Blessed by Amela (アメーラ)

Early/Mid/Late Season? We are not sure as no info can be found. Is it an indeterminate vine? also not sure.

Amela (アメーラ) is a tomato created in Japan by tomato cultivator Masa Inoyashi in 1996. the name Amela means “sweet” in the Japanese dialect of Shizuoka. Today, the Amela tomato has become a collaboration between Inoyashi representing Japan and Veleta of Spain to produce the sweetest and most aromatic tomato through cultivation techniques that stress and manipulate the plats to raise the brick content of the fruits. This process includes growing the plants in extremely smaller pots than tomatoes desire, scientific measurement and distribution of the precise amount of water and fertilizers, using a special soil made of coconut coir fibre from from Sri Lanka) and limiting fruit yield.

While the flavor is outstanding and unique, the fruits are anything but flashy and look like a simple pink/red slicer tomato. They have an umami taste with intense fruity sweetness and claimed to be sweeter than strawberries, being 1 1/2 times sweeter than a regular tomato. They are also high in potassium, vitamin A, and minerals, and are said to have several health benefits.

The Amela tomato is so prized in Japan that a gift box of 16 fruits (weighing about 2-4 ounces each) sells for the equivalent of $75 (¥8,067.38 for 1 kilogram).

While Amela is the most sought after tomato in Japan, it has also taken Europe by storm and it sold in the high end grocery stores of Switzerland like Jelmolee and Globus where they will cost you about CHF18 for 3 tomatoes, and are excellent and sweet and available even in winter!

While this is the first year growing the Amela tomato and it is unclear if the wonderful sweet flavor is from the genetics or from the cultivation process, it is well worth it to us to give it a try in the event that growing these tomatoes from home can bring tomatoes as good as the ones I tasted in Switzerland.

More plants?
Come to the Garden of Eat’n and discover our 2021 varieties.