Cherry vs. Grape Tomatoes: What is the Distinction?

Candy, acidic, and bursting with taste, there’s maybe no different sort of produce extra emblematic of summer time—a minimum of for me—than the tomato. When the final frost date lastly passes, I sit up for digging my arms into the dormant raised backyard beds in my yard and breaking apart the hardened soil that’s weathered the lengthy and hostile Midwestern winter. After getting ready each mattress and convincing myself every is able to develop a wholesome summer time crop once more, the primary crops within the floor are, with out query, tomatoes.

I’ve at all times planted traditional beefsteak tomatoes in my backyard, however for the previous few years, I’ve satisfied my household to develop an abundance of cherry tomatoes as effectively, together with Sungold, Sugar Rush, and chocolate cherry tomatoes. I’ve at all times observed the little tomatoes I get from the grocery retailer, although, are labeled as “grape” tomatoes, and I puzzled: Was there any distinction between grape tomatoes and the cherry tomatoes I used to be extra acquainted with?

To study extra concerning the variations between cherry and grape tomatoes and to dive into the perfect makes use of for every, I reached out to tomato skilled and gardening writer Craig LeHoullier, whose ebook Epic Tomatoes is now in its seventh printing with greater than 80,000 copies in print.

How Cherry Tomatoes and Grape Tomatoes Are Completely different

To know the important thing variations between cherry and grape tomatoes, we first want to know extra about tomatoes generally. Botanically talking, tomatoes are thought-about fruits, that are outlined because the fleshy a part of a flowering plant that envelops one or a number of seeds. For that reason, botanists take into account tomatoes a sort of berry that belongs to the genus Solanum, which is the biggest genus inside the plant household Solanaceae. These crops are generally known as nightshades, and the bigger plant household contains tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and potatoes. 

LeHoullier defined to me that tomatoes, that are native to South America—more than likely current day Peru and Ecuador—are hundreds of years previous and, like many crops we get pleasure from as we speak, grew wild earlier than earlier civilizations cultivated them for consumption. Historical peoples domesticated and selectively bred historic tomatoes for the perfect taste. Historical wild tomatoes resembled as we speak’s cherry tomatoes in measurement, form, and colours, showing in purple, yellow, orange, and presumably different hues as effectively. There are nonetheless wild tomatoes that develop within the Andes mountains as we speak, although resulting from their barely smaller measurement and muted taste, they aren’t a preferred ingredient. 

In comparison with cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes are extraordinarily current on the culinary scene within the US. “Grape tomatoes actually did not seem till the Nineties,” says LeHoullier. They made their international look first in mainland China and earlier than hitting the American market shortly afterwards. It was solely after Andrew Chu, proprietor of the self-named Chu Farms in Wimauma, Florida, acquired a seed packet from his pal, a Taiwanese plant breeder, that America realized of the grape tomato. Chu’s pal challenged him to develop the grape tomato on his Florida farm, which Chu did to an astounding success. The grape tomato selection Chu first planted was the Santa. In keeping with LeHoullier, there have been two forms of grape tomatoes from all over the world that each originated from this preliminary class of grape tomatoes and have had the most important maintain on the grape tomato market ever since: Santa and Juliet grape tomatoes.

LeHoullier attributes the grape tomato’s reputation within the US a minimum of partially to its sweetness and strong taste, particularly when in comparison with globe tomatoes—the usual, baseball-sized tomatoes most individuals discover on the grocery retailer. “People who find themselves sick of tasting bland, tasteless tomatoes will purchase a pack of grape tomatoes, take them residence, and suppose, ‘Wow, it’s fairly candy. They’re fairly good,’” says LeHouillier.

Cherry tomatoes and grape tomatoes share a number of key similarities, however are distinct in necessary methods. Right here’s a breakdown of how they examine side-by-side.

Look: The traditional purple cherry tomato is petite and spherical, just like its namesake cherry. Grape tomatoes, alternatively, are rectangular and oval. Since cherry tomatoes are hundreds of years older than their youthful grape tomato cousins, there are extra varieties that sport an array of tomato pores and skin colours, together with purple, yellow, orange, purple, striped, and extra. Though grape tomatoes today can typically be present in yellow and orange, too, purple remains to be the commonest. 

Taste: Each cherry and grape tomatoes are beloved for his or her candy, acidic taste. Grape tomatoes, nevertheless, usually have the next sugar content material and are due to this fact sweeter than many cherry tomatoes. That stated, since cherry tomatoes have been round for much longer and have been selectively bred for various traits, there are some extremely candy cherry tomatoes. For instance, the Sungold is a favourite amongst cooks, residence cooks, and gardeners, together with LeHoullier, due to its intense sweetness and deep, wealthy taste.

Texture: Cherry tomatoes are rounder, plumper, and a bit of juicier than grape tomatoes. This is because of a number of elements. One consideration is how a lot locular gel—the jelly-like substance that accommodates the seeds—there may be relative to the quantity of inner flesh of the tomato. One other is the volumetric capability of cherry tomatoes, that are spheres, in comparison with grape tomatoes, that are ellipses; the elongated form of grape tomatoes reduces the general inner house for locular gel, which is the one juiciest ingredient of a tomato moreover juices saved inside the flesh itself. Grape tomatoes even have a thicker pores and skin than cherry tomatoes, which contributes to their longer shelf life. 

Cultivation: So far as cultivation is anxious, each tomatoes are usually simple and fruitful endeavors for residence gardeners. “Among the best issues about cherry and grape tomatoes is that they open the flexibleness of a gardener as much as lower than excellent rising situations, they usually do effectively in containers,” says LeHoullier. “For instance you’ve got bought a deck and also you solely get three hours of solar. Develop it in a 5 gallon pot, maintain it fed and watered, and you will have good, scrumptious, fresh-tasting tomatoes proper out your again door.”

Does It Matter Which Tomato You Use?

Regardless of how far more current of a improvement grape tomatoes are than cherry tomatoes, the 2 varieties are largely interchangeable.

“I might say using cherry tomatoes and grape tomatoes can most likely be comparable,” says LeHoullier. “If individuals both eat them off the vine or within the backyard, or they blister them, or sauté them in olive oil till the pores and skin chars a bit of bit after which put them in pasta, the flavour simply pops out.” Cooks spoiled with an abundance of cherry or grape tomatoes may also make a fast pasta sauce, or protect them as tomato jam to savor their taste throughout the chilly months. 

Tomato Sauces

Quick and Straightforward Pasta With Blistered Cherry Tomato Sauce

cook dinner time:


25 minutes

serves:


4
to six

“I might general say I’ve most well-liked extra cherry tomatoes I’ve met in my life than grape (generalizing very broadly right here given the variety of totally different varieties), however from a sensible standpoint, I take into account them roughly interchangeable,” says Critical Eats editorial director Daniel Gritzer. “On condition that cherry tomatoes have a tendency in the direction of being seedier and juicier, I feel they’re a greater wager if you wish to do one thing like a burst-tomato pasta sauce, since they’re going to break down extra rapidly and launch extra juices than most grape tomatoes.”  

Culinary editor Genevieve Yam echoes Daniel’s sentiments, noting her favourite number of cherry tomatoes are Sungolds. “They’re candy and tangy, making them a flexible tomato for having fun with uncooked or cooked.” 

Each cherry and grape tomatoes are sweeter than traditional globe tomatoes, and in addition increased in pectin, so swapping both of the small tomatoes in for globe tomatoes will yield a sweeter and thicker remaining product. Between the 2 smaller tomatoes themselves, grape tomatoes will produce the sweetest and thickest consequence, as grape tomatoes are usually even sweeter than cherry tomatoes and comprise much less liquid. To maximise yield in sauces, cherry tomatoes could also be higher suited. Grape tomatoes, alternatively, will maintain their form higher and launch fewer juices when roasted, which is right for conserving oven dishes flavorful with out having an excessive amount of liquid accumulate within the pan.

Maybe essentially the most noticeable distinction between the 2 varieties of tomatoes within the kitchen could be when slicing them. Since grape tomatoes are firmer and barely much less juicy than cherry tomatoes, they have a tendency to carry up higher below the common knife. Cherry tomatoes, alternatively, are extra vulnerable to dropping their form or bursting below the stress, particularly if the knife is uninteresting. Nonetheless, cherry tomatoes supply extra choices for a range of flavors, like juicy, tangy Sungolds and smoky, earthy chocolate cherry tomatoes—they usually supply extra colourful decisions when it comes to presentation, together with inexperienced, purple, pink, gold, black, and striped variations.

The Takeaway

Each cherry and grape tomatoes are scrumptious and simple to domesticate in a house backyard, and even an residence hearth escape. Nonetheless, cherry tomatoes present extra choices, each when it comes to look and taste, than grape tomatoes. The latter, alternatively, is a bit of sturdier and usually sweeter than many cherry tomatoes, particularly those you may discover at a grocery retailer. Both may be simply swapped for the opposite, so it finally comes right down to what you need your summer time to style like.