Quote:
Originally Posted by AlittleSalt
Two of the biggest factors I've noticed how a tomato's taste is different. Too much rain and stink bugs.
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I don't know about the stink bugs, but I also think water is a big issue. As a chemist who deals with solutions of chemicals in many different solvents, let me put a theory out there. In a tomato, you basically have a fruit that is filled with water than contains odor and flavor molecules in different ratios, depending on the variety. When those molecules are dilute (too much water), they can be harder to detect by our olfactory senses (imagine a tomato after several days of rain). But when the concentrations of these molecules is high, as in during drought conditions, then the flavor may "pop" and the taste will be intense.
As an alternative, it could be that dry conditions just force the plant to make more of the taste molecules that we love, while too much water shuts the plant down in the production of those molecules. I have always found that hot peppers are hottest when the plants are forced to struggle to find water- perhaps the same process holds in this case?
So it may just be a matter of concentration and what our sniffer/taste sensors can detect in these tomatoes.
