This may end up being too long to make sense or too much information, but this morning I went through my journals and came up with this idea. From the start of my "discovery" of heirloom/OP tomatoes in 1999, every year the best tasting varieties were noted. So the list will indicate that year's best. Some varieties show up most years but those will only be mentioned once, the first year on the list. So, year-variety-color.
1999: Caspian Pink-pink, Cherokee Purple-black,Old Flame-bi-color.
no records kept 2000, 2001
2002: Kellogg's Breakfast-orange, Large Pink Bulgarian-pink, Cuostralee-red, Russian 117-red, Brandywine (sudduth)-pink.
2003: Omar's Lebanese-pink, Marianna's Peace-pink, Aunt Gerties Gold-yellow, Stump of the World-pink, Sandul Moldovan-pink, KBX-orange.
2004: Crnkovic Yugoslavian-pink, Neve's Azorian Red, Lillian's Yellow Heirloom.
2005: Kelleher's Oxheart-red, German Red Strawberry, German Head-pink, Heatherington Pink.
2006: Giant Syrian-pink, Soldacki-pink, Drxuzba-Red, Carbon-black, Kosovo-pink, Zogaola-Red.
2007: Tom's Yellow Wonder, Earl's Faux-pink, Wes-red, Red Penna, Fox Cherry-red.
2008: Reif Red Heart,Obeyer's German-red, Zore's Big Red, Julies Red Oxheart, Couer De Valours-red, Sylvan Guame-red, Eagle's Beak-pink, Nicky Crain-pink, Orange Russian #117-bi-color, Black Cherry.
2009: Mexican Yellow, Rosella Giant-red dwarf, Italian Purple-pink, Joe's Portuguese-pink, Russian Bogytar-red, Giant Belgium-pink, Tidwell German-pink.
2010: Tasmanian Chocolate-black dwarf, Old Brooks-red, Cherokee Chocolate-black, Butter and Bull Heart-pink, Large Pink Bulgarian, Hillbilly-bi-color.
2011: G.G.'s Yellow Bulgarian, Emma Pink, BL-8 Magnum-red, Willows Bulgarian-pink, Paul' Pink Pride, Aunt Lou's Underground Railroad-pink, Nolan Boy's Russian-red.
2012: Dwarf Purple Heart-black, Joe's Pink Oxheart, Ambrosia Red Cherry, Italian Sweet-pink.
2013: Helen's German-pink, West Virginia Straw-pink, Delicious-red, Church-pink, Volovie Ukho-pink, Cowlick's Brandywine-pink, Glazer's Giant-pink, Red Butter Heart.
2014: Sweetheart-pink, Hungarian Heart-pink, Rebel Yell-pink, Lee's Sweet-pink, Brandy Fred-black dwarf.
2015: Pink Cadillac, Red Barn, Bear Claw-pink, Ludmilla's Pink Heart, Lescana Yugoslavian Heart-pink, Lennie and Gracie's Yellow Kentucky Heirloom, Amana Pink, Kolb-pink, Korol London-pink, Debbie-red, Blue Ridge Mountain-pink, Heshpole-pink, Bear Creek-black, 1884-pink, Goliath-pink, Zeke Dishpan-red, Zade Wilson-pink.
2016: Virginia Sweets-bi-color, Mortgage Lifter-red, Emmy-yellow, Dixie Golden Giant.
My favorites tend to be sweet, big tomatoes, heavy on the heart shaped varieties. I love pink hearts, red hearts and black varieties. I am not much on pastes or cherries. My wife says Black Cherry and Ambrosia Cherries are the best.
