1. Taste
2. Texture (don't like 'em crunchy)
3. Vulnerability to splitting - no thanks
4. Productivity
5. Size (for me, that's under a pound).
6. If susceptible to disease, I wouldn't grow again

Linda

Taste and then productivity by weight. When you can get both in the same variety - perfect. Size would be third for me. Cherry varieties may meet the taste and productivity in numbers but are of little value in either sales or food preservation and I grow for both purposes.

Dave

Taste, productivity, size, earliness, no primadonnas.
Perfer OP/heirlooms. Prefer to support small seed companies. Do not want to support Monsanto seeds with my $$.
And there plenty to choose from thankfully...
I mostly do juices, sauces, salsa etc. So cherries are no go here. Love hearts and my youngest will only eat dark tomatoes...

No contest !!! Taste is everything. Size, quatity, speed to ripeness, and all that other stuff comes later. I've been known to make a BLT using sliced Tommy Toes. I know that I can always plant more plants to get lots of fruits, but I only want to eat the ones that "TASTE GOOD".

Now, I'm not trying to demean those other things, but if you have 19,999 bushels of bad tasting tomatoes that are the size of softballs, it just ain't as good as one tomato that excites the tastebuds and makes the sandwich or salad "special" and memorable.

To me, tomatoes are all about the quality of the eating experience. Your results may be different.

With tongue in cheek.

Ted

RE: What's more important for you, in a tomato ?
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I think there is more than just one criteria.

Definitely taste and productivity are important to me. Why waste my time and garden space growing something that does not taste good and not producing well !?.

The other thing for me is earliness b/c we have a short warm growing season. I would not grow anything anymore that it takes 90+ days to get the first ripe fruits.

Well, for me, since I can't have more than two plants or so at at time (no room for more), production has to be the top priority, although I prefer something that produces regularly rather than a huge crop at once, and then taste runs a very close second.

I'm in an area where we can grow tomatoes most of the year, so don't have to worry so much about early or late.

Taste! I'd rather have 5 outstanding tomatoes from a plant than 50 mediocre tomatoes. Splitting is a non-issue for me. I cut around the split if it's a slicing tomato, or I just pop it in my mouth if it's a cherry tomato.

Taste is important, but plant will not go far on taste alone with me. I want a package deal. Since I grow my own seedlings sky is the limit or ability to find seeds LOL
Possibly it is also because I like a variety of tomato taste. Some have place in the salad, some in the sauce, some in the salsa, some are just to eat and have a feast...

1. Taste including texture & juiciness
2. Size
3. Productivity (by number of fruits)
4. Hardiness
5. Appearance
6. Smell

To me taste is above everything by far. I want a juicy tomato with a blend of sweet & acid taste that ranges from that classic tomato taste to a taste heavy on acid. Vinegar, lemon juice, and the like are among my favorite flavors so a highly acidic tomato is a good pick for me. This year I am loving Azoychka (very acidic, lemony flavor) and Radiator Charlie's mortgage lifter (classic tomato taste), but not so thrilled with Cherokee purple (too sweet without much acid--a good tomato to give away) for example.

I don't like cherry tomatoes. I prefer something big enough to slice for a sandwich. I don't find that cherry tomatoes taste better, but they are certainly less versatile. I can do anything with a bigger tomato, but it's no fun to slice cherry tomatoes for sandwiches, among other things.

If I can have those two things then I worry about productivity. More fruits is better than fewer. This year it's hard to tell what is or is not productive though. Nothing is producing well! Sigh.

Hardiness includes disease resistance, cracking, and everything else that relates to a plant being harder to kill, easier to grow or producing better or worse fruits. I don't mind babying a good tasting, productive plant with big fruits. But all else being equal, it's nice to not have to worry about killing it accidentally.

All else being equal, nice looking tomatoes with attractive fruit are nicer than ugly ones. And I just absolutely love the smell of tomato plants. Even if there is nothing to harvest, and the plants don't look happy, that taste is a great reward whenever I work on the tomatoes. Habanero peppers are my favorite crop over all, but tomatoes have the best smell. Except for maybe oregano. I can't think of any I have grown that did not have that tomato smell, but I'd be disappointed if I grew a plant and did not get that smell. If I came across one, smell might move up the list. :)

Angie

Taste is everything. My brandywines were more delicious by a long mile than any other tomatoes I grew. I got maybe a dozen but they were the best I have tasted for a long time. If I only got 2 off the plant it was still worth growing just for those two. As you can see I thoroughly enjoyed them!!!