A Guide to Different Types of Tomatoes

Cherry tomatoes (or as we like to call them "nature's candy") are sweet enough to snack on straight from the vine! In fact, many people opt for this type of tomato to grow in their own backyard garden. They thrive in the summer, but cherry tomatoes can also be found year-round in most supermarkets. But you can also halve them for use in salads, skewer them whole onto kebabs for grilling, or slow roast them on a sheet pan for extra sweetness in your favorite pasta sauce. Look for cherry tomatoes that have tight skins and are bright in color: red, yellow, or even orange.

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Beefsteak tomatoes are extra large (or should we say beefy?) and often described as having a meaty, juicy texture that's mild in flavor. That's what makes them so great when cut into thick slices for a simple tomato sandwich or as a topping on burgers. Their high-water content means that these tomatoes are best eaten fresh, but you can also chop and cook them down into a sauce or blending into salsa. Summer is the ideal time to find good beefsteak tomatoes that are juicy and slightly sweet—especially since other times of the year they're often mealy and bland. Look for ones with shiny skins that are firm but slightly soft without feeling mushy.

You don't have to wait for a tomato to ripen to eat it! Just look at these gorgeous green (or unripe) tomatoes for example. They're characterized by their bright green color, firm texture, tart flavor which sets them apart from the sweeter red tomatoes found on this list. Though sometimes green tomatoes are purposely picked early, you'll find that green tomatoes are more often available in late summer when the tomatoes simply didn't get a chance to ripen before the season comes to an end. Southern fried green tomatoes are the most popular use. Their firm texture means they can stand up well to frying, but it also makes them ideal for pickling or turning into a crunchy relish.

Looking to make your own fresh tomato sauce? Plum tomatoes are the variety for you! Also known as Roma, these oval-shaped tomatoes are best known for their meaty texture and tangy flavor. They also have fewer seeds and thinner skins than most tomatoes which makes them a great candidate for slicing and using on sandwiches, roasting, or turning into tomato sauce. If you want to peel them before cooking, you'll have to prepare a pot of boiling water and an ice bath. Cut a small "X" on the bottom of the plum tomatoes, then gently boil for about 30 seconds, or until the skin starts to split. Transfer to a bowl filled with water and ice, then peel back the skins and they're ready.

These grocery store staples are oblong, grape-shaped tomatoes—hence their name! They are smaller than cherry tomatoes and tend to also be denser and meatier texturally. Their small size makes them great for snacking or adding to a quick and easy pasta salad.

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These beauties come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, but that's not all that's spectacular about them. As their name suggests, heirloom tomatoes are a variety that's been in cultivation for years—as in 50 to 100 years! They're only available during the summer, when tomatoes are meant to be in season, as heirlooms are grown through natural pollination. They're pricier and more fragile than their hybrid counterparts—the smooth-skinned, human-cultivated tomatoes found in supermarkets—but are prized for their taste.

Picture a standard, run of the mill grocery store tomato—that's actually a globe tomato, a round medium-sized tomato known for its thick skin, which makes it resilient and hearty. Mild in flavor, globe tomatoes are versatile and work well sliced fresh in a sandwich, finely chopped for salsa or cooked down into a sauce.

Tomatoes sold on the vine are grown in greenhouses and keeping them attached prolongs their shelf-life. Their quality of flavor is inconsistent and even at their best, vine-ripened tomatoes tend to be mild in flavor. They can be sliced for sandwiches and burger, chopped and added to salad, or cooked down into a sauce.

San Marzano tomatoes are a type of plum tomato that's prized for its sweet flavor and meaty flesh. Compared to your average plum tomatoes, they're longer and thinner. They're also low in acid making them a great choice for tomato sauces like homemade marinara. San Marzano tomatoes may be named for a region in Italy, but today, they're grown outside of Italy, too—even in the United States! If you can't find them fresh in grocery stores, you can typically find them canned.

Black and purple tomatoes may not be as common as red, green, and yellow varieties, but these dark-hued varieties have a certain earthy richness that is downright delicious. There are several heirloom varieties that produce purple or black tomatoes, one being the popular Cherokee Purple, a large round tomato that makes a great slicer for sandwiches.

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Think of the cocktail tomato as a slightly larger cherry tomato. In fact, you can use cocktail tomatoes in any recipes that call for cherry tomatoes! You may be familiar with a particular type of cocktail tomato called the Campari tomato. These golf ball-sized fruits are so sweet they hardly need any preparation. You can just halve them and toss them right into a salad, but this variety also takes heat well. Try roasting them with parmesan and herbs or using them in delicate sauces.

Named for their oblong shape, these tiny morsels are similar to cherry and grape tomatoes in flavor—sweet, tangy, and bursting with juiciness. Sometimes they're red and other times orange or yellow. Toss them into salads or snack on them fresh from the vine.