It can seem impossible to find a good-tasting tomato at the grocery store. Vine-ripened tomatoes, also called tomatoes on the vine, or cluster tomatoes seem to offer the promise of a higher quality, tasty tomato. These tomatoes are sold on the vine. Does this mean they are allowed to ripen on the plant with the sun shining down on them, as opposed to ripening off the vine in some tomato processing facility or grocery store bin? Are they better than regular tomatoes?
If you buy these tomatoes, planning on an awesome tomato sandwich later that evening, chances are your tomato sandwich will be just as cruddy as the last one you ate.
There is a reason that it’s so difficult to find a decent-tasting tomato anymore. Modern tomatoes have been selectively chosen for even and uniform ripening. The same gene that allows tomatoes to be an even red color all over the fruit also causes a sub-optimal development of sugars in the tomato fruit. Taste has been sacrificed for a prettier-looking tomato.
Most vine-ripened tomatoes, then, are probably not much different than any other tomatoes at the grocery store.
It is easy to assume that these vine-ripened tomatoes must be picked ripe, and must, therefore, taste better.
If it were true, it may make for a somewhat better-tasting tomato, and perhaps a better texture, as well. Still, it’s hard to say how much difference it would really make, these days, as other factors have conspired to make the modern (i.e. not heirloom) tomato less delicious than its predecessors.
Vine-Ripened Tomatoes Are Not Picked Ripe
But, tomatoes on the vine, or cluster tomatoes, are NOT picked ripe. They are cut from the plant a few days later than conventional tomatoes, but are still allowed to do most of their ripening after they are picked “still on the vine.”
Like individually picked tomatoes, they may be force-ripened at a regional facility, or may ripen in storage, during transport, or at the grocery store. This few extra days on the plant may make some difference in flavor but I doubt it makes a big difference, and certainly, in my subjective experience, it does not. You will pay extra for these tomatoes, and it may not be worth the extra cost.
You may not think ripening a tomato on the vine makes a difference in taste, or you may steadfastly maintain that it makes all the difference in the world. But I would guess that, regardless, you would not want to pay extra for a tomato that is labeled to appear as if it is ripened in the field.
The reality is that it is very impractical for the tomato industry to pick tomatoes ripe. Many ripe fruits and vegetables hold up fine during shipping, but ripe tomatoes do not. Their skins will split, they will turn to mush, and they may even be infested with fruit flies.
Tomatoes Are Picked At the Breaker Point
Keep in mind that most all tomatoes you buy in the grocery store are picked at the “breaker” point, just when the first bit of color appears. As above, they may be allowed to ripen the rest of the way during storage, or they may be force-ripened at a regional facility. As well, they may simply ripen in the grocery store bin.
You’ll notice that, depending on the time of the year, a lot of tomatoes will be almost, but not quite ripe, when you buy them. They will be a light red or almost orange color, but not a red ripe color, and you have to wait for them to ripen at home.