Anyone? Surprised more interest in sweet peppers:)

My homemade salsa with ripe cherry tom's & ripe red peppers an a couple jalapenos is amazing. Everyone that tries it says its the best they ever had. Looking to try some new items this year and trying to narrow it down.

Getting ready to order from Burpee - going to try sungold tomatoes, maybe 1 more...............

If you've not tried Sungold yet you should be very happy with them. I'm not a big fan of cherry tomatoes but it's the only cherry tomato I grow. The only drawback is that it splits easily when ripe and it rains, but I prefer their thin skins and very sweet flavor. Pink BWs are my top choice for sweet large tomatoes.

One assessment (there are many) ... https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/five-sweetest-tomato-varieties/

Interesting that with regard to brix, cherries are the highest. I have to assume that it depends on the growing conditions as well.

I'll second the Sungold recommendation! The only tomato I bother growing. Sweeter than sweet - like tomato candy.

I like Sweet Million and Sweet 100's -- they are interchangeable to me. Sungold are good, too.

Thanks! I read last year that you do not have to wait for tomatoes to ripen once they start to turn color you can pick them with no loss in sweetness vs. waiting from them to ripen on the vine. I find this hard to believe. This solves cracking issues, which I also have.

"...they start to turn color you can pick them with no loss in sweetness vs. waiting from them to ripen on the vine."

I also find this hard to believe. Tomatoes will ripen off the vine, but they're not going to be nearly as sweet. Plants store excess energy in the form of carbohydrate (sugar) -- and that energy comes from light, CO2 and H2O. There are other environmental and genetic factors that come into play, of course, but as a general statement more sunlight = more photosynthesis = more energy stored = sweeter.

FWIW, I always look for 'sweet' in catalog descriptions - if it's not mentioned I presume it's not going to be very sweet. 'Good flavor' just isn't the same thing, IMPE.

Interestingly, there has been a LOAD of work on tomato flavor as a function of storage conditions. It seems that the sweetness (largely brix/TSS) actually increases a bit with storage time, of a few weeks, and starts to decrease thereafter. This is interpreted as continued ripening, especially tomatoes that are picked green or pink. Also very clearly, smaller tomatoes are sweeter.

I tend to have more issues with cracking, bugs etc from larger tomato's. I suspect they might take longer to go from grreen to fully ripe - thus more time to cack and have bug issues. It might also be because I get much fewer so I notice problems a lot more:)

It is also nice cherry tom's riped faster - I get to pick them sooner. I still grow some large tom's - when I am making a gallon of salsa it is quicker and easier to pick a few big toms' vs 100 cherry.