Babycita Cherry Tomatoes from Jouno

Tasting Notes of the Curator

Babycita is Jouno’s distinctive long cherry tomato: petite, elongated, glossy, and wonderfully inviting. It is considered the sweetest tomato in the producer’s range, delivering the sort of concentrated flavor that makes one disappear from the kitchen counter before it ever reaches the salad bowl.

Bite through the fine skin and it gives way with a delicate snap, releasing a juicy interior that is rich in natural sweetness. A gentle, refreshing acidity keeps the fruit lively rather than sugary, while its elongated shape gives it a pleasantly substantial texture for such a small tomato.

Its flavor is clean, ripe, and immediately recognisable as tomato, only more concentrated: sun-warmed fruit, a touch of green freshness, and a savory finish that makes it useful well beyond salads. Served at room temperature, its sweetness becomes even more expressive.

These are tomatoes that need very little persuasion. A drizzle of excellent olive oil and a pinch of fleur de sel may be all they require. Yet their firmness also allows them to hold their shape beautifully when roasted, blistered, threaded onto skewers, or folded through warm pasta.

Pairings and Suggestions

Babycita tomatoes are especially lovely when allowed to remain the brightest element on the plate.

Simply Dressed: Serve at room temperature with extra virgin olive oil, fleur de sel, cracked pepper, and torn basil. With Fresh Cheese: Pair with burrata, mozzarella di bufala, ricotta, chèvre, or creamy stracciatella. For Aperitivo: Add to skewers with bocconcini, basil leaves, olives, or folds of prosciutto. Quickly Blistered: Sauté in olive oil until the skins begin to split, then finish with garlic and herbs. With Pasta: Toss through spaghetti with olive oil, garlic, basil, and Parmigiano Reggiano. Slow Roasted: Roast gently with thyme and garlic until softened and intensely sweet. For Seafood: Serve alongside grilled fish, prawns, scallops, or olive oil-poached tuna.

Avoid refrigerating them unnecessarily before serving. Tomatoes taste their finest at room temperature, when their fragrance and sweetness can fully emerge.

The Little Star of Jouno

Tomate Jouno is a French producer specialising in premium cherry and cocktail tomatoes. Its growers focus on small-format varieties selected for flavor, shape, and eating quality rather than treating the tomato as a merely decorative ingredient.

Babycita has become one of the producer’s signature tomatoes. Its name feels suitably playful for a fruit that is elegant in shape yet unabashedly sweet. The tomato’s elongated silhouette distinguishes it from the familiar round cherry, while its size makes it equally suited to snacking, sharing platters, composed salads, and refined garnishes.

What makes a tomato like this memorable is not complexity for complexity’s sake. It is the pleasure of ripeness concentrated into one neat bite: crisp skin, abundant juice, sweetness, acidity, and that unmistakable green-fruited fragrance. Sometimes luxury is a truffle. Sometimes it is simply a tomato that tastes properly of tomato.

Storage Instructions

Store in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight. For the finest flavor and texture, keep the tomatoes at room temperature and consume them promptly.

If fully ripe or if your kitchen is particularly warm, refrigerate to slow further ripening. Bring them back to room temperature before serving. Wash only immediately before use, as excess moisture may encourage spoilage.