Quick Summary: Shokoladnaya Glyba (Chocolate Chunk)
- 🌍 Origin: A commercial variety released by the Russian seed company “Nash Sad” (Our Garden). The name translates to “Chocolate Chunk” or “Chocolate Block.”
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Advertised as a compact indeterminate reaching about 1.5 meters (5 ft) tall with large, dark green leaves.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Supposed to be massive (up to 1 kg / 2.2 lbs), oblate (flat-round), dark brown/mahogany beefsteaks. However, reality often differs from the packet—most growers report fruits in the 300-400g (10-14 oz) range.
- 👅 Flavor: Highly subjective. Some growers rate it as excellent and a favorite among their family members, while others describe an unpleasant, strange aftertaste.
- ⚠️ Seed Warning (Mix-ups): The commercial seed packets from “Nash Sad” are notoriously inconsistent. Growers have reported growing completely different off-types (such as large pink beefsteaks) from these packets. Expect some genetic variability!
Description from the manufacturer:
“Lycopersicon esculentum. The perfect black. Early ripening. Indeterminate. The plant is powerful but compact. The leaf is large, dark green. Height is about 1.5 m (5 ft). The fruits are oblate (flat-round), very large, up to 1 kg (2.2 lbs) in weight, gathered in trusses of 3-5 fruits, some of the darkest out there, beautiful in cross-section, tasty, juicy! One of the best black-fruited tomatoes! The fruits are multi-chambered, meaty. Yield is high. Disease resistant.”
I grew this variety in 2019 in a greenhouse. One bush grew in poor conditions, the other in good conditions. I’ll talk about the second bush. This tomato turned out to be my champion in yield, giving a whopping 4 kg (8.8 lbs) from 1 bush. Even in the seedling stage, the stems began to fuse together (fasciation), which I decided not to break off when transplanting into the ground. I didn’t thin out the flower trusses. The bush produced practically no suckers.
Maybe I got an off-type (mix-up), but the color of the tomatoes wasn’t very dark, the fruits were slightly ribbed and indeed oblate, the weight of the fruits ranged from 116 to 355 g (4 to 12.5 oz). It only caught Leaf Mold (Cladosporium) in the autumn, and the fruits didn’t suffer. The only, but major, drawback turned out to be the taste. It had a strange aftertaste that I can’t compare to anything else. I would probably give it a 1 or 2 out of 10.
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Was it really that bad tasting? And both bushes?
Was the manufacturer “Nash Sad” (Our Garden)?
This year I also grew the tomato Shokoladnaya Glyba from the company “Nash Sad,” and as a result, a “Pink Chunk” grew instead. In short, it was a very good off-type (mix-up).
Yes, I planted seeds from the manufacturer NASH SAD.
Just goes to show how different it is for everyone )))
I have been growing this little tomato every year since 2016. Seeds are from “Nash Sad.”
It didn’t grow into a massive “chunk” (block). The fruits are 300-400 gr (10-14 oz) in my conditions. Highly productive, and for me, it ripens closer to early-mid season. We like its taste qualities. This variety is very much liked by all the men in our neighborhood )
Screenshot (in the cross-section photo, it is next to Zagadka Prirody / Nature’s Riddle).
