What Do Purple Tomatoes Taste Like?

You may have seen tomatoes in more hues than just red — yellow or orange kinds, for instance — but a certain violet variety just might knock your socks off. First introduced in spring 2024, the Purple Tomato from Norfolk Healthy Produce is a bioengineered variety that features fruit with purple skin, flesh, and seeds. Scientist Cathie Martin spent the previous 20 years developing this unusual tomato, which gets its striking color from genes from the edible snapdragon plant. Martin drew on decades-old techniques that use bacteria to insert foreign genes into plants, creating a lab-born tomato that can reproduce naturally.

Despite the vibrant purple hue — which is present throughout the tomato, unlike other dusky-colored varieties, such as the heirloom Cherokee Purple — a Purple Tomato ultimately still tastes like a tomato! The fruits are less acidic than their red-skinned cousins, and boast a sweeter, richer taste, but the flavor differences are relatively subtle. 

Currently, Purple Tomatoes are only available in a cherry tomato size. These gems are ideal for snacking, topping a salad, or gracing a tomato crostini with herbed goat cheese, but unripe ones could also be fried or pickled. Plenty of pastas can also get a flavor boost from sliced cherry tomatoes; even Giada De Laurentiis loves to roast them in the oven. Bottom line: Purple Tomatoes are a sweet, tasty, and colorful stand-in for your favorite cherry varieties.

Purple Tomatoes are more than just a pretty-looking novelty. While snapdragon genes may be the conduit, powerful antioxidants called anthocyanins — also present in blueberries, purple potatoes, red cabbage, and more — are what really give this variety its deep purple color. Anthocyanins have been found to reduce the risk of certain cancers and cardiovascular disease, making these tomatoes as nutritionally beneficial as they are beautiful. Since Americans eat more tomatoes than other anthocyanin-rich produce (such as blueberries), Norfolk Healthy Produce hopes that its bioengineered creation will make the disease-fighting antioxidants more accessible to the average consumer (via NPR).

Intrigued by Purple Tomatoes? So is everyone else — and they are pretty hard to find. Norfolk Healthy Produce began selling Purple Tomato seeds online in February 2024, which sold out after just one month. However, various farmer's markets and restaurants across the U.S. offer Purple Tomatoes, while the co-branded Empress Limited Edition tomatoes, grown in partnership with Red Sun Farms, are currently available in select grocery stores in North Carolina and Virginia.