Orange Jazz Tomato Review & Photos

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🍅 Quick take: Orange Jazz is an indeterminate, mid-season beefsteak bred by Fred Hempel (Artisan Seeds, California). It puts on massive 10.5-24.5 oz (300-700 g) oblate orange slicers, capable of topping 2 lbs (900 g+), marked with subtle pearlescent yellow striping. Celebrated for its bold, tropical sweet-tart kick reminiscent of sparkling lemonade, growers note it is a heavy feeder that can drop blossoms or run away into lush vegetative growth if hit with too much early nitrogen. Full summary ↓

Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 3-5 Experience)

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Sofiya 27 (Sofiya) ⭐ Pro Grower (2,154 posts)

Orange Jazz. Indeterminate vine, mid-season maturity. Fruits are large, running anywhere from 10.5 to 24.5 oz (300 to 700 g), orange with pearlescent striping. Juicy, sweet, with a distinct fruity finish.

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Oksana Evgenievna ⭐ Pro Grower (5,146 posts)
📍 Aktobe, Kazakhstan (USDA Zone 5)

Absolute stunner! Seeds from Kulik. Sowed indoors March 15, planted out in the open garden May 11, and picked the first ripe fruit outdoors on July 6, 2019. Completely lives up to the hype: explosive fruity flavor, meaty, juicy, and intensely sweet. A solid 5 out of 5.

Weight came in a bit lower than advertised, but it’s its first year acclimating here and it was the very first fruit off the vine. I’ll tally total yield in the fall, tough to tell right now: got about ten tomatoes hanging at different sizes, tons of little pea-sized sets, big flower sprays… some blossoms will drop, but plenty are clearly setting.

Orange Jazz first ripe tomato, photo posted by Oksana Evgenievna

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Svetikk (Svetlana) ⭐ Pro Grower (29,805 posts)
📍 Moscow Region, Russia (USDA Zone 4)

Seconding the rave reviews here, gorgeous and delicious! 👍

Indeterminate vine, ran it in the greenhouse to two stems, high producer. Flattened-round orange beefsteaks with light striping, hitting up to 17.5 oz (500 g). Sweet, with a rich fruity punch. 🤤 Seeds from Sofiya 27. 💐

Orange Jazz beefsteak harvest, photo posted by Svetikk

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Oksana Evgenievna ⭐ Pro Grower (5,146 posts)
📍 Aktobe, Kazakhstan (USDA Zone 5)

Got another one this size. This was the biggest of the season, picked August 3, 2019, and that’s the one I saved seeds from. Delicious.

After sitting on the counter for a couple of days it colored up into a deeper, richer orange, even though I picked it fully ripe. Really handsome fruit, glossy skin with shimmering pearlescent stripes that practically glow. Hard to capture on camera, you have to see it in person.

Orange Jazz large striped fruit, photo posted by Oksana Evgenievna

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T@tk@ (Tatyana) ⭐ Pro Grower (35,268 posts)
📍 Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia (USDA Zone 4)

Not sure if I’ll even get to sample this variety this season. A bunch of my varieties ran away with nitrogen early on, but Jazz took the cake. After doing some damage control the others straightened out, but this one stayed a giant green monster with neon-green foliage and tree-trunk stems, zero fruit set. Still, definitely growing it again.

Edited July 2, 2020 by T@tk@

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Di (Diana) 🌱 Member (283 posts)

Sweet as a bicolor. The flesh texture is right in my sweet spot: neither rock-hard nor soft mush, just firm and nicely juicy. Though that probably depends on growing conditions.

I only had one seed sprout late from an old discarded cup of potting soil. The plant grew slowly and stayed fairly short. Identified it once the fruit started coloring up.

Didn’t get many tomatoes and they stayed on the smaller side, even with good care, pruned to two stems, fertilizer, and steady watering. Only tasted the first ripe one today, August 23. That is very late. Oh well, we’ll see how it acts next season. Most importantly, the flavor hit the mark.

Orange Jazz sliced fruit on plate, photo posted by Di (1)
Orange Jazz tomato interior texture, photo posted by Di (2)

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T@tk@ (Tatyana) ⭐ Pro Grower (35,268 posts)
📍 Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia (USDA Zone 4)

Not sure if I’ll even get to sample this variety this season… zero fruit set.

Woohoo, I got to taste it after all! Turns out it finally set fruit!

Yield didn’t blow me away, dropped all its blossoms on the upper clusters. But today I cut into the biggest one, and it was just shy of two pounds: 32 oz (909 g)! The only other one that rivaled it in size this season was Pineapple King at 33.3 oz (945 g). Seeds from Svetikk (thank you!).

Grew in the second row from the path, right next to the polycarbonate wall. From a distance the fruit looked pretty plain, but once I picked it, I couldn’t stop admiring it. And when I sliced it open, my jaw hit the floor, I have never seen such brilliant, glowing neon-orange flesh in my life!

…moderately juicy

Mine was dripping juicy! A lot of folks loved the taste, but honestly, it wasn’t quite my cup of tea. Seems like a textbook low-acid type, pure sweetness with no acid. I love sweet tomatoes, but I need that zesty acidic tang with it.

Took a bunch of photos from different angles:

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Sergey-EKB (Sergey) ⭐ Pro Grower (1,585 posts)
📍 Yekaterinburg, Urals, Russia (USDA Zone 3)

Tatyana, so it turned out strictly late-season for you?

I really dig the color pattern on those fruits, and that weight definitely grabs my attention. Thinking about giving it a run next year.

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T@tk@ (Tatyana) ⭐ Pro Grower (35,268 posts)
📍 Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia (USDA Zone 4)

Sergey, could be that the late maturity was because it took so long to start setting fruit after going crazy with vegetative growth. Plus, I started seeds late on April 4. Want me to save some seeds for you?

Edited August 27, 2020 by T@tk@

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Evgeniya 03 (Evgeniya) ⭐ Pro Grower (1,590 posts)
📍 Ulan-Ude, Buryatia, Russia (USDA Zone 3)

Grew Orange Jazz this year. Really appreciated the flavor and fruit texture. Sowed seeds February 25. It was one of the very first to flower, but kept dropping blossoms. Ended up eating the first ripe fruit August 2, and overall yield was below average.

Still, definitely planting it again. It was the first time I truly understood what “buttery flesh” means, firm, dense, and not watery at all. Big fan of the flavor!

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Oksana Evgenievna ⭐ Pro Grower (5,146 posts)
📍 Aktobe, Kazakhstan (USDA Zone 5)

…Seems like a textbook low-acid type, pure sweetness with no acid.

You must’ve overdone something in the soil if it came out purely sweet. Or maybe left it on the vine too long. Orange Jazz has an explosive kick! It’s not just sweet, it packs a vivid, punchy fruit acid. Like ice-cold sparkling lemonade, sweet with a tangy pop that tingles on the tongue. In my book it beats bicolors easily, bolder and more concentrated.

Orange Jazz is a true mid-season, but April 4 is definitely too late to start it. Better to sow around March 18-20, though that depends on your climate and when you plant out. In my open garden this year it almost scorched in the heat, so fruits stayed smaller, firmer, and drier, but still packed tons of flavor.

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T@tk@ (Tatyana) ⭐ Pro Grower (35,268 posts)
📍 Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia (USDA Zone 4)

You must’ve overdone something in the soil if it came out purely sweet. Or maybe left it on the vine too long…

Thanks a lot! Sounds like I definitely let it hang too long on the vine, because the flesh had gotten way too soft and dripping wet.

By the way, Orange Jazz has some seriously tough fibrous ribs right where the stem attaches. I was thinking without those tough fibers, a monster two-pound tomato with such soft flesh would probably just plop onto the ground under its own weight, but those ribs held it up like iron cables!

As for starting April 4, that was out of necessity because my seed order arrived late.

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Kapitoska (Tamara) ⭐ Pro Grower (1,729 posts)
📍 Urals, Russia (USDA Zone 3)

Grew it in the 2021 season. Good producer, flattened-round, juicy. Started out a bit bland in late July, but by August it dialed in both sweetness and tang. Fruits weighed 10.5 oz (300 g) and up.

Orange Jazz ripe beefsteak on plant, photo posted by Kapitoska

Full Summary: Plant, Yield, Ripeness and Flavor Profile

  • 🌿 Plant & Heritage: Developed by Fred Hempel of Artisan Seeds (Sunol, California). Vigorous indeterminate vine that acts as a heavy feeder. If hit with excessive nitrogen early in the season, it easily runs away into massive vegetative growth with thick stems and delayed fruit set.
  • 📈 Yield & Size Potential: Mid-season maturity, though late seedling starts or nitrogen overloads will push harvests late into August. Fruits routinely weigh 10.5 to 24.5 oz (300-700 g), with well-pruned plants capable of throwing monsters just shy of 2 lbs (32 oz / 909 g). Heavy blossom drop can occur on upper trusses during extreme summer heat.
  • 👅 Flavor & Picking Window: When picked at peak maturity, it exhibits an explosive sweet-tart citrus profile described like sparkling lemonade. If left to over-ripen on the vine, acidity drops off, resulting in an overly soft, dripping-wet texture with mild sweetness.
  • 🌎 Who Reviewed It: A wide geographic test group across USDA Zones 3 through 5, including short-season regions in Siberia (Ulan-Ude), the Urals (Yekaterinburg), Tatarstan (Kazan), the Moscow Region, and the arid steppe of Aktobe, Kazakhstan.

👨‍🌾 Editor’s Note: The “Sparkling Lemonade” Flavor vs. Over-Ripening
The debate between Tatyana and Oksana captures a critical trait of Fred Hempel’s Orange Jazz: harvest timing dictates flavor. Unlike low-acid yellow heirlooms, authentic Orange Jazz carries a high concentration of citric acid alongside high sugars. When picked firm-ripe, this creates what growers call a “fizzy” or sparkling lemonade pop. If left hanging until deep orange and soft, the volatile acids break down rapidly, leaving the flesh watery and sweet without its signature punch.
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