For several years, more and more black and violet-blue tomato varieties have been coming onto the market. Find out everything about the special fruits here.
At first glance, these violet to midnight blue colored fruits seem artificial, even somehow unnatural. Some only wear black on their shoulders, while others are more like blueberries than tomatoes. The foliage and the stalk also often have a violet tinge, and even the blue seedlings show that they are something special: Star tomatoes.
The term "star tomato" is derived from the curious characteristic that the actual basic color is hidden under the star-shaped stalk. The blue to black colors that are more familiar from aubergines only develop in tomatoes under UV radiation - the more sunlight that falls on them, the darker and more complete the coloring becomes. The black and purple of the anthocyanin are like the tan of the tomatoes. Inside, however, and on the dark side of the fruit, you can often still see the basic color.
Where does the new color come from?
A few years ago, breeders started crossing naturally black wild tomatoes into our cultivated tomatoes, and in this way they got them to produce the dark pigment anthocyanin as well. Unfortunately, the crossing also resulted in unwanted properties in the new varieties - for example a rather bland taste. However, the aroma has been continuously improved over the last few years and the colors have been retained, so that some attractive and tasty varieties are now available. The first variety to come onto the market in 2012 was the completely black, pink-colored salad tomato 'Indigo Rose'. In the meantime, work is being done on a wide variety of combinations of basic color and violet top color, so that it's not just red that's hiding under the black shell.
Are blue tomatoes he althier than others?
The newly incorporated dye anthocyanin actually has valuable properties forour he alth. Anthocyanins belong to the group of phenolic compounds and have an antioxidant effect, which means they scavenge free radicals in our body that would otherwise damage our cells and genetic material. However, since many tomatoes contain only very small amounts of blue, it is difficult to say whether snacking on only purple fruits will have any noticeable effect on our he alth. In any case, the star tomatoes are in no way inferior to the "normal" tomatoes.
An overview of the 10 best black/blue tomato varieties
If you have never de alt with the black and blue varieties, the selection of the variety at the beginning is certainly not easy. Here we have summarized the currently most convincing varieties in taste and growth for you.
- 'Indigo Blueberry': Strongly branched cocktail tomato with pointed, violet foliage and many small, blue-red ripening fruits with an aromatic, spicy-sweet taste. Don't run out!
- 'Dancing with Smurfs' / 'Schlumpfentanz': red-orange cocktail tomato with violet colored shoulder and sunny side, very pretty harvest star. Good and long yield with sweet aromatic fruits also outdoors
- 'Glossy Rose Blue': Pink cherry tomato with a blue shoulder and a very shiny, thin skin. Needs heat for a fruity sweet flavor with long lasting early yields
- 'Indigo Rose': Originated from Oregon State University's Jim Myers breeding program as one of the first available blue strains. Pink to cherry-red stick tomato on the inside and shaded side, sometimes turns completely black in the sun and ripens that way. A real eye-catcher
- 'Antho yellow': Sunny yellow cherry tomatoes with a blue coating on the shoulders and a very sweet, aromatic taste. Doesn't have to be exhausted. Comes from Reinhart Kraft, a German hobby breeder. Also available as white or red versions 'Antho white' and 'Antho violet-red'
- 'Indigo Kumquat': Oval to date-shaped golden-yellow cherry tomato with blue coating especially on the shoulders and a very good, fruity aroma. Long-lasting yield from June to late autumn
- 'Blue Pitts': A play of colors of blue-violet-pink ripening cocktail tomatoes from the breeder of the famous 'Green Zebra', the American Tom Wagner. Requires warmth for the sweet and juicy aroma, is therefore very robust and the fruits hardly burst open even outdoors
- 'Purple Dragon': Medium-sized oval stick tomato up to approx. 50 grams withspicy-fruity taste. Ripens in shades of yellow, orange, pink and violet and turns blue around the shoulder, a colorful spectacle amongst the blue tomatoes. Hardly forms stingy shoots
- 'Blue Keyes': Pear-shaped salad tomato with golden-yellow to orange stripes and black-purple coating. Burst-resistant, long-lasting fruits with a fruity taste
- 'Blue Green Zebra': Developed by Tom Wagner in the USA. Frugal stick tomato with medium-sized green-blue striped fruits and the typical fresh and fruity taste of green tomatoes
Grow your own star tomatoes
By crossing it is possible to introduce the blue dye into one of your own favorite varieties. For this purpose, a violet variety is crossed in and the offspring are then selected in the next year. However, since the tomato prefers to pollinate itself, you have to use a trick: Crossing works best if you use tweezers to remove the pollen cones from the flower that has not yet fully opened and then use the remaining stigma of the flower with the previously collected pollen of the blue variety pollinated. Then preferably bag the flower, label it and hope for fruit. The seeds of these fruits then probably already carry the genes for the anthocyanins.
Many hobby breeders as well as commercial businesses have started to get involved with the interesting color and its distribution in recent years. New varieties and forms of star tomatoes are being bred diligently. The ARCHE NOAH association is also currently developing new "star paradeisers" together with hobby gardeners in a long-term project. The aim of the project is, on the one hand, to improve the taste and, on the other hand, to introduce the variety of colors into the blue varieties, since the basic color of most varieties has so far only been red.
If you would like to learn more about the variety of tomatoes, here is an overview of the 60 best old and new tomato varieties.