Chocolate Cherry is similar, we grow it every year, it’s our favorite. Sweet, tart and smokey, prolific producer and pretty disease tolerant in our area. One of the few dark tomatoes that do well here.
I picked up some Paul Robeson seed, will be trying it again this year. Similar flavor, but it’s a beefsteak type variety.
Interesting. I neglected them a bit. Or maybe I’m misremembering the sizes. It was two years ago now. I’ve settled on Amish paste. Last year I had Amish paste and Cherokee purple in the same bed, 12x15 bed, and the Cherokee purple were defoliated by hornworms while the Amish paste were still moving along. The worms seemed to favor the Cherokee purple. They barely recovered by the end of the season but we’re still eating the APs.
Not as extensive experience with tomatoes as some here, but I’ve been trialing between 10-20 varieties each year for a few years and trying to find ones that we like and that grow well for us in Zone 10 in Southern California.
One like the one you mentioned that’s moved to our “must grow” list and is a pretty strong plant too and usually survives our winter: Sunchocola. I’ve been trying to plant it later and later and this year, I’ve been harvesting from it all through winter and it’s still going - I might pull it out soon though since I’m starting to put this year’s tomatoes in now. Yesterday I got about 50-60 tomatoes off it in various stages of ripeness. They are smaller than a golf ball but larger than a marble is how I’d put it 
I got it from Territorial Seed a while ago but I can’t seem to find it on their site now. Though it does seem to be available elsewhere.
Everyone who has visited us and tried this tomato sings its praises and my wife who is a tomato person loves this tomato.
That does sound quite good. Maybe a good choice for my place down in Loreto, BCS, MX as their winters also seem like the best time for growing tomatoes. Summer there is atrociously hot: both night and day bake and they’ll also get some high humidity in the process.
I’ve grown/trialed many heirloom and hybrid varieties of tomatoes for over 30 years now . About 3 or 4 years ago I first grew the Mountaineer Delight variety from Southern Exposure Seeds. This has been a standout tomato based on its flavor. It’s a medium-sized, round, red tomato, with an outstanding, intense flavor…more on the sweet side I’d say. I even found it to keep it’s fine flavor later in the season when the temperatures are cooler. I can’'t comment on it’s production, because the few times I’ve grown it, it has been in less than ideal soil or conditions. I hope to give this variety a better spot in the garden this year to see how it performs. I’ve grown many highly touted heirloom varieties, and Mountaineer Delight is IMO the best tasting non-cherry tomato I’ve ever grown.
I’ve grown Mountaineer Delight several times and found it to have moderate production. Disease tolerance is significantly better than most tomatoes. Flavor for me was a bit intense but not exceptional. I’d rank it 8 out of 10 at best. It grows best in mineral rich soil with high organic matter. I often suggest it as a good option for people in disease prone southeastern locations. It is fairly widely adapted.
Anyone care to share where they buy their seeds? I’ve looked for a handful listed on this page and am barely able to find 2 varieties at the same supplier.
Would love to try these:
Daniel’s
Opalka
Pruden’s
Heidi
KBT
Bloody Butcher
I currently grow Sungold and Sans Marzano and they are excellent for productivity and taste for me. But I’m missing a beefsteak. I’ve tried Mortgage Lifter, Rutgers and German PInk and none of them were very prolific for me. I bought Brandywine to try this year but would like another couple options.
I bought 14 varieties from Delectation of Tomatoes, etc. Dale had a massive selection to choose from and his seeds appear to be good. This is 6 days after sowing:
Thanks for the recommendation @CAvocado. He supposedly had all the varieties I wanted to try so I bought 6, more than I need, but excited to try new varieties. Thanks again!
Here are a few suppliers worth bookmarking:
tomatogrowers
Sandhill
Southernexposure
Knapps
Johnny’s
or look on my webpage of suppliers, caution that some of these are no longer in business.
Update on the seeds from Declaration of Tomaotes, etc:
They’ve been growing well, but I’ve noticed some inconsistency in leaf type among varieties. I have Daniels and KBX where some plants are RL, and others PL. Possibly there was some accidental crosses mixed in?
Box Car Willie is regular leaf.
Daniels is potato leaf.
KBX is potato leaf.
Most of the time, when a known PL variety shows up with some RL seedlings, it is from bee pollination of flowers with pollen from an RL variety.
This is why they’re called Amish paste. Baseball sized fruits with tons of meat. The seed and pulp pockets are pretty small even on the little ones. They cook down pretty fast. They have good flavor as paste and sliced (with balsamic vinegrette they’re almost smoky). Each of the last three years I play with the idea of growing others and always chose to grow these again. They just work.
Maybe we are just strange people. But there is a huge difference between a “Paste” tomato. And a “Sauce” tomato.
We make tomato paste via slow roasting then canning. Preserving flavors and compounds without boiling it to death. Dry tomatoes are awesome for this.
Cheap, easy and fast.
Sauce tomatoes are not so flavor tasked as you are going to spice them anyway. You just chose sweeter or tangy tomatoes to build the sauce with.
We add paste when the Sauce lacks richness or to thicken it.
