There's a long thread on it on tville started by Fred Hempel, the breeder.

Feedback from people who grew it starts on page 9 or so of the thread. Lots of info there.

According to Fred, the fruit are large, early for their size, bred specifically to have "clean" bottoms (few problems with catfacing, etc.), sweet and fruity in flavor, and somewhat prone to EB and Septoria. Growth habit is medium-large, 6 foot range or so, so not an out-of-control giant plant.

I haven't grown it yet but not because I don't think it's going to be a fine tomato. Sweet and fruity aren't necessarily my favorite type of tomato, so I haven't felt an urgency to grow it, but I do have family members who like those qualities, so I'll definitely grow it in future.

That's a great looking mater Barrie! I too am growing a couple Orange Jazz for the first time this season based on the reviews on TV. I just picked my first one on Monday. I think it is close to or may be the biggest tomato I have ever grown at a little over 27 oz. I am trying Texas Tomato food for the first time and so far it really seems to live up to the hype with larger plants, larger tomatoes, increased blooming and fruit set. It still needs another couple days to fully ripen so I haven't tasted it yet either.

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I am also growing a new to me variety called 'Black' that has really set a lot of large fruit. The 5 at the top of the picture totaled 4.75 lbs. Gonna try a couple on BLTs and in a tomato, cucumber, and basil salad. Seems to be less cracking than Black Krim or Cherokee Purple which are the only other blacks I have grown.

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<Someday I hope to be able to taste one.>

Barrie, is this because you're selling the marketably shaped ones and waiting for a non-marketable one to taste?

Yes, Gorbelly. I'm getting $2.50 each for my heirlooms and actually the 6 Orange Jazz were a steal because of their size.

I would like to taste them soon.

Thanks for the info.

what in the world, its your tomato and you're asking what it taste like? eating and tasting your own grown tomatoes is priceless. so you would rather make $2.50 for the tomato than to eat it? it's not meant to be rude, but i just don't get it.

Stevie - I think early tomatoes get a premium at market especially heirlooms (which Orange Jazz technically is not). Once everyone has a glut of tomatoes at the market the price usually comes down so Barrie can eat all he pleases then.

Yes, it's not that Barrie CAN'T. It's that it's better right now to get top value for them at market.

Actually, it's a testament to Orange Jazz that even the early fruit are so well formed that there are no uglies for the growers to enjoy early in the season. I imagine this will be an in-demand variety for market growers.

And early reports are that OJ is very early for its size. Early varieties tend to be smaller or boring looking. A relatively early large tomato with beautiful striping sounds like a real moneymaker to me.

< the 6 Orange Jazz were a steal because of their size.>

Are they at least recouping by attracting people to your stand? I would probably go out of my way to take a look at those beautiful big OJs.

My market stand does have somewhat of a following but I always want to draw more interest. I do want to accurately describe new varieties and for those which I haven't tasted yet myself that can be a challenge. I can only eat so many tomatoes but you must know the routine- I had three large tomatoes with "Picking damage" and I immediately gave them to my wife with instructions that I wanted a slice of each at the upcoming meal.

I picked an Orange Jazz over the weekend that tipped the scale at 2 lbs. 1 oz. I actually thought it was 2 tomatoes when I reached for it because it was back in the foliage. Only 1/2 of it had blushed and the other half was still green. It might have been from a fused bloom but it really doesn't look like it. I'll snap a picture in a few days when it fully ripens.

I've picked more OJ tomatoes from my plants and although followup tomatoes were smaller there is little doubt that this is a productive variety. I still have not tasted but thanks to responses here I'm able to describe it's flavor to others. Turns out that most people like "Sweet" & "Fruity". Thanks, Gorbelly, for the reference to breeder.

I tasted a couple bites when I was cutting my first one up to make some Annie's Salsa. Gorbelly described OJ perfectly. I've got 8 more since that first one and plan to try one on BLTs soon.

One thing I will have to somewhat disagree with Fred Hempel on is the clean bottoms. Of the 9 I have picked so far only 2 have had clean bottoms. To be fair, a couple of them were sitting on cage wire which can cause some disfiguring.

Bookmarking for next season. Six feet, sweet and fruity, early and if nice big bottoms, an added bonus! I like big butts and I cannot lie.

Orange Jazz doesn't appear to be a good keeper but then not many open pollinated types are IME especially the real sweet ones. The 2 pounder that I picked last weekend that was only 1/2 blushed has now fully ripened but the lobe that had already blushed when it was picked was getting soft/rotted already when I checked on it yesterday.