Which Types of Tomato Are Sweet?

Sweet Cherry Tomatoes

• Cherry varieties are a tiny, decorative tomatoes bred to be especially sweet for eating out of hand. The smallest of them are no larger than a bean, while the larger varieties are as big as small salad tomatoes. Use these tiny tomatoes unsliced in dishes like salads, or pack in lunch containers for snacking. Prolific varieties of sweet cherry tomatoes include "Sweet Million" a crack-resistant hybrid improvement on the "Sweet 100" variety, featuring small red tomatoes growing in clusters and "Sun Gold," an intensely sweet cherry variety with an orange skin that dries well for storage. "Sun Gold" plants produce tomatoes from early on in the season until the first frosts appear.

Sweet Plum Tomatoes

• Versatile sweet plum tomatoes are eaten straight from the vine, sliced for salads or used for cooking in dishes featuring sauces. These sweet tomatoes feature a thick, fine-grained flesh with little pulp. They cook down into a smooth sauce very quickly and slice evenly. "Amish Paste" are deep red plum tomatoes with few seeds and little pulp. Use these versatile heirloom plants in cooked dishes, for making paste and canning, in salads and on sandwiches. This variety was developed by an Amish community located in Wisconsin; these tall plants need staking to support the heavy acorn- or heart-shaped tomatoes. Another plum variety, "Black Plum," produces sweet mahogany-colored tomatoes that darken as they ripen.

Sweet Salad Tomatoes

• Small and sweet salad tomatoes are juicy and delicious when served raw, either halved or quartered, but less suitable for cooked dishes, such as sauces, because their high ratio of pulp takes a long time to reduce. While salad tomatoes are not as versatile as the plum varieties, they are prized as some of the sweetest types of tomatoes. These include "Cherokee Purple-A," supposedly grown in the 1800s by the Native American Indian tribe they are named after. These colorful tomatoes features purplish-pink skin, brick red flesh and green pulp are short plants that require staking and produces fruit midseason. For more humid locations, try the "Moneymaker," also a staking variety.

Sweet Beefsteak Tomatoes

• Beefsteak are the biggest variety of tomato; their large size and low percentage of pulp makes them equally suitable for making sandwiches, burgers or cooking. "Marvel Stripe" is a sweet beefsteak variety from Oaxaca, Mexico, that requires staking in order to support the weight of these huge tomatoes. Marvel plants produce big heart-shaped tomatoes with thin orange and yellow skins and yellow and pink flesh; they're a very juicy, vigorous variety. These plants regularly produce yield tomatoes weighing 1 lb.; 2 lb. examples are not unusual.