The term Gourmet Strawberry can refer to a number of different varieties.

On one hand you have the Alpine varieties which benefit from a very intense flavour and sweetness combined with a long fruiting period and extremely numerous fruits. On the other hand there are a number of “garden variety” strawberries that were bred for their wonderful flavour but have other traits that might make them more attractive to the home gardener than alpine varieties.

I’ve written another article on just Alpine strawberries already so it might be worth having a look at that if these types of fruit interest you.

Out of the commercial / garden strawberry varieties that exist, the following are known specifically for flavour (others, such as Elsanta for example were bred for fruit size, how easy they are to transport and store, etc.)

Gariguette

Mara des bois

Mignonette

Marshmello

Madame Moutot

In spring I will attempt to collect a variety of different types to do a comparison in my own garden. Of course I’ll post updates as and when I see some results. Hopefully by the end of next year I will have gotten rid of all of my existing boring & watery strawberry plants and replaced them with alpine strawberries plus some of the above supposedly “extra flavourful” varieties.  Wish me luck!