant and Stump of the World (Scott’s FAV that I grew from seed).
3 Likes
Kelloggs Breakfast is consistently in my top 5 varieties. Your flavor profile is “balanced” meaning that of the 4 common flavor types, you prefer balanced sweet with tart. Now if you want to try a pink tomato next year that might just beat Kelloggs, give Crnkovic Yugoslavian a try.
2 Likes
@Fusion_power Great tip, thanks. Your tomato taste reviews have really helped me a lot to sort through the taste categories. Also had my eye on Boxcar Willie, Neves Azorean Red, Druzba and JD’s Special C-Tex. I want to try out some that lean toward acid.
My taste buds are dimming with age so am seeking bold, assertive flavors.
If you want bold and assertive off the charts intense flavor, Costoluto Genovese will nail your hide on the wall. It is a paste/sauce tomato so not recommended for fresh eating, but… it will make you think your taste buds woke up in Italy.
Since you mention bold and assertive, please put Akers West Virginia in your future plans. If you grow Akers, Neves Azorean Red, Druzba, Box Car Willie, Crnkovic Yugoslavian, J.D.'s Special C-Tex and Jaune Flammee, you will have an excellent reference flavor profile against which to judge other tomatoes.
The story behind J.D.'s Special C-Tex is worth repeating. A man with initials J.D. who lived in Conroe Texas crossed Black Krim and Early Girl. He stabilized a relatively productive and good flavored tomato that would fruit fairly well in the heat. It is not the best tomato I’ve grown, but is consistently at the high end year after year. That consistency has a lot of merit. Some varieties are variable making good tomatoes one year but not so good the next. J.D.'s has never had an off year in nearly 20 years of growing it.
3 Likes
Sounds like I better get some grow lights!
Cuore di Bue and Green Zebra
1 Like
Cuore di Bue is a relatively sweet heart shaped tomato that really shines when made into sauce. There are better slicing tomatoes.
Green Zebra is a very tart tomato. A small percentage of tomato growers prefer tart flavor. I refer to them as “lemon suckers”. This is not a derogatory term, my daughter is a lemon sucker. As a toddler, she loved to suck on a slice of lemon. As an adult, she loves tart foods including Jaune Flammee and Green Zebra.
2 Likes
My Crnkovic Yugoslavians are absolute monsters this year with several over 2 lbs. I grow too many varieties to mention, but I agree with what Daryl has to say. He definitely knows his tomatoes (and beans and melons and…
). I do prefer KBX to Kellogg’s Breakfast. For me, KBX is a better producer.
I grow heirlooms primarily but will grow one or two hybrids each year. They hold in the barn into December. My current favorite tomato for flavor alone is Earl of Edgecombe. It’s a yellow-orange spherical ball of deliciousness!
2 Likes
I highly recommend the pink slicer “Granny Cantrell.” Better producer than Brandywine with just as good taste.
Ananas Noire is also a fantastic green slicer.
Not slicers, but “Blush” and “Lucky Tiger” consistently rate tops for flavor. They’re a pointy “two-bite” tomato.
2 Likes
Here the Cuore di Bue are sliced because they are so juicy. And as for your lemon suckers, you are doing something wrong. Perhaps you have sour soil? Mine are simply delicious .
1 Like
MrsG, do you love lemonade? Like to suck on a slice of lemon before putting it in your tea? If so, guess what?
I agree that Green Zebra is a good tomato, but my point is that different tomatoes have very different flavors. Jaune Flammee happens to fall in the same flavor group with Green Zebra. Have you by chance tried Jaune Flammee?
2 Likes
Picked out a few beautiful tomatoes at the Marche, I will photograph them and post them. They are beautiful, delish and the selection is phénoménal!
1 Like
Here are a few of my favorite slicing tomatoes. I use the pink brandywine for color only, as it has the least flavor.
3 Likes
Green Zebra, Bulls Heart, and pseudo Brandywine (not Brandywine Sudduth because too much fluting).
If I were growing a bicolor, it would be Lucky Cross. These “Mr. Stripey” fans are missing a lot with a tomato that tends to be mushy and sometimes can be insipid.
I’m not about to try to ID that onion for you. 
2 Likes
I didn’t read all the replies but if you get early blight it tends to change everything, but even then things change. The first year I planted Country Taste it went on and on bearing big tasty tomatoes until frost killed it in Oct. This year the vines are almost all dead after bearing since the first week of July (I start them indoors very early and they have fruit on them by the time I put them in the ground). It’s still the most productive beefsteak type I’ve ever grown- 2 plants have exhausted my wife making tomato sauce and paste. I think she’s glad they are almost dead and done producing.
I prefer the Brandywine types to others and Brandyboy seems as good as any- similar to the original Brandywine but more productive. Fortunately, I left one plant in 10 gallons of potting soil in my small unheated “greenhouse”. It’s a plant I started in early summer and has lots of tomatoes on it. Picked the first one today and it’s unblemished, of course. It will give me at least another 10 before it freezes, I think.
The only vines still in pretty good shape exposed to rain are my Sun Chocolates, Valentines and Sungolds which are all high quality cherries. Sun Chocolate is the most full flavored with some of the qualities of a "real’ tomato- that is something like Brandywine. But the texture is not as good because it’s a cherry.
I should add that for the first few weeks after I plant them I spray with copper soap, but by mid to late June I stop just to avoid eating much copper.