Cocktail tomato varieties
Cocktail tomatoes fill the gap between a cherry you eat whole and a slicer you cut into a sandwich: roughly 25 to 80 g, two or three bites, firm enough to halve without collapsing. It is the size supermarkets sell on the vine, and Campari, probably the best-known example, is on this page. The six varieties here are unusually consistent: all six indeterminate, all ripening between 66 and 75 days from transplant, all within a 55 g weight band. That uniformity makes this the easiest page on the site to choose from, because the decision comes down to colour and to what you want the fruit to do, not to whether your season is long enough.
- Varieties
- 9
- Days to harvest (from transplant)
- 55–75
- Fruit weight
- 1–3 oz (25–85 g)
- Growth habit
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8 Indeterminate
1 Determinate
All 9 cocktail tomato varieties
How to choose
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Colour is the real variable here and the range is wider than the size suggests. Campari, Flavor Bomb, Mountain Magic and Verona are red; Indigo Apple is purple; Chocolate Cherry is brown. That last one is worth flagging because the name says cherry and the classification says cocktail: at 25 to 40 g it sits above the cherry band, which is exactly the kind of thing a catalogue should record rather than leave to the label.
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All six ripen in a nine-day window, so unlike most pages here the calendar does not narrow anything. Mountain Magic at 66 days is the earliest and the 75-day varieties the latest, which in practice is one picking week apart. Plan around what you want rather than around frost.
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This size is the practical middle for cooking. Cocktail fruit roasts without turning to liquid the way a cherry does, and halves cleanly for salads and sandwiches where a slicer would be too much. If you have room for one plant and want it to do several jobs, this is the size class to pick from.
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Every variety here needs full-season support. There is no determinate or dwarf cocktail tomato in this catalogue, so budget for a stake or string per plant from the start.
Compare side by side
| Color | Uses | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Campari | 70 (estimated) | 1–2 oz (40–70 g) (estimated) | Indeterminate | 4 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) | Fresh & salads, Snacking, Roasting | |
| Chocolate Cherry | 70 (estimated) | ~1 oz (25–40 g) (estimated) | Indeterminate | 4 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) / 4 (estimated) | Fresh & salads, Snacking | |
| Flavor Bomb | 70 (estimated) | 1–2 oz (40–60 g) (estimated) | Indeterminate | 4 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) / 4 (estimated) | Fresh & salads, Snacking, Roasting | |
| Glacier | 55 | 1–3 oz (40–80 g) | Determinate | 4 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) | Fresh & salads, Snacking | |
| Indigo Apple | 75 (estimated) | 2–3 oz (50–80 g) (estimated) | Indeterminate | 3 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) | Fresh & salads, Snacking, Roasting | |
| Mountain Magic | 72 | 1–2 oz (40–60 g) (estimated) | Indeterminate | 4 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) | Fresh & salads, Snacking, Roasting | |
| Pink Boar | 75 | 1–3 oz (40–80 g) | Indeterminate | 4 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) | Fresh & salads, Snacking | |
| Stupice | 55 | 1–3 oz (30–85 g) | Indeterminate | 3 (estimated) / 4 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) | Fresh & salads, Snacking, Slicing | |
| Verona | 67 | 1–2 oz (40–60 g) (estimated) | Indeterminate | 4 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) | Fresh & salads, Snacking, Roasting |
Values marked like this (estimated) are model estimates, not confirmed from a source.
Frequently asked questions
What is a cocktail tomato?
A size class between cherry and slicer, roughly 25 to 80 g, firm-fleshed and usually sold on the vine. Big enough to halve and use in cooking, small enough to eat in two or three bites.
What is the difference between cocktail and cherry tomatoes?
Size, mainly. Cherry tomatoes are typically under 25 g and eaten whole; cocktail types are two to three times heavier with firmer flesh. The boundary is a convention rather than a rule, which is why some varieties, Chocolate Cherry among them, carry a name from one category and the measurements of the other.
Can I grow Campari tomatoes from seed?
Not the trademarked Campari itself. It was bred in the 1990s by Enza Zaden and the name was registered as a trademark by a North American grower in 2003; the seed is priced for commercial glasshouse production and does not reach garden retail. What is sold to gardeners as Campari-type is usually Mountain Magic, which is on this page, is genuinely available as seed, and is the standard cultivar of this fruit type. If Campari is the supermarket tomato you are trying to reproduce, Mountain Magic is the answer rather than a compromise.
Are cocktail tomatoes good for roasting?
Better than cherries, which is one of the main reasons to grow them. The denser flesh and thicker skin mean the fruit holds its shape and concentrates rather than collapsing into liquid in the pan.
How long do cocktail tomatoes take to ripen?
Between 66 and 75 days from transplant across the six varieties here, the narrowest range of any fruit type on this site apart from pear. Every day figure in this catalogue is counted from transplant rather than from sowing.