Black and Blue Tomatoes: Backgrounds & the Best Varieties

In recent 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 are often tinged with purple, and the blue seedlings alone show that they are something special: namely, star tomatoes.

The term "star tomato" is derived from the curious characteristic that the actual basic color is hidden under the star-shaped stem. The blue to black colors that are more familiar from aubergines develop in tomatoes only under UV radiation - the more sunlight that falls, 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 began to cross naturally black wild tomatoes into our cultivated tomatoes, causing them to produce the dark pigment anthocyanin as well. Unfortunately, as a result of the crossbreeding, undesirable properties were also transferred to 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 base color and violet cover colors, so that it is not only red that is hiding under the black shell.

Are Blue Tomatoes Healthier Than Others?

The newly incorporated dye anthocyanin actually has valuable properties for our health. Anthocyanins belong to the phenolic compounds and have an antioxidant effect, i.e. they scavenge free radicals in our body that otherwise damage our cells and genetic makeup would. 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 health. In any case, the star tomatoes are in no way inferior to “normal” tomatoes.

The 10 best black/blue tomato varieties at a glance

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

• 'Indigo Blueberries': Strongly branched cocktail tomato with pointed, violet leaves and many small, blue-red ripening fruits with an aromatic, spicy-sweet taste. Don't exhaust yourself!
• 'Dancing with Smurfs' / 'Smurf Dance': Red-orange cocktail tomato with violet colored shoulder and sunny side, very nice harvest star. Good and long yield with sweet aromatic fruits also outdoors
• 'Glossy Rose Blue': Pink cherry tomato with a blue shoulder and a thin, very shiny skin. Requires warmth as then she is fruity sweet in taste 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 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 or red variants 'Antho white' and 'Antho violet-red' available
• '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 until late autumn
• 'Blue Pitt': A play of colors of blue-violet-pink ripening cocktail tomatoes from the breeder of the famous 'Green Zebra', the American Tom Wagner. Requires heat for the sweet and juicy aroma, but is very robust and the fruits hardly burst open, even outdoors
• 'Purple Dragon': Medium-sized oval stick tomato up to approx. 50 grams with a spicy-fruity taste. Ripens in shades of yellow, orange, pink and purple and turns blue around the shoulder, a colorful spectacle among 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 star tomatoes yourself

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: Crossbreeding works best if you use tweezers not fully open flower 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 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 tone of most varieties has so far only been red.

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