Quick Summary: Match tomato varieties to their best use. Slicers (Brandywine, Mortgage Lifter, Carmello) for sandwiches and fresh eating. Paste types (Opalka, San Marzano, Amish Paste) for sauces. Colorful varieties (Carbon, Cherokee Purple, Green Zebra) for salads. Cherry tomatoes (Sungold, Sweet 100, Matt’s Wild Cherry) for snacking. Read time: 8 min | Experience level: Beginner to intermediate
Jump to: Fresh Eating | Sauces | Salads | Best for Pots | Tomato Flavors | FAQ
Not all tomatoes are interchangeable. A meaty paste tomato makes terrible BLTs, and a juicy slicer turns into watery sauce. I’ve trialed hundreds of heirloom varieties at HeathGlen Organic Farm over 20+ years, and the variety you choose matters as much as how you grow it.
This guide organizes heirloom tomatoes by use: slicers for fresh eating, paste types for sauces, colorful varieties for salads, and cherry tomatoes for snacking and garnish.
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There are hundreds of heirloom tomato varieties and they each serve a particular purpose or highlight a particular flavor.
The following list groups the tomatoes by use, with a brief summary highlighting the unique characteristic of the individual tomato:
What Tomatoes Are Best for Slicing and Fresh Eating?
- Box Car Willie (New Jersey): consistent, large, meaty, balanced and good yields
- Carmello (French): perfect acid-sugar balance; no cracking; med. size
- Druzba (Czechoslovakia): high acid so good for canning
- Thessaloniki (Greek): earthy taste with no cracking or green shoulders; baseball size
- Costoluto (Italian): heavily ribbed and not very juicy; beautiful for plating
- Mortgage Lifter (American): very large, light red/dark pink; similar to Brandywine but earlier
- Brandywine (Amish); Most well known Heirloom for taste, but late and low yields
- Aussie (Australia): lightly fluted, very large, great balanced flavor, good yields for large tomato
- Big Beef (hybrid): beefsteak type that is easy to grow, balanced flavor; not an heirloom but good for main season consistent tomatoes
What Tomatoes Are Best for Sauces?
- Opalka (Poland): hands down my favorite tomato for sauces; meaty, high-acid, large Roma type shape; prolific
- San Marzano (Italy): Roma type that can vary dramatically in taste depending on original seed; Familiar name for a Roma, but inconsistent taste
- Speckled Roma (hybrid): large red and orange striped elongated Roma type; dense and meaty; beautiful!
- Amish Paste (Amish): large red oblong tomato commonly used for cooking but sweet enough to eat fresh; popular for taste but not as prolific as other paste tomatoes
- Principe Borghese (Italian): very meaty with little juice and few seeds; small, red, plum shaped; definitive tomato for drying; great for sauces also; semi-determinate so good for pots; classic tomato taste
What Tomatoes Are Best for Salads?
Orange or Yellow:
- Kelloggs (Michigan): large, juicy, pumpkin-colored; sweet flavor; meaty with few seeds so good for sauces
- Persimmon Orange (From Thomas Jefferson): very large (1-2 lbs), egg-yolk color; sweet, fruity & low-acid; solid dense flesh; resistant to cracking
- Golden Queen (Midwest – Ohio): medium size, golden yellow, smooth (rarely cracks); low-acid
- Dixie Golden (Amish): Beefsteak type, lemon yellow, fairly early and prolific for a large tomato; sweet fruity flavor
- Hughs (Indiana): pale yellow on outside and white on inside; large, juicy fruits with mild flavor
- Juane Flamme (French): vibrant apricot-colored; small (3 oz), citrusy-fruity sweet taste; prolific;
Black (Dark Purple):
- Carbon (Midwest): my favorite of the blacks; medium size; dark, smoky and sweet; crack free; deep green and red inside
- Cherokee Carbon (Cherokee Indian and Tennessee) : marries 2 heirlooms (Cherokee Purple and Carbon); dusky rose color, rich, complex flavor; more prolific than parents
- Paul Robeson (Siberia): sets fruit at lower temperatures; dusky, brick-red with green shoulders; sweet, smoky and well balanced taste
- Purple Calabash (Pre-Columbian Mexico): ribbed and scalloped, dark purple color; rich, acidic concentrated flavor
Striped, Bi-Colored:
- Green Zebra (Everett, Washington): striped green tomato resistant to cracking; quite tangy when young and sweeter as it matures
- Beauty King (hybrid – California): beefsteak type; yellow with red stripes; stunning & beautiful!; meaty with sweet flavor
- Chocolate Stripes (hybrid – Ohio): mahogany colored with dark, olive green-striping; large; rich, sweet, earthy flavor;
- Mint Julep (hybrid mutation of green zebra): small pear-shaped; yellow with minty-green specks; sweeter than other green tomatoes; prolific
- Indigo Rose (Bulgaria & US): small round tomato with unique colors (deep purple, burgandy and deep red); complex flavor of acid, sweetness, smoke and paprika
What Are the Best Cherry Tomatoes?
- Matts Wild Cherry (Hildago, Mexico): very small currant-sized; deep red, high sugar content; soft fruits
- Gardeners’ Delight (German): rich, sweet & deep red; larger that most cherries; parent of sweet 100
- Snowberry (Britain): bursts with sweet flavor and enough acid not to be bland; creamy pale yellow; prolific
- Yellow Pear (Europe): heavy yields of bright yellow pear-shaped tomatoes; sweet, mild flavor; kids love it
- Sungold (Japan): exceptionally sweet, golden-orange cherry tomato about 1 inch in size; low acid
- Sweet 100 (hybrid developed in MN): extremely tasty and sweet; very prolific and easy to grow
- Juliet (Hybrid) : super sweet salad tomato; considered a grape tomato; juicy and heavy producer; crack resistant
What Determines Tomato Flavor?
Flavor is quite subjective. The primary variable around tomato flavor is the relative balance of acid to sugar.
Some like a high-acid, robustly flavored tomato and consider that flavor to be “old fashioned”. Some people prefer sweeter, milder tomatoes, and there is everything in between.
The key variables that determine whether the full flavor of the particular variety shines forth includes:
- The soil and micro-climate under which it is grown
- the amount of water given to the tomato when it is developing it’s sugars
- the stage at which it is harvested
- the specific variety
- whether it is a thin-skinned heirloom or a hybrid tomato bred for shipping (thicker skin and less flavor)
Check out this collection of popular tomato recipes for a range of tomato recipes, from fresh salsas to slow cooked stews, to tomato martinis.
The collection above is focused on recipes. For more general guides on getting the best flavor from tomatoes, check out these posts:
FAQ
Carmello or Box Car Willie. Both are balanced slicers that also work in sauces. Carmello resists cracking and has good yields.
Opalka is my favorite. It’s meaty, high-acid, and prolific. San Marzano is famous but quality varies dramatically depending on seed source. Amish Paste is popular but less productive.
Depends on your preference. For complex, smoky flavor: Carbon or Cherokee Purple. For sweet and mild: Kellogg’s Breakfast or Persimmon. For bright acidity: Druzba or Purple Calabash. Brandywine is famous for taste but has late harvests and low yields
Hybrid tomatoes found in grocery stores are bred for shipping (thick skins) and when hybridized flavor is bred out of them. Vine-ripening matters more than variety in some cases.
Sungold (exceptionally sweet, low acid), Sweet 100 (classic sweet cherry), and Matt’s Wild Cherry (tiny, intense sweetness).
The balance of acid to sugar, plus growing conditions: soil quality, water consistency, harvest timing, and how long it ripens on the vine. The same variety can taste different in different gardens.
Check out this collection of popular tomato recipes for a range of tomato recipes, from fresh salsas to slow cooked stews, to tomato martinis.
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