A mid-to-later season, indeterminate beefsteak that reliably produces large (10–20 oz), slightly oblate fruits with deep mahogany-brick red skin and heavy purple-black shoulders. In strong sunlight the shoulders often retain prominent dark green streaking.
 
Flavor is rich, complex, smoky-sweet and full-bodied. Potato-leaf plants are remarkably vigorous, healthy, and productive, regularly setting fruit all summer long on sturdy vines.

HISTORY: True Black Brandywine is an heirloom tomato bred in the late 1920s by Dr. Harold E. Martin (1888–1959), a dentist and amateur plant breeder based in Westtown, Pennsylvania, near West Chester. He intentionally crossed the pink Brandywine with Fejee Improved (also known as the original brown Beefsteak or True Beefsteak), a now-rare variety, to create this dark purple-black beefsteak with rich, complex flavor. Dr. Martin was selective about sharing his work—he also bred and commercially released Dr. Martin's Lima Bean, but kept the tomato mostly private, distributing seeds only to a few trusted friends, seemingly including the grandfather of seed saver and food writer William Woys Weaver. It was publicly released around 2008 under the name "True Black Brandywine" (or sometimes "True Brandywine Black") to distinguish it from later black Brandywine strains.
 
Sold as a single plant in a 3.5" pot.