Orange - sungold (not an heirloom though)
Yellow - Yellow Brandywine
Green - Grub's Mystery Green
Bicolor - Lucky Cross
Purple - Gary O Sena

Lots of pinks and reds

White - Snow White cherry (wow squirty and sweet!)
Green when ripe - Aunt Ruby's German Green (light tasting and not overwhelming)
Black - Cherokee Purple (yummy lightly smokey with a sweet aftertaste)
Black - Black Cherry (interesting old fashioned tomatoey taste for a cherry)

I am trying Aunt Gertie's Gold this year, so I'll tell you how that goes at the end of the season. Also trying some new pinks - Earl's Faux and Eva Purple Ball and we'll see how those go. The Brandywine Sudduth (Pink) and Marianna's Peace (Pink) that I have grown in the past were so-so. The Green Zebra is perhaps an "acquired taste". LOL For a Red, I have had my sisters' Burpee Burgers and they weren't bad at all.

A starter list (and just one person's opinion) - listing a favorite and a back up!

Red - Nepal, Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Red
Pink - Brandywine, Stump of the World
Purple - Cherokee Purple, Black from Tula
Brown - Cherokee Chocolate, Paul Robeson
Green flesh, clear skin - Green Giant, Aunt Ruby's Green
Green flesh, yellow skin - Cherokee Green, Dorothy's Green
Red/yellow swirl bicolor - Lucky Cross, Little Lucky
Yellow - Lillian's Yellow Heirloom, Hugh's
Pale Orange - Yellow Brandywine, Persimmon (Sungold would be #1, but as Keith states, it is a hybrid)
White - Great White, White Queen
Red/gold stripe - Tiger Tom, Tigerella

This of course leaves out thousands of other great ones!

What great idea for a thread nice way to try different varieties.

Two that I can list here for you without reserve as they don't change for me year to year is:

Mortgage Lifter - Red

Yellow Brandywine - Yellow

Now you didn't say production so don't look for loads of fruit from Yellow Brandywine but the taste (smooth, silky, sweet) will make production not matter very much only that you wish you had planted more.

Mortgage Lifter alway gave a decent yield for me, thankfully, because I can't find a bad thing to say about this exceptional plant. I don't recall much disease with it either and taste is second to none makes BLT's outta this world! :)

Again, thanks for a great thread, der_tomategartner and best of luck finding that tomato "like-no-other" as it can be rather subjective sometimes. :)

MMMmmmmmm tomatoes!
I get a buzz on just the smell of the plants.

Multi Mr Stripey
Green Green Grape
Pink/Purple Brandywine

I'm trying Hilbilly, Orange Strawberry, Black Krim, Arkansas Traveler, White Queen, Yellow Out Red In, and a new green (can't remember the name) this year.

vj

Red- Heidi, Tegucigalpa wonderful texture and taste
Orange- Verna's Orange Oxheart
Bicolor- Lucky Cross luscious
Pink- Grace Lahman meaty
Black- Cherokee Purple
Yellow- Kellogg's Breakfast

You got a great tomato when you picked Lemon Boy! I discovered it last yr and really liked it. My pink favorite is BrandyBoy. While I tried some different ones last yr, mostly I was disappointed- it's the soil for one thing- it still needs a lot of work. Since I read earlier that Brandywine does not like it hot, I understand why they did not do well in my garden. I wonder if Mortgage Lifter would do well here? So many seem to like its flavor. I remember a tomato called Ponderosa Pink that we grew when I was a child and I loved them- large, pink, meaty tomatoes.
I noticed that Lowe's had quite a variety this yr, including Lemon Boy and one called German Pink. I can't remember just which plants I ordered from Burpee this yr, but I did get Brandy Boy and Sungold which I love, and another cherry tomato called Black Pearl that is supposed to taste differently when refrigerated- should be interesting... Brandy

brandy,

Yeah, I have heard a lot of good things about Lemon Boy,. This is especially surprising since it is a hybrid.

German Pink is one variety I am growing this year. I have eaten them before and they are great if you like beefsteak low acid varieties. Very smooth taste. I live not far away from a Mennonite community and they have been passing the German Pink's down for generations. It seems like many Amish/Mennonite communities have a prized variety of tomato such as this. The German Pink just so happens to be one of the popular ones with my local Mennonite community (though they now grow all kinds)

I am no plant genetics expert, but I have a strong feeling that many varieties that originated in the USA with the Amish and Mennonites are closely related to each other and probably came from the same parent stock. This means that the German Pinks, the Dutchmen, and probably Brandywines (and many others), are all just variations of the same old-world European variety that these immigrants brought from Germany or the Netherlands. When I eat my Brandywines this season, I don't expect a huge difference in taste between it and the German Pinks, though I could be surprised.

I would be interested to learn about the research that has been done in this field relating to the genetic origins of various varieties. I know there are several academic experts who post here.

I am new to heirloom tomatoes as well, and was just as curious about which ones are most preferred. I spent quite a bit of time just browsing the threads on here, and other sites, and rather than one color being perferred over another, these are some that I have seen over and over listed as favorites: Brandywine, Black Krim (purple), Cherokee purple, Paul Robeson (purple), Marianne's Peace (red I think), Earl's Faux, Kellog's Breakfast.
I know the Paul Robeson won the taste test at the tomatofest one year. I have heard that the taste of a certain tomato type will vary year to year, as taste can be dilluted due to overwatering, etc. Here are some links that may be helpful.
http://www.heirloomtomatoplants.com/
http://mastergardeners.org/events/2007/TomatoDescrip2007.html
http://www.tomatoindex.com/index.cfm?pgaction=topVotes

Mmmmmmmmmm, this thread is making my mouth water!

Here are my picks for best flavor by color:

purple - Cherokee Purple
red - Arkansas Traveller
pink - Bull's Heart
orange - Persimmon
green - haven't found one I liked
striped - Striped Stuffer

Well, sticking to just color, non-reds tend to have less acidity and are therefore usually less complex in flavor. But individual varieties differ.

I grow only reds and "purples" after years of experimenting. But that's just my personal preference.

Color does have some affect on taste; a multi-colored plate of tomatoes (or in a salad) can be quite pleasing too.

So grow a variety of colors, keep some notes on the ones you liked best, and grow those next year!

Tomategartner; that's an interesting observation that many of the pink tomatoes may have come from common stock originally. What do the plants look like? Brandyboy is very distinctive- a really handsome plant- large leaves, not lacy- very different from most of the plants you see. Brandy

Brandy, haven't grown BrandyBoy but would assume it has potato leaf foliage (PL), as does Brandywine, OTV Brandywine, & Yellow Brandywine, plus many other varieties. Red Brandywine, unrelated to those Brandywines already mentioned, is regular leaf (RL) foliage.

Sunsi, which version of Mortgage lifter do you have? Mortgage Lifter is a pink, not red, but Jeff McCormick came out with "Red Mortgage Lifter" which was an improvement on the Radiator Charlie's version.

OK, colors:

Yellow: Hugh's, Lillian's Yellow Heirloom
Gold: Aunt Gertie's Gold, Herman's Yellow (it's darker than yellow but not quite orange so putting it here.)
Orange: Kellogg's Breakfast, Earl of Edgecombe, Orange Heirloom
Red: too many...
Pink: too many... but I like Polish, Mortgage Lifter Estler's, Kosovo, Richardson, Kalman's Hungarian Pink, Marizol Bratka, etc.
Bi-Color: Burracker's Favorite, Virginia Sweets
Green: Cherokee Green, Aunt Ruby's German Green
Brown/Purple: Cherokee Purple, Marizol Korney, Brazilian Beauty

Yellow/gold/orange/bicolor - Aunt Gertie's Gold, Earl of Edgecombe, Sungold (F1), Yellow Brandywine, Lillian's Yellow, Jaune Flammee, Lucky Cross, Burracker's Fav

Red - OTV Brandywine, Lumpy Red, Prue, Aker's WV

Pink - Kalman's Hungarian Pink, Dora, Earl's Faux, Brandywine Sudduth, Kosovo

Green - Cherokee Green, Green Giant, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Lime Green Salad (for containers)

Darks - Gary O'Sena, Carbon, Black Cherry, Paul Robeson, Cherokee Purple (or Chocolate), Black from Tula

Thanks again, guys! I am getting a lot of ideas of what to grow next season. This is beginning to get interesting.

It seems that I am consistently inculcated, both on other websites and in here, with a few oft' discussed varieties that seem to have great taste. For green varieties, it seems that "Aunt Ruby's German Green" is virtually a consensus. Paul Robeson and Cherokee Purple seem very popular in the purple/black category. Sungold seems like a consensus for yellows. Reds and Pinks are many, but it seems like the legendary Brandywine is always near the top in both categories. I hear a lot of great things aboust Caspian Pink too.

I am dissapointed that most of you have forgotten about whites! Or do you just consider them a pale yellow? NCtomatoman and jenny were the only two to mention whites in this thread. It appears that "Great White"is a consensus on many websites in the white beefstake category. I am anxious to try it and perhaps use it for tomato sauce or for a salsa of some kind.

How about Bi-color? Are "Hawaiin Pineapple" and just plain old "Pineapple" all they are cracked up to be? They look cool to me, but I suppose looks can be deceiving! ;)