Chocolate Zebra (Shokoladnaya Zebra) Siberian Tomato Review - Heirloom Tomato Varieties & Reviews

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Quick Summary of Shokoladnaya Zebra (Chocolate Zebra)

🌍 Origin: A commercial Russian variety (released by Siberian Garden / SibSad). The name translates to “Chocolate Zebra”.
🌿 Plant Habit: Determinate / Semi-dwarf. The bushes are quite compact, usually growing only 1 to 1.2 meters (3.2 to 4 ft) tall. Despite their small stature, they are incredibly productive. Growers recommend training them to 2 or 3 stems.
🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Large, oblate (flattened-round) beefsteaks with a stunning dark striped pattern. The fruits are surprisingly massive for such a short plant, typically weighing 250-450g (9-16 oz), with some reaching over 600g (1.4 lbs).
👅 Flavor: Good, meaty tomato flavor. Opinions vary slightly: some growers find it to be their top-tasting striped variety, while others rate it slightly below the famous Chocolate Stripes.
⏳ Maturity: Early to mid-early. It is known to start ripening significantly earlier than taller striped varieties.

🍅 Grown this variety? Click here to add your own photos and review below!

Valentina-11 (Valentina) ⭐ Member (49 posts)

📍 Poltava, Ukraine (USDA Zone 5)

Shokoladnaya Zebra is in the top tier of the best tomatoes I grew in ’21.

Grown in Poltava. Open ground. The bush is 1m-1.2m (3.2-4 ft) tall. I trained it mostly to 2 stems (maybe 3). Early, mid-early season. The fruits are large, 250-450 g (9-16 oz). Beefsteak type. It is very similar to Chocolate Stripes (Полосатый шоколад) and Amur Tiger (Амурский тигр), except the plant is shorter. And for me, it tasted better initially and ripens much earlier.

Yulia Antsifrova (Yulia) ⭐ Member (191 posts)

📍 Medyn, Kaluga Region, Russia (USDA Zone 4)

I planted Shokoladnaya Zebra from Siberian Garden (SibSad) in the greenhouse this year. I really liked the bush—average height is 1m (3.2 ft), very productive. The fruits are oblate (flattened-round) with a wonderfully beautiful color. And they are very large for such a small plant! The weight range was 180-662g (6-23 oz), predominantly large tomatoes, very few small ones (180-200g).

However, taste-wise it was just average for me; it lost by a wide margin to Kozula 179 and the leader among striped ones for flavor, Chocolate Stripes. Nevertheless, I liked the variety. I’m starting to build a collection of interesting semi-dwarfs (compact determinates) exactly like Shokoladnaya Zebra.