Quick Summary: Shokoladnoye Chudo (Chocolate Miracle)
- 🌍 Origin: A highly popular Russian commercial variety, heavily popularized by the “Siberian Garden” (SibSad) seed company.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Controversial! The commercial packet lists it as a determinate bush. However, nearly all growers report it growing as an indeterminate or a very vigorous semi-determinate, reaching 1.5 to 2 meters (5 to 6.5 ft) in a greenhouse.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Large, flat-round (oblate) beefsteaks. The color is not quite “milk chocolate” as advertised, but rather a rich dark mahogany / black-pink. Fruits average 200-400g (7-14 oz), with some massive specimens reaching 750g (1.6 lbs). The skin is notably thin.
- 👅 Flavor & Texture: Highly rated by most growers as sweet, meaty, and juicy. However, because it is a dark tomato, it requires plenty of sunshine; in cold, cloudy, or excessively wet summers, the flavor can become bland or overly acidic.
- ☔ Cracking: Due to its very thin skin, this variety is highly susceptible to cracking on the vine, especially if watering is inconsistent or if grown outdoors in the rain.
🕵️♂️ The Mystery of SibSad’s “Lot 1275”
If you read through the forum thread below, you will witness a hilarious and frustrating phenomenon unique to commercial Russian seed packing. For almost a decade (from 2013 to 2021), the company Siberian Garden kept selling seeds of this variety under the exact same batch number: Lot 1275, simply printing new expiration dates on the packets every few years.
The result? “Lot 1275” became legendary for producing massive off-types (mix-ups). Depending on the year they bought the packet, growers ended up with giant pink oxhearts, red beefsteaks, and occasionally, the actual Chocolate Miracle. If you buy commercial seeds of this variety, be prepared for a potential garden surprise!
Its color isn’t “milk chocolate” at all, it’s black-pink. Mine are up to 400g (14 oz). The bush hasn’t topped itself off (determinated) yet, I think it’s an indeterminate variety, even though the packet says determinate.
Elena, how does it taste?
I don’t know, it just tastes like a tomato to me. But they say the red-black ones are tastier.
Are those seeds from “Siberian Garden” (SibSad)?
Yes.
I also planted this miracle from SibSad. Elena, yours looks like the picture on the packet, which means it’s not a mix-up (off-type)… that’s good!
Girls, mine is growing and setting fruit quite well already!
I have this one too, but it’s only just starting to bloom so far.
Elena, Chocolate Miracle truly is a miracle, it was on my planting list this year, but I postponed it to next year 📝. I have SibSad seeds.
It’s so good that the color is rich! I was doubting its tastiness when they called it “milk chocolate,” but this is… good. I liked it already in the seedling stage, it’s growing well and setting fruit, but they are still small and green for now.
My first Chocolate Miracle has ripened. If all the tomatoes look like this on the inside, I will definitely plant this variety again!
Irinka, so beautiful and delicious. I want a miracle too. Does it crack on the bush?
I can’t say definitively about cracking. So far, all the fruits on my bushes are intact. But I’ve only picked two of the very first ones. I didn’t keep them on the vine until they were overripe.
I think these tomatoes will be great for sun-drying; they are meaty and won’t dry up into just skin.
Quote from Sofia:
I want a miracle too.
You will have it if you want it. 😉 Remind me closer to autumn, maybe you’ll want something else from my collection by then too.
Quote from Sofia:
Does it crack on the bush?
It cracks, the skin is thin.
See! Once again I am convinced that a tomato’s skin depends on the growing conditions. Almost all our tomatoes have thick skins. I think the plant adapts this way to our unstable, unfavorable climate. Thick skin helps preserve the offspring. So the skin on my Chocolate Miracle is thick and dense.
Knock on wood, mine aren’t cracking so far!
This is it when it’s not yet overripe.
My black oblate tomatoes cracked too. I protected them so carefully, picked them whole, set them aside, and half an hour later I look—and they’ve cracked.
I planted 2014 seeds from SibSad, Lot 1275, expiration date 12.16. It was a mix-up (off-type)! Out of 4 planted, one grew with dark burgundy tomatoes, and the other three were pink, heart-shaped, sweet and tasty. I saved the seeds, but I wonder what variety it actually was?
Quote from Lyubov:
I planted 2014 seeds from SibSad, Lot 1275…
Oh, the exact same song for me! 3 out of 4 plants were Chocolate Miracle, and one was a bright crimson heart of massive size. It had slight ribbing at the top near the stem, which distinguished it from other hearts. I also saved seeds and even planted them, it was just too good. Yes, the lot number and expiration date match exactly.
The actual Chocolate Miracle itself wasn’t very productive in the greenhouse, especially on the upper trusses, but it’s a tasty and beautiful tomato. I got the impression that this variety is actually better suited for open ground.
This year I plan to put it in open ground; there were few tomatoes, the taste was good but we didn’t really get to properly taste it at the same time.
Quote from Lyubov:
I planted 2014 seeds from SibSad, Lot 1275…
Quote from KsenaZ:
Oh, the exact same song for me!
And I have the exact same thing! Out of two plants, one looks like Chocolate Miracle, and the other—red oblate ones, but tasty, I saved the seeds. The lot number is the same, only the expiration date is 12.15. Why did SibSad just toss random seeds in for everyone?
My “Chocolate Miracle” in open ground reached up to 450 grams (16 oz), but there weren’t many on the bush, maybe 5-7 pieces. The upper flowers dried up (maybe due to the weather). The color is somewhat brownish-greenish, but underneath the green skin near the stem, the flesh is fully ripe. The taste is sweet, but not vibrant; I would call it bland-sweet, it lacked acidity for me. The skin is very tender, they all cracked on the bush, and they don’t store long.
In the greenhouse, it was slightly over 1 meter (3.2 ft). Tasty, with green shoulders, but not hard ones. The fruits aren’t very large, juicy. Yield was below average.
I grew it again this year, but didn’t get the desired result like on the picture. The taste is good, yield average, color is dark crimson, and 1 bush was a mix-up (off-type) again. And I really wanted a brown one.
Mine is also from SibSad. Planted it for the third year. In the greenhouse, the height is almost 1.6m (5.2 ft). I wouldn’t say it’s highly productive; I don’t get super yields in general, my conditions aren’t right. But it is tasty, matches the shape and color on the picture. Yes, it doesn’t store long, but it’s a salad type after all…
Grew in a small hoop house. Bush height – up to 1.6 m (5.2 ft). Yield per bush from 2.7 to 3.2 kg (6 to 7 lbs). Tasty, beautiful, a great slicer, large fruits. I liked it very much, will definitely plant it next year. Seeds from SibSad.
The variety turned out to be late-ripening for me, but I liked the taste.
Grew it in the greenhouse trained to 2 stems. The largest was 680 g (1.5 lbs), delicious. It got almost 2 meters (6.5 ft) tall. Very productive. All the trusses had to be supported. While it was green, the top was darker, but when ripe there were no green shoulders. Thin skin. During storage, if it touched a neighboring tomato, it got dented—you can’t stack them in a second layer. They stored for about 10 days. I definitely harvested a full bucket from each bush.
My Chocolate Miracle variety turned out to have an amazing taste. Very sweet, with crimson-colored flesh. In the greenhouse, it was about 1.5 meters (5 ft) tall. Set fruit decently, but there were some skipped trusses.
Good day everyone, I bought Chocolate Miracle from SibSad this year and decided to read up on what people think about it? 🙄 It gets even funnier—my lot number is also 1275, but the expiration date is up to 2019?? I understand they have buckets of seeds there, but why keep extending the expiration date every year if the lot number remains exactly the same?! 😲 What should I expect then, if I understand correctly that they have been packing this same batch since 2013? 😂 And I really want to plant it, the reviews are quite good. Please respond, who else has this lot number?
I have lot 1275 up to 12.2019.
I also have lot 1275 and an expiration date of 12.2019. 😲
Lot 1275 up to 12.2019.
Bought it last year.
Germination was good, 19 out of 20.
There were no mix-ups (off-types). I really liked the tomato.
Quote from Natalya V.:
Lot 1275 up to 12.2019… No off-types. I really liked the tomato.
How do they even manage this, maybe there is a “deficit” of numbers! We will see, maybe I’ll get lucky, it’s just a pity to waste effort and time for nothing ???
My Chocolate Miracle turned out to be a 2-in-1: tasteless and ugly…
Oblate (rather flat), not prone to cracking, the flesh on the cut is crimson with blackish and green tints. Quite vibrant, yes.
But the taste, I would say, is mediocre, with a sourness and sharpness. And the skin of the fruits is colored dully, pinkish-brown.
I have no complaints against the seed producer (Batatoviye Kuschi), germination was excellent, the seedlings were beautiful and strong, the fruits were true to type.
I simply didn’t like the variety itself.
Quote from Loshadka:
My Chocolate Miracle turned out to be a 2-in-1: tasteless and ugly…
In previous years, I planted Chocolate Miracle and Appetitniy from SibSad. They turned out to be absolutely identical varieties. But tasty, meaty. This year I planted Big Chief, Morado, Longhorn, Qingdao, Cherokee Purple, Purple Strawberry, Reinhard’s Choc Heart, Large Red Stripes Inside, Giant of Cuba Black, Cuban Pepper-shaped—all wonderful varieties, but the taste wasn’t particularly expressive. The reason is the weather—there were few sunny days. And this is in the Central Black Earth Region! If there is sun, there will be taste 👍
Irina, that’s very possible, the summer wasn’t great this year.
However, other varieties grew nearby under the exact same conditions, and some of them were quite tasty—Malakhitovaya Shkatulka (Malachite Box), Bychie Serdtse (Oxheart)…
This year we also had very little sun, but the tomatoes were tasty with normal sweetness, and Chocolate Miracle turned out to be very tasty…… as a red heart! I saved the seeds, as long as it wasn’t an F1 hybrid, it was a lucky mix-up (off-type) 😂 I’ll try to buy a packet from a different batch, I still want to test the real one.
I bought SibSad seeds, Lot 1275, expiration date 12.2021…
Judging by the fact that everyone has Lot 1275 and good germination, but different things (including obvious off-types) grow from different packets of this lot across different years, it seems there is a labeling error, and the batches are actually different. I just don’t understand why? Maybe some specific documentation was obtained for this one batch number… overall, it’s weird.
My Chocolate Miracle 2019 (the large tomato in the center of the first photo). SibSad seeds. Good germination, bush height in the greenhouse was 1.5m (5 ft). Yield compared to other varieties was low, but very tasty. I think I will plant it again.
Grew it in 2019 in open ground without cover. I really liked the variety, however, my tomatoes cracked severely. The plant dropped almost all its flowers, but the 1-2 tomatoes that did set on the bush weighed about 750 g (1.6 lbs). The variety is resilient, didn’t catch Late Blight. Will plant it in 2020 too.
I didn’t even know SibSad had Chocolate Miracle, my seeds are from Minsk, absolutely no off-types (mix-ups). Planted it for the first time, a very successful variety: delicious fruits, uniform, slightly flattened, a rich dark crimson color. Beautiful, especially when sliced. The skin—yes, it’s thin, but it didn’t crack, probably because it was in the greenhouse, and we don’t water the tomatoes in there.
About 200 – 300g (7-10.5 oz), but there are 500g (1.1 lbs) ones too, very few seeds. Not a late variety, fruiting is extended over time, so the yield is decent. Quite tall, right up to the roof, didn’t get sick despite the cold summer. Will definitely plant again.
