[SoftTalker]

It's not really the tomatoes, it's that they are harvested green and then artificially ripened when they are ready to be sold. This allows much longer shelf life but the texture of the flesh and the flavors never fully develop.

Of course different varieties have different flavors but even a standard supermarket "beefsteak" will taste so much better picked ripe off the vine than bought at the store where it has been in a cooler for two months.

[telesilla]

As far as I understand, greenhouse tomatoes, such as those from the Netherlands, lack flavour which the sun gives. Best tomatoes I ever had were In Cádiz in south of Spain, they were from the nearby town of Conil and had so much fullness and deliciousness, the plate was offered only as tomatoes and olive oil and we were satisfied. If you're in the area, ask for these tomatoes by name and you'll not be disappointed.

In Mexico I've seen hectares and hectares of tomatoes left to rot on the vine because the price fell so low it wasn't worth to pick them. I'm still mourning all that unmade pizza sauce.

[koolba]

It’s also the tomato itself which is bred to resist bruising so that it looks pretty on the super market display. Unfortunately those cultivars also taste like meh.

Tastier tomatoes with thinner skins bruise more easily. They also require more labor intensive picking by hand vs bulk via machine.

Lookup the Rutgers tomato. Its a delicious one that at one point was the most popular tomato in all of the USA. It was bred for flavor, not shelf life! It fell out of favor when factory farming took over as it cannot be harvested by machine without bruising.