White Currant Tomato: Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2008

Part of Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2008

This little tomato here has the unique distinction of being the very first tomato that I will eat from my garden. To be honest, I am really hoping it is not a good tomato as these will be the only tomatoes I will probably get from this plant and I will be pissed if it is a good tomato.

The plant is suffering severely from wilt and is near dead. These 3 little tomatoes were all it could give in its short lifetime. And it was my own fault. I planted this plant in a bed I knew had wilt. A funny thing happened this year. I grew and ordered the tomatoes I knew I had room for. But, because people know I do these reviews, they started to give me other tomato plants as well. I ran out of clean beds and this little plant, despite being a gift, went into the only spot left in the vegetable bed that was open. It is now suffering the consequences.

The description from the company I got it from reads:

They are another wild type with tiny shape and lots of tomato flavor that has a sweet, tangy flavor as its name suits it well. This is another heirloom that will re-seed itself if you plant it where you can identify its “volunteers” later. Indet.

The Beauty Pageant:

Size: Teeny tiny tiny. I think that there should be a new classification of tomatoes and that is the uber-cherry. This tomato fits in that category.

Shape:Round and a bit bigger than a pea. While the name says that these are white tomatoes, their color is pretty solidly yellow.

The inside: Tiny cherry can’t help but be seedy and this is not an exception. That being said, the seeds are some of the smallest I have ever seen in a tomato. Thin walls and small core. What else can you expect when they are this small?

Texture: They have the typical cherry gush and pop when you bite into them. The seeds are small enough and the tomato is small enough that you don’t feel that your mouth is full of seeds though.

Tasting:

Off the Vine Tasting: Surprising for what is billed as a white tomato. Whites tend to be bland and this little one is not. The juice is very tangy and is quickly follow up by a sweet flavor from the meat. The flavor dissipates quickly because the tomato is so small.

Sliced and Salted Tasting: Salt just kills the flavor. It evens everything out rather than heightening it. You lose the tangy/sweet mix and just have bleh.

Cooking Thoughts: You could not cook these. Way too small. They would be good in a salad but only if you did not have a salty cheese on the salad. One thing I could see using these for is to put out a bowl of them like they are peanuts at a party. These would allow people to taste them without having the opportunity to ruin the flavor with the traditional tomato salting.

Growing Notes:
As mentioned, this plant is sick and dying so I cannot say to much on how it is growing. It succumbed to wilt incredibly fast.

Will Hanna grow this one again:
Damn it, I do want to. Not fair to have such a small sample. I would like to grow this one again in a non-infected space so that I could have a bowl full at a party.