Cocktails with Cherry tomato
Cherry tomato is a small round tomato, used whole or halved as a savory component in a drink.
Substitutes for Cherry tomato
A cocktail onion, an olive or a small gherkin brings a comparable savory note. Tomato juice covers the flavor and none of the texture. What no substitute supplies is the green, stemmy smell released when the skin breaks, which is why a halved tomato reads differently in the glass from a whole one.
Often confused with
Grape tomato
Grape tomatoes are smaller, firmer and drier. On a skewer they hold their shape longer and bruise more slowly; muddled they give less juice, so for a Bloody Mary count on about half again as many.
Storage
Keep unripe tomatoes on the counter, where cold would stop the ripening they still have to do. Below about 12 °C a tomato’s production of the volatile compounds that make it smell like a tomato drops sharply, and it recovers only partly on rewarming — the longer the chill, the less comes back. Sugars and acids are unaffected, so a refrigerated tomato is still sweet and still sharp and smells of very little. A fully ripe tomato that will be used within a few days survives the fridge better than its reputation suggests. Either way, pick fruit that is firm and unbroken.
