Black Krim

Under sunny conditions the fruit ripens to a dark reddish-purple that can shade toward black, with distinctive green to brown shoulders; some describe the color instead as brownish-purple to maroon, though the green-shouldered look is consistent across accounts. It forms a flattened globe fruit weighing around 250 grams and roughly three to four inches across. Cut open, the flesh is deep purple with very few seeds. Reported average weights vary by source, from about twelve ounces to a full pound, with large fruit measuring up to six inches across and occasionally topping a pound.

Descriptions consistently call the flavor rich and sweet, though sources differ at the edges — some say it is balanced by acidity, others call it low in acid, with occasional notes of smokiness or a faint saltiness beneath the richness. Because of that flavor, it is recommended for slicing, sandwiches, and fresh eating rather than cooking or paste use.

The plant is indeterminate, producing fruit continuously throughout the growing season, and can reach about six feet tall in a greenhouse, somewhat less outdoors. It reportedly resulted from a cross between a beefsteak and a Cherokee Purple type, a lineage credited with high yields and resistance to disease and fruit cracking. It is described as heat tolerant, and its vines benefit from staking as they carry large fruit through the season.

Black Krim traces its origins to Krim, the Crimean Peninsula on the Black Sea. It reached American growers in 1990 through the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook, where Swedish seed saver Lars Olov Rosenstrom of Bronna described it, making it the first commercially available black tomato in the United States and one that became particularly popular on the west coast. Rosenstrom noted that in his own heated greenhouse the fruit turned black, whereas outdoors it showed the more typical brownish-purple coloration.