Golden Pearl: Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2007

Part of Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2007

This was one of the “Oh My God I killed almost everything” plants that I bought on eBay. I bought it based purely on the name. Golden Pearl sounded like it could be interesting.

The description from the company I bought it from reads:

Tiny golden pea size cherries grow in clusters and are so sweet and fruity. Super salad topper. Indeterminate, 60 days.

The Beauty Pageant:

Size: This tomato is the size of small marbles.

Shape: Round and shapely. Darn cute to look at.

The inside: These tomatoes have a very thin wall for such a small tomato and very large seeds. There is no meat in the tomato to speak of.

Texture: All you feel is a pop and then the seeds. Since these tomatoes are basically just skin and seeds, this is not surprising. I, myself, am not too keen on the texture of this tomato.

Tasting:

Off the Vine Tasting: A very tangy tomato. I would not characterize them as being sweet, but I can see the fruity. It is a citrus-like fruitiness.

Sliced and Salted Tasting: Salt does sweeten this tomato some but still not enough where I would call this a sweet tomato. Salt subdues the citrusy flavor, so I don’t think this tomato benefits from salt.

Cooking Thoughts: They are so small and full of seeds that trying to cook with them in any way would probably not turn out well. About the only thing I think your could use this in would be a salad. While I think the texture would detract from putting them on a salad, they would look very nice in the salad presentation.

Growing Notes:
This is being grown on strings. It is a medium size plant. For a cherry tomato, it is not producing as many blossoms (which become fruit) as I would think a cherry would. Obviously, since this is my first tasting of the year, this tomato is a early ripener. When I looked online, I read that these have a long season.

Will Hanna grow this one again:
No. These tomatoes just did not wow me. As stated, too seedy for such a tiny tomato.