{"id":444,"date":"2026-08-20T14:59:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T14:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tomat-pomidor.com\/en\/?p=444"},"modified":"2026-10-11T09:13:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T09:13:31","slug":"sofias-sweet-caramel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tomat-pomidor.com\/en\/sofias-sweet-caramel\/","title":{"rendered":"Sofia’s Sweet Caramel Tomato Grower Reviews & Photos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\ud83c\udf45 Quick take:<\/strong> Sofia’s Sweet Caramel (Sladkaya Karamel Sofii) is an indeterminate<\/strong>, mid-early to mid-season bicolor<\/strong> heart bred by Sofia Saakova<\/strong>. Most of the 11 growers here praise its sweet flavor and looks. The main caveats are soft fruit in extreme heat and occasional segregation into Temptation. Full summary \u2193<\/a><\/div>\n

Growers\u2019 Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 3-6 Experience)<\/h2>\n
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I<\/div>\n
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Irina Volga (Irina) \u2b50 Pro Grower (902 posts)<\/span><\/div>\n
\ud83d\udccd Volgograd, Russia (USDA Zone 6)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Indeterminate, mid-early. The fruits are elongated hearts with a little beak, 5-10.5 oz (150-300 g), with a very beautiful pattern. They are yellow-orange with red stripes and nice anthocyanin (antho) splashing. The flesh is bicolor, absolutely delicious and very sweet.<\/p>\n

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Irina Volga (Irina) \u2b50 Pro Grower (902 posts)<\/span><\/div>\n
\ud83d\udccd Volgograd, Russia (USDA Zone 6)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Hrizantema57 (Lyudmila) \u2b50 Pro Grower (13,401 posts)<\/span><\/div>\n
\ud83d\udccd Moscow Region, Russia (USDA Zone 4)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A variety bred by Sofia Saakova. In 2024 it was one of the first of my indeterminate varieties to ripen. The plant is light-colored. The tomatoes are beautiful and yummy.<\/p>\n

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Murka (Masha) \u2b50 Pro Grower (9,357 posts)<\/span><\/div>\n
\ud83d\udccd Nizhny Novgorod Region, Russia (USDA Zone 4)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Bred by Sofia Saakova. A stunning variety and one of my absolute favorites: a bicolor with anthocyanin, incredibly delicious and very, very sweet. The plant is slender, closer to mid-season.<\/p>\n

Edited November 16, 2025 by Murka<\/em><\/p>\n

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Svetikk (Svetlana) \u2b50 Pro Grower (29,344 posts)<\/span><\/div>\n
\ud83d\udccd Moscow Region, Russia (USDA Zone 4)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Sofia’s Sweet Caramel. An excellent variety, and it’s now on my permanent grow list! Beautiful, productive and very tasty. Indeterminate; I grew it in the greenhouse pruned to 3 stems.<\/p>\n

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Irina193 (Irina) \u2b50 Pro Grower (3,405 posts)<\/span><\/div>\n
\ud83d\udccd Krasnodar, Southern Russia (USDA Zone 7)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I agree, it’s very beautiful, tasty and quite productive. BUT in our extreme heat it got very soft. It had no shelf life at all, maybe 24 hours at most. If only it were firmer, it would be priceless. Or if our summers were a little cooler. I might still grow it again someday. By the way, the Rebel Starfighter series is also very weak in this regard for us.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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sofochkamai (Svetlana) \u2b50 Pro Grower (4,293 posts)<\/span><\/div>\n
\ud83d\udccd Yekaterinburg, Ural Region (USDA Zone 3)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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An excellent variety and my discovery of the year! Sweet, productive and just stunning. It’s definitely going on my permanent grow list!<\/p>\n

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tomatinka (Vera) \u2b50 Pro Grower (14,911 posts)<\/span><\/div>\n
\ud83d\udccd Tyumen Region, Siberia (USDA Zone 3)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Ninulia (Nina) \u2b50 Pro Grower (39,530 posts)<\/span><\/div>\n
\ud83d\udccd Nizhny Novgorod Region, Russia (USDA Zone 4)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I didn’t like it! The tomatoes aren’t large, and there aren’t many of them on the plant either. The plant itself is flimsy and right now it looks like nothing at all! I’m growing 2 plants and both are like this!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Lana_s_Kavkaza (Svetlana) \u2b50 Pro Grower (19,262 posts)<\/span><\/div>\n
\ud83d\udccd Pyatigorsk, Southern Russia (USDA Zone 6)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I grew it again from my own seeds, and again it got hit by frost. I probably need to sow it later and transplant it closer to May. I put the plants out in mid-April and they were hit by frosts and heavy downpours. The plants were vine-like; I grew them with several stems and they set fruit well. They made it all the way to autumn. The flesh is bicolor, absolutely delicious and very sweet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Svetikk (Svetlana) \u2b50 Pro Grower (29,344 posts)<\/span><\/div>\n
\ud83d\udccd Moscow Region, Russia (USDA Zone 4)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Sofia’s Sweet Caramel.<\/p>\n

I grew it again from my own saved seeds, with no segregation or off-types this time. (The year before, one plant did segregate, giving red hearts with barely noticeable stripes, but it was still productive and tasty.)<\/p>\n

One plant grew in the greenhouse with two stems. The second grew outdoors in a large pot near the gazebo, and the fruits in the pot were especially large, up to 13.4 oz (380 g)!<\/p>\n

An excellent variety: tasty, sweet, beautiful, productive. I still have a few fruits sitting in storage right now (November 15).<\/p>\n

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Yuliya Antsifrova (Yuliya) \ud83c\udf31 Member (191 posts)<\/span><\/div>\n
\ud83d\udccd Kaluga Region, Russia (USDA Zone 4)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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My version of this variety turned out as two different variants. I grew two plants. One had anthocyanin and the other didn’t. On both, the shape was more of a pepper-shaped heart than the beaked hearts, and the beaks pointed to the side. The one without anthocyanin tasted completely uninteresting, and I didn’t even bother to photograph it. Both plants were unproductive, with few fruits, and the fruits weren’t large: about 5 oz (150 g) on average on both.<\/p>\n

The second version, also closer to pepper-shaped, had a lot of anthocyanin, even though the plant didn’t grow in direct sun, just in good light alongside all my other oranges and bicolors. I wasn’t even expecting anthocyanin! The anthocyanin variant was more interesting in taste: sweetish, not amazing, but very decent.<\/p>\n

So I never got to experience the breeder’s true vision. Unfortunately, all I got were segregations\/off-types.<\/p>\n

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CUCSA (Larisa) \u2b50 Pro Grower (7,216 posts)<\/span><\/div>\n
\ud83d\udccd Lipetsk, Russia (USDA Zone 5)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Quote from Svetikk:<\/strong>
\nSofia’s Sweet Caramel. I grew it again from my own saved seeds, with no segregation or off-types this time… An excellent variety: tasty, sweet, beautiful, productive. I still have a few fruits sitting in storage right now (November 15).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t see any anthocyanin in your photos. Sofia wrote on her website: “There is a possibility of Sofia’s Sweet Caramel<\/em> segregating into Temptation (Iskushenie)<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

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Full Summary: Plant, Yield, Taste and Storage<\/h2>\n