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—not less than for me—than the tomato. When the final frost date lastly passes, I sit up for digging my palms 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 making 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 properly, together with Sungold, Sugar Rush, and chocolate cherry tomatoes. I’ve at all times seen the little tomatoes I get from the grocery retailer, although, are labeled as “grape” tomatoes, and I questioned: Was there any distinction between grape tomatoes and the cherry tomatoes I used to be extra accustomed to?

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

How Cherry Tomatoes and Grape Tomatoes Are Totally different

To know the important thing variations between cherry and grape tomatoes, we first want to grasp extra about tomatoes basically. Botanically talking, tomatoes are thought of 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 kind of berry that belongs to the genus Solanum, which is the biggest genus throughout the plant household Solanaceae. These crops are generally known as nightshades, and the bigger plant household consists of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and potatoes. 

LeHoullier defined to me that tomatoes, that are native to South America—most definitely present day Peru and Ecuador—are hundreds of years outdated and, like many crops we get pleasure from in the present day, grew wild earlier than earlier civilizations cultivated them for consumption. Historical peoples domesticated and selectively bred historic tomatoes for the most effective taste. Historical wild tomatoes resembled in the present day’s cherry tomatoes in dimension, form, and colours, showing in pink, yellow, orange, and probably different hues as properly. There are nonetheless wild tomatoes that develop within the Andes mountains in the present day, although because of their barely smaller dimension and muted taste, they aren’t a well-liked ingredient. 

In comparison with cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes are extraordinarily latest on the culinary scene within the US. “Grape tomatoes actually did not seem till the Nineteen 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, received a seed packet from his friend, a Taiwanese plant breeder, that America realized of the grape tomato. Chu’s good friend 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 styles of grape tomatoes from world wide that each originated from this preliminary class of grape tomatoes and have had the largest maintain on the grape tomato market ever since: Santa and Juliet grape tomatoes.

LeHoullier attributes the grape tomato’s reputation within the US not less than partially to its sweetness and sturdy 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 dwelling, and assume, ‘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 vital methods. Right here’s a breakdown of how they examine side-by-side.

Look: The traditional pink cherry tomato is petite and spherical, much like its namesake cherry. Grape tomatoes, then again, 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 pink, yellow, orange, purple, striped, and extra. Though grape tomatoes nowadays can typically be present in yellow and orange, too, pink continues to be the commonest. 

Taste: Each cherry and grape tomatoes are beloved for his or her candy, acidic taste. Grape tomatoes, nonetheless, sometimes have the next sugar content material and are subsequently sweeter than many cherry tomatoes. That mentioned, 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, dwelling cooks, and gardeners, together with LeHoullier, due to its intense sweetness and deep, wealthy taste.

Texture: Cherry tomatoes are rounder, plumper, and a bit juicier than grape tomatoes. This is because of a number of components. One consideration is how a lot locular gel—the jelly-like substance that comprises the seeds—there may be relative to the quantity of inside 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 inside area for locular gel, which is the only juiciest component of a tomato apart from juices saved throughout 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 worried, each tomatoes are sometimes simple and fruitful endeavors for dwelling gardeners. “The most effective issues about cherry and grape tomatoes is that they open the flexibleness of a gardener as much as lower than good rising situations, they usually do properly in containers,” says LeHoullier. “For example you have received 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 rather more latest of a growth grape tomatoes are than cherry tomatoes, the 2 varieties are largely interchangeable.

“I’d say using cherry tomatoes and grape tomatoes can most likely be related,” says LeHoullier. “If folks 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 bit after which put them in pasta, the flavour simply pops out.” Cooks spoiled with an abundance of cherry or grape tomatoes also can make a quick pasta sauce, or preserve them as tomato jam to savor their taste through the chilly months. 

“I’d general say I’ve most popular extra cherry tomatoes I’ve met in my life than grape (generalizing very broadly right here given the variety of completely different varieties), however from a sensible standpoint, I take into account them kind of interchangeable,” says Critical Eats editorial director Daniel Gritzer. “Provided 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 larger 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 end result, as grape tomatoes are sometimes even sweeter than cherry tomatoes and comprise much less liquid. To maximise yield in sauces, cherry tomatoes could also be higher suited. Grape tomatoes, then again, will maintain their form higher and launch fewer juices when roasted, which is good for protecting oven dishes flavorful with out having an excessive amount of liquid accumulate within the pan.

Maybe probably 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 typical knife. Cherry tomatoes, then again, are extra prone to dropping their form or bursting below the stress, particularly if the knife is uninteresting. Nonetheless, cherry tomatoes supply extra choices for a variety of flavors, like juicy, tangy Sungolds and smoky, earthy chocolate cherry tomatoes—they usually supply extra colourful decisions by way of 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 house fireplace escape. Nonetheless, cherry tomatoes present extra choices, each by way of look and taste, than grape tomatoes. The latter, then again, is a bit sturdier and sometimes sweeter than many cherry tomatoes, particularly those you will discover at a grocery retailer. Both might be simply swapped for the opposite, so it in the end comes right down to what you need your summer time to style like.