PlantFiles: Tomato
Lycopersicon lycopersicum 'Japanese Black Trifele'

I have to agree with some on the flavor.. It wasn't watery, but it certainly wasn't the smoky/deep/earthy flavor I was hoping for from a dark variety. It was fairly ordinary in taste, and not the best producer either.

Japanese in the name of this tomato ( some people were wondering why a Russian by origin tomato was calles Japanese) means that it was an unusual tomato at the time. A lot of plant names with 'Chinese'' or 'Japanese' in names mean that they were novelty, exotic things.

Watery tomato, doesn't taste as good as any of the other black tomatoes I tried. However if one lets it get really ripe the taste improves later in the season. The fruit are more oblong than round, and don't have any catfacing.

One of the best tasting black tomatoes, as good as Paul Robeson. Great color, moderate production. It has a permanent spot in my garden.

JBT is a pretty good black tomato. It is certainly not my favorite black tomato for flavor, but it is not the worst either. The pear shape is very cute. The plant is fairly compact (4 foot maximum height), is extremely prolific, and had no problems with disease. JBT was one of the first to ripen in my garden.

I think I'm with Sequee, although I'm not going to call it the absolute worst tasting I've ever grown. Pretty darned low on my taste list, though. Seemed rather mealy.
I may try it one more year, but I'm not at all sure it's worth the space.

Bar none, this is the worst tasting home-grown I have ever tasted. There is a fine line between ripe and over-ripe, and if you cross that line, they have a rotten taste. Worked well for sauce, though, and heaven knows they were prolific. Kept right on going until the frost hit, but I couldn't even give them away for fresh eating.

I love this tomato! It’s becoming a fast favorite. Like Russian Nesting Dolls, JBT has the biggest tomato close to the stem, and smallest at the end of each cluster. Fruits ripen to burgundy, but I love them best when it's somewhat garnet. It's almost like a jewel. It has that sheen...

Here in my garden, it's up to par with the well-regarded 'Black Krim' - - - the Tomato Police may get me on this, but JBT is doing beautifully here in Corte Madera, CA.

Japanese Black Trifele will return to the garden next year.

I grew this tomato in 2008 in upstate NY. It was very prolific and very tasty. It made more tomatoes than any of my other varieties and kept up producing when the others were pooping out. Great for sauce. Shoulders do take much longer to ripen than the body. When making sauce, I cut off the shoulders.

I grew this variety for fall crop, and didn't pick fruits until Dec, so it's hard to make an accurate evaluation of flavor. Considering the weather, flavor was fairly good.

I grew this tomato last year. The taste almost seemed like sage had been grown next to it and it picked up the flavor. It may be an acquired taste, but I liked it.

One of my favorite black tomatoes. Its Russian in origin, no one seems to know where the Japanese name came from. Unique shape, I can't think of anyother tomato like it, It is like the the early spacecraft that John Glenn and the early astronauts flew in. taste is similar to Black Krim. Fairly prolific but quit after awhile. Still a real winner!