The purple calabash, a rather new variety from the early 1990s, belongs to the group of beef tomatoes. The large, flattened fruits are ribbed and chambered and are brown to black at the base of the stalk. The red tone is a bit more burgundy in colour. The purple calabash tastes sweet and very aromatic, as one would otherwise expect from the much smaller cocktail tomatoes.

Like all tomato cultivars, this is edible raw and cooked. Tomatoes are one of the most widely used fruits in the world, especially in stews, as cold (ketchup) and hot sauces, and are even used sometimes in jam, as juice (e.g. sangrita) and in cocktails (Bloody Mary). As tomato paste they are used as thickeners and seasonings. Especially their content of lycopene (only in red tomatoes) and many other vitamins makes them valuable food plants.

• Edible Fruits
• Type of Fruit Berry
• Culinary Group Fruit vegetables
• Taste Umami
• Trivial Names (variety) Purpurkalebasse, Purpur-Kalebasse, Purple Calabash, Schokoladentomate
• Trivial Names (tomatoes in general) Paradeiser, Paradeisapfel, Paradiesapfel, Liebesapfel, Goldapfel, Pomodoro, Tomato
• Size 8 cm
• Taxonomy Solanaceae (Nightshade famliy) Solanum lycopersicum 'Purple Calabash'
• Origin (Tomatoes in general) Mesoamerica (Map)
• Received by Gaby Försterling, Naturgarten Hessen 2017