Sunset, a Mastronardi Produce brand, is running its Certified Tommalier campaign throughout October for National Tomato Month, taking a playful approach to educating consumers about tomato flavor the way sommeliers educate about wine.
A “Tommalier” is a tomato sommelier: an expert who can distinguish between tomatoes, understands flavor nuances and selects the best tomato for any dish, built on the premise that tomatoes vary in sweetness, acidity and crunch as much as wine varies by vintage.
Certified Tommaliers receive a commemorative certificate, which the company allows is “either very silly or long overdue, depending how much you care about tomatoes.”
“We’ve built the Sunset tomato lineup by delivering flavor and freshness consistently,” said Paul Mastronardi, president and CEO of Mastronardi Produce. “What we haven’t done is give consumers the language to talk about it. That’s what a Tommalier learns, and we think it changes how shoppers look at and select tomatoes.”
The social-first campaign invites influencers to work through a guided tomato flight featuring the Sunset Bombs family, including Flavor Bombs, Honey Bombs, Lolli Bombs and Sugar Bombs, alongside the new Sunset Tomato Branch. It launched with an Instagram miniseries hosted by Milla Mastronardi and is supported by creator partnerships, in-person activations and retailer promotions, with consumers encouraged to try the tomato flight at home. Certification is open to anyone who follows along on social media through the month.
The campaign builds on Mastronardi’s fall programming around National Tomato Month, which began last year with a national campaign marking the 30th anniversary of its Campari brand tomatoes.
The flavor-vocabulary approach aligns with a broader industry current: Whole Foods Market’s 2027 trends forecast named “terroir’s new territory” a leading trend, with shoppers increasingly drawn to provenance and the distinct flavor characteristics of where and how produce is grown.
Kingsville, Ontario-based Mastronardi Produce has grown, distributed and marketed fresh fruits and vegetables for more than 70 years under the flagship Sunset brand as well as Backyard Farms and Queen of Greens, pioneering the greenhouse industry.