I always kind of figured that tomatoes would do the same as hot peppers and melons too. A hot dry spell during the ripening phase will intensify the flavor by 'concentrating' it so to speak. That was my theory anyway. Correct me if I am wrong.

You're not wrong triple_b infact I believe it's recommended to cut back on watering when the tomatoes start to ripen so the the flavor doesn't turn bland. Cutting the water down also prevents severe cracking although not completely especially for some varieties that this is a "slight" feature.

Aker's West Virginia
85 days, indeterminate.
A well known family heirloom tomato from West Virginia. Plants are vigorous and produce an abundance of large red tomatoes weighing from 8 ounces up to a pound.
Fruit are mostly smooth with few blemishes and very little cracking. Taste is very good having a sweet, rich flavor.
Fresh Salsa, Slicing, Salad Indeterminate; L.lycopersicum.

One of the things I have been looking for is an open polinated variety that has a very strong tomato flavor with lots of acid. Everything else for me is secondary to taste.

*****

It's not acid you're tasting b'c of all the varieties tested so far almost all of them have about the same pH. Jet Star F1 is one that has been documented as low acid, though.

There are over 400 organic compounds that are known to play a part in flavor and it's the unique combinations of those that impart that certain taste to different varieteis.

But as has already been said, taste is subjective and personal and actually has a genetic association, so what you perceive as strong tasting another person may see as mild or even bland. The only way to know what pleases you is to keep growing different varieties.

(Use to, I grew nothing but Rutgers and was a happy man. I had plenty of tomatos with lots of flavor and the tomatos were of decent size. Since then, I have tried a lot of different varieties, but nothing strikes me as remarkable in the flavor category where it really matters.)

If you're giving me Rutgers as a benchmark for a taste that you do like then I'd first suggest some of the older commercial varieties such as:

Break O Day
New Yorker
Valiant
Wisconsin 55
Landreth

... and similar/

As for OP heirloom types I'd suggest:

Aunt Gertie's Gold
Silvery Fir Tree
Gold Ball
Jaune Flammee
St Pierre
Picardy
Earl of Edgecombe

....for starters.

Carolyn

I agree with the "strong acidy flavor" in tomatoes and this year I grew 8 different varieties trying out different ones for that flavor.

The Silvery Fir Tree that Carolyn mentioned so far is my fave for that flavor. I only got a few maters due to some vicious spider mites and uknown wilting but the ones I got so far were excellent.
I also liked the Azoycha. I grew Granny Smith but it was a little too tart for me (very much like the Granny smith apple it was named for).
I am excited to try the manyel and the Old Brooks and see how they are, just waiting now for them to ripen.

kendra

I also liked the Azoycha. I grew Granny Smith but it was a little too tart for me (very much like the Granny smith apple it was named for).

Kendra, I could have included Azoychka as well.

Granny Smith was bred by Petoseed not for fresh eating, so I'm not surprised it was too tart for you.

Carolyn, who has hesitated naming her all time spitter b'c I get into trouble with Glenn Drowns at Sandhill every time I do, but just for the record, it's Sandpoint. LOL

Here's some to try:

Akers West Virginia--86 DAYS INDETERMINATE, Very vigorous, productive, Large, oblate smooth 10 - 16 oz fruit with superb flavor. Well shaped and attractive as well as super "olde Tyme" taste. This is a good one for those who like good intense flavor leaning toward tart.

Blue Ridge Mountain 70-80 DAYS INDETERMINATE. Big Potato Leaf plant. Outstanding variety. with large very sweet pink fruit with some green shoulders, about 5 inches in diameter. Intense old-fashioned tomato taste.

Bulgarian #7 - INDETERMINATE. regular leaf 4-6 oz. round globe-shaped red fruits, usually grows in clusters of three to six. Very high yields. Great strong yet sweet flavor. NOTE: Many of mine were up to 8oz using drip fertigation; extremely productive for me.

Burpee's TableTalk--78 DAYS Semi-determinate plant habit. Large, solid 3 inch or more red globes, old fashioned taste. A 1941 selection from Marglobe by Burpee.

Grosse Cotelee - Compact INDETERMINATE, nice balanced tart & sweet flavor, occassional ribbing, conc. cracking & BER; 8-12oz oblate, excellent disease tolerance, mod-hi yields.

Hungarian Oval-75-85 DAYS INDETERMINATE Large pink flattened oval fruits, few seeds. Intense great taste, great depth & aroma, 8-16oz or more, quite disease tolerant, moderate yields.

Korney's Jelly Bean 60-65 DAYS- Lycopersicon Pimpinellifolium. A selection from Spoon, (a tiny currant-type,) but bigger. RAMPANT INDET. Sweet & tart pea-size to dime-size fruits, bursting with flavor, best when eaten fully ripe. More tomatoey tasting than Spoon. Bushy wide plant, try to cage & force to grow vertically, extremely productive. Will often grow as oval jelly bean shaped fruits early on the plant with upper fruits sometimes rounder.

Marizol Korney-- Like Eva Purple Ball w/white speckling but a brown tomato; Potato Leaf indeterminate. Resulted as a planting of Marizol Purple in 2002. Fruits are almost round globes, 2-3", with a brownish-maroon color if shaded, and fading to an olive-goldish-brown color when continuously exposed to sun, as if getting sunburn/sunscald. Has a white mottled speckling if you look close. Similar to Eva Purple Ball in size, seed cavities, white mottling. Has that tangy, salty-acidic taste of some "black" tomatoes. May eventually get named Eva Black Ball.

Matt's Wild Cherry 60 DAYS INDETERMINATE. WILD cherry tomato from Eastern Mexico, and results will vary for different growers. It averages 5/8" to 3/4" and soft-bodied, but is loaded with flavor. It has a Brix sugar content of 11 Brix, which is very high, (some cantelopes & melons are 11° to 13° Brix!) The taste, to me, is extremely difficult to describe, almost like a delayed burst of flavor spreading through your mouth when eaten fully ripe! Seeds originated in Hidalgo in Eastern Mexico; it's a region of domestication of tomatoes, and where these grow wild.

Old Brooks 75-85 DAYS INDETERMINATE, great for adding flavor to sauce and paste; regular leaf vines bear a nice continuous set of 6-8oz red globes, smooth, blemish-free. Great texture and somewhat acidic taste. Great for canning.

Prue-80-85 DAYS Wispy almost floppy leaved plant. The tomato of Mr. Henry Prue, an old timer born at the turn of the century who started gardening back in the 20Âs-30Âs. Somewhere between plum and heart shaped, very meaty, can vary in size from 3" wide at the top and 4" long with a nipple, to being 4" wide and 5" long. About 5-12oz though some bigger, occasionally hitting a pound or more. Prue starts turning a pinkish/red in a variegated pattern and parts are green while other parts are getting red--at first uneven ripening at early stages, though it ends up solid red. Sometimes thought to resemble a "Charley Brown Christmas tree" with scrawny sparse leaves that often look twisted or flopping over! It's taste is very good, quite different from many other reds, a somewhat earthy taste, not all that sweet, the essence of what tomatoey would be, all sorts of tastes linger on the tongue after you've taken a mouthful.

Sylvan Gaume-- Reportedly rare. A little known heirloom with BIG fruits & taste! INDET. Red heart-shaped fruits, anywhere from 8 ounces, up to 3 lbs! Great "olde tyme" flavor, very rich tasting, with meaty flesh; not many seeds.

Wes -75-80 DAYS- INDET. Wispy oxheart type foliage. Large heart shaped red fruits, often with blunt bottoms (no points) and some almost huge doubles. Great flavor; cut it open and smell the intense aroma; not many seeds. A great tomato!

Nepal 80 DAYS So named because the seed is originally from the Himalaya Mountains. Large, deep red tomatoes weigh about 12 ounces and have a high-quality, intense tomato flavor. Plants bear well even in cooler weather and mature earlier than most large-fruited types. Rich, intense, tangy old-fashioned tomato flavor!

RED PENNA--A great tasting red in the 14-20oz range, with a nice acidy old fashioned bite.

YUGOSLAVIAN--75-80 DAYS--A great yet unusual tomato. Deep pink almost plum-shaped to pear-shaped fruits, some doubles, produced all season for me. Wonderful aroma when cut open, and great taste too! A slight bit of hollowness on some, but juicier than a paste type tomato. 4-6oz fruits about 2½ inches by 3 inches, the doubles were up to 4 inches wide. Was great, my favorite sliced on white pizza all season long.

If you need more just ask...

Mark

Sheesh Mark, you know that many that you list I've also grown and I guess taste really is personal and has a genetic association b'c many you list I would never say had a strong, assertive taste.

So be it. LOL

Carolyn

I based my post on these things/words:

intense
strong
acidic
tomatoey
tangy
old fashioned
...etc...

Yes, there are some that are even sweet, but it had to be something listed above too. Plus I didn't even really consider assertive, some of which you listed... but then some think Green Zebra may be assertive too.

I think another thing is smell/aroma--many listed you just make one slice into it and the aroma alone tingles your tastebuds, you just know you have something great even before it hits your mouth!

Like they say..."Your mileage may vary..." lol

Korney's Jelly Bean 60-65 DAYS- Lycopersicon Pimpinellifolium. A selection from Spoon, (a tiny currant-type,) but bigger. RAMPANT INDET. Sweet & tart pea-size to dime-size fruits, bursting with flavor, best when eaten fully ripe. More tomatoey tasting than Spoon. Bushy wide plant, try to cage & force to grow vertically, extremely productive. Will often grow as oval jelly bean shaped fruits early on the plant with upper fruits sometimes rounder.

Mark dear, would you please amend your description to add:
FREAKIN RESEEDING NIGHTMARE.

I also like the little-leaf foliage ;-)

Kindly,

T

PS....Hubs loved these, I would bring in a bowl from the garden and he would eat them like, well, jellybeans! Hard to resist.

I'm VERY impressed with Marianna's Peace, one of the two big winners I have grown this year. (The other one was Burgundy Traveler). In particular, though, with the Marianna's, it was TART, and I mean the good kind of tart. Not overpowering but definitely very lively. The first one would have been fantastic on a sandwich, but we ended up scarfing it down standing up. #2 and #3 are sitting on the windowsill. I would definitely grow it again next year if I had the space or if there weren't so many other interesting tomatoes I still need to try. It's a bit of a pain to grow because it was very slow to pollinate (I ended up doing it by hand) and about a month slower to maturity.

I tried growing Druzba, which has a reputation as being acidy, and I can't say that I was nearly as impressed with it. It produced big beautiful red tomatoes, 10-12 ounces in size, it was and is EXTREMELY productive, and it seems to be more resistant to the blight or whatever is wiping out my other bushes, but the flavor was only so/so. Maybe a little less sweet than a regular home garden tomato. The neighbors love it, so they're getting lots of them.

I tried growing Druzba, which has a reputation as being acidy

*****

Whoa, that's the first time I've ever heard of Druzba being referred to as acidy ( meaning an assertive taste, not reallt high pH).

I got that variety in a trade with a Frenchman back in 1992 and have grown it many times since then, and see it as a reliable, high producing variety with very good taste which I described in my book as being robust, but to me that doesn't mean assertive with that old timey tomato taste that so many look for.

As always, the darn mileage varies from one person to another on almost all varieties. LOL

Carolyn

I want to throw out Sungold as having great flavor. It is only a cherry tomato. I ate mine on 4th of july and it had been very dry for weeks and I never watered. so the flavor was concentrated. But I thought the flavor was excellent.

Carolyn can you comment on the type of flavor in SunGold, I am sure you must have tasted it for sure. It is very popular. But then it is a modern hybrid. so maybe you never grew it but I would suspect you might have tasted one that was grown by someone else.

One of the things I have been looking for is an open polinated variety that has a very strong tomato flavor with lots of acid...

billyjobob, try a red or pink heart-shaped variety for intense tomato flavor. Maybe not be compliant with your desired bitingly 'acidic' spec. But for concentrated tomato flavor, many of them are tuff to beat.

Reg

Thanks for your suggestions everyone. Strangely enough, many of the tomato varieties you listed I have not grown yet. So, I guess I need to get busy!

Some that I have grown include (partial list):

COSTOLUTO GENOVESE (growing now)
COSTOLUTO FIORENTINO (growing now)
BLACK RUFFLES (growing very soon)
Cherokee Chocolate (growing now)
Eva Purple Ball
Florida Pink
German Johnson
Green Zebra
Homestead 24
Mexico (growing now)
Mortgage Lifter, Radiator Charlies
Mule Team
Super Sioux
Tropic
Arkansas Traveler
Black from Tula
Box Car Willie
Brandywine, Sudduth's Strain(did not make it in FL climate)
Flora-Dade
Mortgage Lifter
Rutgers
Caspian Pink
Others.......

So.....what I take away from all this is to just keep trying different varieties and see what strikes my fancy. Given that I live on the east coast, I have to do a lot of container gardening using 40-60 gallon pots. How I long for the days (of my childhood) back in Alabama where I had lots of garden space to grow anything I wanted. Now, I am limited to four to eight large pots sitting back on the sea wall by my canal. On the bright side, I can grow all year round so I get to try lots of varieties and cull anything that does not measure up and replant with something new.

Once again, thanks for your suggestions, time and attention. Any other ideas will be as welcome as the previous ones!

Steve

Carolyn can you comment on the type of flavor in SunGold, I am sure you must have tasted it for sure. It is very popular. But then it is a modern hybrid. so maybe you never grew it but I would suspect you might have tasted one that was grown by someone else.

****

I grow both OP's ( mostly) and hybrids, or used to before I fell in Dec of 2004 and severed all four of the quad muscles in my right leg.

I think Sungold tastes like candy, very sweet, somewhat fruity, and not a lot of depth of flavor.

Fact is, I used to grow it every year b'c it comes in early for me, is prolific, and there's nothing wrong with a bit of tomato candy, now is there? LOL

Carolyn

Carolyn said: "Whoa, that's the first time I've ever heard of Druzba being referred to as acidy ( meaning an assertive taste, not reallt high pH)."

Ah, you're right. Chalk it up to a reading comprehension prob on my part. I went a-googling for the thread that led me to believe that but can't find it. Anyway, I had been expecting it for months to be "the tart one" of the tomatoes I was growing, so my disappointment was solely based on that.

As a productive and beautiful and easy to grow tomato, though, it is excellent, but just not something to give you a spiritual awakening.

Since many of my other favorites have been discussed above, I will name a few others that have been excellent for me.

Crnkovic Yugoslavian - very good and very assertive flavor, medium production, but does take the heat better than most. This variety sets the occasional JUMBO fruit. I've grown 3 and 4 pounders without even trying.

Cuostralee - A pretty decent large red tomato though it is a bit more on the balanced side flavorwise.

Andrew Raharts Jumbo Red - This one has outstandingly good flavor but does not stand up to nematodes or high heat very well.

Daniels - This is a large pink potato leaf variety that is at least as good as and sometimes better than Brandywine. It is consistently productive and relatively tolerant to disease in my Alabama garden. I would rate the flavor as balanced with a bit of a leaning toward the intense side. The best part is that it is productive even in locations where Brandywine is not.

Omar's Lebanese - Jumbo fruit and moderate production of good flavored tomatoes. This one is not as intense as some of the others but it is consistently in the good to very good category.

Zogola - Another large red tomato that Carolyn can comment further about. This one distinctly changes flavor as a result of temperature. I've picked them after several 90+ days and they were excellent. When the temp goes below 85, they are not quite as good. Note that this variety is not noticeably heat tolerant in terms of production, it just changes flavor more than most as the temp rises.

I like Galina for a pretty good flavored yellow/gold cherry tomato. Besser is a good red cherry and Riesentraube is a rather unique small nippled tomato with intense flavor.

Fusion

Try Sioux. It tolerates heat, and is one of my favorite reds. Strong and tangy to my tastes, and that's how I like them too. Black and purple tomatoes are my favorites for that reason alone, so I'd experiment with at least a few of those too. Good luck!

AH ! this is a vantage thread (2007) revived. Probably the the OP (original opening poster ) is no longer is looking for suggestions, nor he/she is around here.

Now that we are at it, , I was thinking about Silvery Fir Tree. Carolyn already has mentioned it. It is also a good suiter for FL with two short seasons.

1) it is very early. and fairy productive for its size and features.

2) it is determinant. So it sett fruits in flushes, mostly done after the first flush.

3) It is very compact ( about 2ft tall).. Can grow it in 4-6 gallon container.

4) It is ornamental with beautiful carrot-like top. Very unique .

5) last but not least it has acidic taste.

BTW: I am growing it myself. Have grown it for 4 years. That shows that I also like old fashion strong tomato taste .

Sey