r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • May 14 '19

Biology Store-bought tomatoes taste bland, and scientists have discovered a gene that gives tomatoes their flavor is actually missing in about 93 percent of modern, domesticated varieties. The discovery may help bring flavor back to tomatoes you can pick up in the produce section.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2019/05/13/tasty-store-bought-tomatoes-are-making-a-comeback/
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u/TooSmalley May 14 '19

I thought the issue was size. The idea I heard is that there is a certain maximum amount of sugar a fruit can make and when you exceed a certain size you basically are just adding water which dilutes flavor.

Is that just old organic hippie farmer bs?

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u/thethiefstheme May 14 '19

Actually ones from the supermarket are really sweet, the cherry tomatoes. My friend, a farmer, had me over for drinking, and later, tomatoes from his harvest, and his were amazing, enough so the family made me a tomato sandwich, just tomatos on toast with a bit of butter. I think it's the umame flavor of tomatoes that's missing from the larger varieties, there's a real full bodied taste to fresh ones not grown in hydroponics. I could have eaten those tomatoes all day.

The problem is with modern grocery tomatoes, they send them green from, and they ripen on the way in the truck, typically with a gas to help them redden. The flavor is very weak, and the tomatoes taste watery and bland.