Black and Blue Tomatoes: Backgrounds & the Best Varieties

For some years now, more and more black and purple-blue colored tomato varieties have come onto the market. Find out everything about the special fruits here.

At first glance they look artificial, yes somehow unnatural, these purple to midnight blue colored fruits. Some only wear black on their shoulders, while others look more like blueberries than tomatoes. The leaves and the stalk are often tinged with purple and the blue seedlings already show that they are something special: namely, star tomatoes.

The term “star tomato” is derived from the curious property that the actual basic color is hidden under the star-shaped stem. The blue to black colors that are more familiar from aubergines only develop in tomatoes under UV radiation - the more sunlight falls, the darker and more complete the color. The black and purple of the anthocyanin are, so to speak, the suntan of the tomatoes. However, inside and on the shady side of the fruit, you can often still see the basic color.

Where does the new color come from?

A few years ago, breeders began to cross naturally black wild tomatoes in our cultivated tomatoes, and so they also induced them to produce the dark pigment anthocyanin. Unfortunately, as a result of the crossing, undesirable properties were also transferred to the new varieties - for example a rather bland taste. However, the aroma has been continuously improved over the past few years and the colors have been retained, so that some attractive and tasty varieties are now available. The first variety to hit the market in 2012 was the completely black salad tomato with a pink inside, 'Indigo Rose'. In the meantime, various combinations of basic color and violet opaque colors are being worked on, so that not only red is hidden under the black shell.

Are Blue Tomatoes Healthier Than Others?

The newly incorporated anthocyanin dye actually has valuable properties for our health. Anthocyanins belong to the phenolic compounds and have an antioxidant effect, that is, they trap free radicals in our body that otherwise damage our cells and genetic material would. Since many tomatoes only have very small amounts of blue, it can hardly be said whether snacking exclusively on purple fruits has a noticeable effect on our health. The star tomatoes are in no way inferior to the “normal” tomatoes.

The 10 best black / blue tomato varieties at a glance

If you've never dealt with the black and blue strains, choosing which strain to start with is certainly not easy. Here we have summarized the most convincing varieties in terms of taste and growth for you.

• 'Indigo Blueberry': Heavily branched cocktail tomato with pointed, purple leaves and many small, blue-red ripening fruits with an aromatic, spicy-sweet taste. Don't exhaust it!
• 'Dancing with Smurfs' / 'Smurfs dance': Red-orange cocktail tomato with purple colored shoulder and sunny side, very nice harvest tester. Good and long yield with sweet, aromatic fruits, even outdoors
• 'Glossy Rose Blue': Pink-red cherry tomato with a blue breathy shoulder and a thin, shiny skin. Needs warmth, because then it has a fruity, sweet taste with a long-lasting early yield
• 'Indigo Rose': Comes from the breeding program of Jim Myers of Oregon State University as one of the first available blue strains. Inside and on the shade side pink to cherry red stake tomato, sometimes turns completely black in the sun and ripens that way. A real eye-catcher

• 'Antho yellow': Sun-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 as white resp. red variants 'Antho white' and 'Antho violet red' available
• 'Indigo Kumquat': Oval to date-shaped golden-yellow cherry tomatoes with a 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 very robust and the fruits hardly burst, even outdoors
• 'Purple Dragon': Medium-sized oval stake tomatoes up to approx. 50 grams with a spicy, fruity taste. Matures in the colors yellow, orange, pink and violet and around the shoulder in blue, a colorful spectacle among the blue tomatoes. Hardly forms stinging instincts
• 'Blue Keyes': Pear-shaped salad tomatoes with golden-yellow to orange stripes and a black-purple coating. Burst-resistant, long-lasting fruits with a fruity taste
• 'Blue Green Zebra': Developed by Tom Wagner in the USA. Frugal stake tomato with green-blue striped medium-sized fruits and the typical fresh, fruity taste of green tomatoes

Grow star tomatoes yourself

By crossbreeding, it is possible to incorporate the blue dye into one of your own favorite varieties. For this purpose, a purple variety is specifically crossed and the offspring are then selected for the next year. Since the tomato prefers to pollinate itself, however, you have to resort to a trick: Crossing works best if you still use tweezers The not fully opened flower is freed from the pollen cones and then 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 and also commercial companies have started to get involved in the interesting color and its distribution in recent years. New varieties and forms of star tomatoes are being bred diligently. Also the ARCHE NOAH is 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 most varieties have only had red as their basic tone so far.

If you would like to learn more about the variety of tomatoes, you will find an overview of the 60 best old and new tomato varieties.