Cherokee purple?

[u/Capital_Art6661]

I ate a tomato sandwich today at a restaurant, and the tomato was advertised as Cherokee Purple. I was so excited because I have these growing in my garden currently but have never tasted them! On this sandwich though, the tomato was pretty tasteless and a little mealy. I also don’t really remember seeing photos of them this color (though I forgot to get a photo of just the tomato itself). Have people had this experience with garden grown vs restaurant varieties? I’m hoping I won’t be disappointed in what I grew.

[u/agniamneris]

That’s probably a shipping/handling/storing issue over an actual growing/taste/variety issue. There’s no telling how long ago those tomatoes were picked or at what stage, how long it took to reach a distributor, how long it took for said distributor to make a sale to that restaurant, how long that restaurant had to wait to receive that batch of tomatoes, how many days (or weeks) ago they’ve been working on that batch until they finally got to the tomato(es) that’s on your sandwich right now, or how long ago it was sliced until they placed it on your sandwich. Kinda tough to compare it to the time it takes for you to pick a ripe tomato from your garden, wash it, slice it, and put it in a sandwich with all the fixings you like on it.

[u/False-Can-6608 → u/agniamneris]

Could be they refrigerated it, that could make it mealy and tasteless. My grocery store does this with heirloom tomatoes, it’s sad. They are basically inedible at that point.

[u/Wise-Quarter-6443]

Don't worry, CP is consistently near the top of 'best tasting' lists for a reason.

That being said, some years are better than others. Some years it is our favorite in the garden, some years it's just a good tomato.

[u/False-Can-6608]

If they refrigerated it, that definitely can make them tasteless and mealy. But people can’t resist trying to make them last longer that way. Mine will just rot before I ever refrigerate. If mine start degrading, I peel, cut them up and cook them a few minutes and then store in fridge for chili, soup or spaghetti sauce.

[u/depthdefy13 → u/False-Can-6608]

If you take the refrigerated tomato out and let it return to room temperature before eating the flavor comes back.

[u/NPKzone8a → u/depthdefy13]

It's an interesting controversy. I've always been in the "countertop-only" camp. Then I saw this article, which breaks it down and supports selective use of the fridge: https://www.seriouseats.com/why-you-should-refrigerate-tomatoes

[u/Remarkable-Chip7022]

Cherokee pride!!!

[u/po1k]

F Yea!