This months GW magazine has an article on best variety for baking. The tasting was done by BBC Good Food Magazine.
1 Vivaldi - Second early ,Yield 5.7kg , taste 10/10 Our overall winner and the outstanding favourite with our taste testers- it has a great flavour , creamy texture and delicious skin. An excellent garden performer too, producing a heavy crop of large tubers. You can buy it in the supermarket to taste it before you grow it.
2 Sante - Maincrop , yield 8kg, taste 8/10 Second in terms of taste but by far the best overall yield , which included a high proportion of large, well shaped tubers. Described by our tasters as having a good flavour and good skin, but the texture wasn't as fluffy as Vivaldi.
3 Sarpo Mira - Maincrop yield 6kg ,taste 6/10 'Sarpo' varieties have been bred by Savari Trust for blight resistance, and this one certainly performed well. Heavy cropping although slightly irregularly shaped with a small amount of scab. Described as middling for taste - it had a decent flavour, but a poor texture.
4 Innovator Second early yield 5.9kg, 4/10 A new variety with rough, 'russet' skin ; attractive in appearance and high- yeilding with a substantial proportion of good - sized and well- shaped tubers. Although a low scorer on taste, it was deemed too waxy and not fluffy enough.
5 Carolus maincrop yield 5.4kg, 4/10 A new variety for 2015, which showed outstanding blight resistance with healthy growth throughout . The pink eyed tubers looked very attractive ,although a bit irregular in shape, but ranked low for taste due to its waxy dense texture.
6 Melody Second early yield 5kg, 7/10 Rated third for for taste, with very good flavour, although not that floury in texture. Overall yield was reasonable with evenly shaped tubers, but while these were produced in quantity, relatively few were big enough for baking
7 Marfona Second early yield 4.4kg 4/10 While our tasters thought this variety was bland and the skin not crispy, and the yield was lower than the majority, it produced a very high proportion of tubers that were jacket sized, smooth and evenly shaped.
8 Estima Second early yield 3.4kg ,5/10 One of the first to succumb to blight so some of the tubers had to be discarded, hence the low yield. But our tasters liked the flavou, which resembled that of a creamy, new potato.
9 King Edward maincrop yield 4kg , 6/10 An old favourite with gardeners and good looking with red 'eyes' but a disappointing harvest in terms of weight and size - none of the potatoes were really big enough for baking. Susceptible to blight and with some slug damage. Middle - ranked for taste and texture
9 Isle of Jura maincrop yield 3kg , 5/10 A poor performer on most counts, with the low yield partly due to it being a favourite with the slugs - some tubers had to be discarded due to damage. Bland and flavourless, but reasonable in texture