Tonadose Des Conores: Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2007

Part of Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2007

I can’t remember what prompted me to buy these. It could have been the word ‘Endangered’ in the description.

At first, I was a bit dismayed at how many cherry tomatoes I inadvertently planted in my garden. Most of it came from the fact that the surviving plants from my soil disaster were cherry tomato plants. But after I thought about it, I figured this was a chance to find a cherry tomato I really like.

Who knows, maybe Tonadose is that tomato.

The description from the company I bought it from reads:

An endangered heirloom cherry tomato from France, the very red fruit have an orange tinge inside and a long, lingering flavor. Productive vines produce loads of these tiny jewels that seem to melt in your mouth.

The Beauty Pageant:

Size: This tomato is on the small size for a cherry tomato, but not pea size small. These are about the size of shooter marbles.

Shape: Tidy and round. For a side note, I read on another seed site that these were particularly shiney tomatoes. After reading that, I did notice that these were shinier than the two other full size tomatoes I picked today.

The inside: Small seeds surrounding a nice size core. Slightly orangish color.

Texture: Juicy and a little mealy. But the juiciness does not feel “seedy”.

Tasting:

Off the Vine Tasting: At first you are struck by a rather intense true tomato flavor. This fades quickly to a sweeter typical cherry tomato flavor. To tell you the truth, I am reminded of a gummy candy called Gushers, where the gummy had some liquid candy in the middle. They are right about the lingering flavor though. The flavor really sticks around.

Sliced and Salted Tasting: Salt makes these much sweeter so they taste more like what I would expect a cherry tomato to taste like.

Cooking Thoughts: Gosh, hate to sound like a broken record, but these would be nice on a salad or as an appetizer. For myself, I could see these being pretty nice “weeding the garden, munching tomatoes” as they are not as sweet as the typical cherry tomato at first taste.

Growing Notes:
This was one I grew from seed. The plant is smallish but healthy. Again, I read that this is a typically small tomato plant. So this might be good for someone with limited space. I think that a critter has been stealing tomatoes from the lower branches though. There are bracts where it looks like a full frown tomato was but someone plucked them before I got there. I wouldn’t say that it is the most prolific of the cherry tomatoes I have in my garden, but not a bad production yield (if the green tomatoes are an indicator)

Will Hanna grow this one again:
Probably not. Nice flavor, but I am just not a big cherry tomato fan.