Saladette or Cocktail
 

I am noticing alot of interest, from restaurants, in tomatoes that are the next size up from cherry tomatoes.

I always call these "saladettes"

Others seem to call them "cocktail"

What do you call them? And what are your favorite tomatoes in this size class?

We had 3 tomatoes that made up most of our saladettes last year

1. Bellota. A new Orange/green football shaped variety that was consistently saladette for most of the season, and cherry sized at the very end.

2. Fuego Verde. A Plum-shaped green-when-ripe variety. Most of the fruits were larger than saladette early in the season. Then most were saladette near the end. In the middle we were putting these in saladette boxes and "medium" boxes.

3. A little red hybrid with yellow stripes. We made the cross thinking it would be a small beefsteak, but it turned out to be a ridiculously productive round saladette tomato. Perhaps the "mistake" of the summer.

So, clearly we could use a little color diversity in our saladette boxes!

Mmmmm! Saladette! My favourite size - but what do I know?

I'd love to hear more about your little red hybrid.

Linda

The little red hybrid was good. We are going to take a much closer look at it this year. It had very good shelf-life, so that makes it interesting too.

It started out kind of pinkish, and slowly ripened to red.

If saladette is your favorite size, you must have a favorite saladette!?!

I differentiate even between those two sizes. To me something like stupice and Juan flamme are saladettes golf ball size or bigger and large
cherries to me are either simply large cherries or cocktail size, up to maybe ping pong ball.
Two bite vs four perhaps
:) not that it matters so much I suppose, I like big cherries because they are meaty and easy pick and can taste more like a full size tomato. The KARMAs for example and this makes them different from many other cherries.
Some people really like small cherries with lots of seeds and gel and little flesh. There’s a tomato for everyone.
I think for myself I classify for round tomatoes.
Currant- cherry- large cherry/ cocktail- saladette- beefsteak S-M-L.
There may be a formal formula based on weight or diameter but I think visual size works for a gardener like myself.
KarenO

Faves:

Tania says that Blush is a saladette, so that is my number one!

Bulgarian Triumph is very tasty.

Moravsky Div is good for an "early".

Linda

For us, Blush goes into the saladette boxes, particularly early in the year, and sometimes into the cherry boxes (especially if we are short on cherries).

KARMA Pink is always Saladette size to me; never smaller than a ping pong ball - a favorite. I do not consider KP a cherry at all.

SunChocola is a very large cherry but still a cherry.

I think the bullet shaped ones are their own category - like your Maglia Rosa (which are larger for me this year and I'm loving that), Brad's Atomic Grape (take so long to ripen).

[QUOTE=Fred Hempel;721349]I am noticing alot of interest, from restaurants, in tomatoes that are the next size up from cherry tomatoes.

I always call these "saladettes"

Others seem to call them "cocktail"

What do you call them? And what are your favorite tomatoes in this size class?

We had 3 tomatoes that made up most of our saladettes last year

1. Bellota. A new Orange/green football shaped variety that was consistently saladette for most of the season, and cherry sized at the very end.

2. Fuego Verde. A Plum-shaped green-when-ripe variety. Most of the fruits were larger than saladette early in the season. Then most were saladette near the end. In the middle we were putting these in saladette boxes and "medium" boxes.

3. A little red hybrid with yellow stripes. We made the cross thinking it would be a small beefsteak, but it turned out to be a ridiculously productive round saladette tomato. Perhaps the "mistake" of the summer.

So, clearly we could use a little color diversity in our saladette boxes![/QUOTE]



Fred,


Have you asked the restaurants why their interest in saladette/cocktail tomatoes?



The color issue where the canvas of a larger tomato on a plate looks more impressive?



A prep issue where there's less time used to slice fewer saladettes rather than more cherries? I'm under the assumption that California restaurants slice each cherry tomato for salads. Otherwise, They stab it with their steely knives, But they just can't kill the beast, and there'd be salad dressed cherry tomatoes rolling all over the floors.:roll:


I call 'em saladettes ( the size likely more "medium" to you). And, from participants in the swap I host, they are the overall least requested size of tomato. Garden to table folks are clearly different than farm to restaurant table folks. With the ever-changing wants of the consumer, I hope you're able to stay one growing season ahead of the demand.

Saladette.
Black plumb and lime green salad are big winners where I live in this climate.
So called cherry tomatoes are what they are I can live with or without them.

Worth

Saladette

Juane Flamme and a Brad's Atomic Grape that has been throwing saladette shape/sized tomatoes.
I'm calling them Atomic Salad. I grew Mandarin from Kitazawa Seeds also, which is slightly larger than a saladette, a good tomato also.

Saladette. My favorite varieties tend to range in size, based upon weather during fruit set, from almost slicer size to jumbo cherries.

I like:
Bola Maciza (dark)
Bosque Blue Bumble Bee (pale yellow antho)
De Barao cherries, which are quite large
Aura (red PL)
Gribovski Gruntoyi 1180 has great red flavor but tough skins.
Brad's Atomic Grape

And Fred, all of your oblong Artisan cherries deserve a mention as well.

I love saladettes/cocktail tomatoes! Jaune Flamme, Pink Ping Pong, Nefertiti, and Kodiak Brown are a few of my faves. Pink Ping Pong is the most productive for me and can grow quite large, but the others weren't far behind in terms of yield. I'm looking for a green one and a red one (other than Stupice) for next year, so I might see if Green Zebra and Chinese Tea fit the bill. My parents really liked Chinese Tea, and a friend recommended Green Zebra. A white one would be good, too, but I don't know of any stellar varieties. (Super Snow White was surprisingly tasty, but it's a large cherry, not a saladette.) I have read good reviews of Matina, a PL variety, but haven't tried it yet.



I'll be interested to see what becomes of your "mistake," Fred! I'm also trying to develop a saladette -- it's a bee-cross from Brandywine, Sudduth's that I knew was wrong as a seedling (RL), but it looked so healthy that I found it a spot. So far, it's thrown purple and pink saladettes on RL plants, and small but early pink beefsteaks on PL plants. All taste good so far. I have a sneaking suspicion that the other "parent" was a black cherry tomato...



I've seen "cocktail" used on European sites (mostly German ones) to refer to saladettes, but I'm no expert on tomato labels!

Almost time to start taking notes...

Haven't seen any mention on this thread about Mountain Magic. It's on my grow list for 2019.

Wild Tiger. It's green with red & gold streaks, and it's delicious! Very strongly flavorful, sweet & tart together.