Chocolate Miracle tomato review
My first Chocolate Miracle is ripe enough to review. This variety is proving to be my number one performer this summer, smoking commercial hybrids growing next to her right out of the water.
Bred in Novosibirsk Russia around 2005, this Siberian variety is meant for short seasons/cooler climates.
I am growing mine in the hot, humid, subtropical summer of central NC. Her immediate neighbors to either side are Celebrity and Mountain Fresh - commercial hybrids bred very specifically for my kind of climate.
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And yet.
My Siberian wonder has outperformed the localized hybrids in every category.
She was the first one to set fruit. Kellogg's Breakfast and Pineapple were still thinking about maaaaybe putting out their first flower when she already had tennis ball size tomatoes on her. Blue Beauty and Black Beauty followed right behind, but couldn't catch up.
She was the first to ripen. I'm growing 14 varieties for our very first tomato garden. The only plants that ripened fruit before Chocolate Miracle were the cherry hybrids SS100 and Tidy Treats. I'm yet to taste any of the Sungolds while I already have a ripe beefsteak to put on the table. She's fast!
She has twice more fruit (currently at 15, and we are just in the first week of July) that are at least twice larger than her neighbors'.
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She's not a big plant. I'm too new to tell for sure, but she's probably a semi-determinate. She's right around 4'-4.5', including the 15" tall grow bag she's in. She's covered in fruit of different maturity stages, so I'm guessing she's not a determinate. Yet she's short and not sprawling. Quite polite and easy to manage. She only has a short cage as I ran out of space on the trellis, and she seems happy with it. She's very healthy and has sailed through several brutal heat waves quite successfully. When we went to 100 F, she dropped about half of her flowers, but the other half still set fruit!
Her fruit is large. This particular one was at 294 grams, two more of the same size are currently ripening on the counter, and the ones that are still on the plant are either the same size or bigger. The one near her top looks to be massive and will likely finish at over 1 lb. I'm not into size when it comes to tomatoes, but that one looks impressive. They're all uniform in shape - a pretty round beefsteak, without much pleating up top. None of her current babies are catfaced, they all have neat, clean little butts.
The fruit is very pretty looking and absolutely drop dead delicious. Tasting it today made for plenty of ooohs and aaaahs, even from my otherwise pretty stoic spouse.
Chocolate Miracle is both meaty and juicy at the same time, with small seed cavities and large but not overly numerous seeds. The fruit has absolutely no core - the red flesh extends all the way to the top. The skin is clear, not yellow, very thin and unobtrusive on the tongue - yet it seems strong and resilient, keeping the fruit from cracking. There isn't a whole lot of tomato smell when cut, but once in your mouth, it explodes with multitude of rich notes. Velvety smooth, saturated texture, very complex flavor with great sugar, equally great, yet polite acidity, and a hint of smokiness humming on your tongue in a low undertone. This is not a mild tomato. It's out there, and yet it's delicate enough to not punch you in the face. If I were to describe her flavor in just two words, it would be "deep and complex".
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We enjoyed it cut into thin slices with basil, salt, and olive oil. But not before I gently scooped out half a teaspoon of seeds.
While I'm only a first year gardener, I've eaten a lot of good tomatoes in my life. This is easily the second best tomato I've ever had, and I'd be really upset at myself if I didn't save a few seeds for next year. Especially considering I bought her as a seedling and would worry if I went and bought seeds, it wouldn't be the same. This variety seems a bit obscure - some sellers describe it as determinate, some as indeterminate, some call it Chocolate Miracle, while others call it Chocolate Wonder, etc. It's all conflicting enough to where I wasn't sure I'd be getting the same thing if I bought seeds.
I also rooted one of her suckers 6 weeks ago as an extra insurance. It's already almost as tall as its mother and is currently flowering.