There are both green and purple tomatillo varieties -- odds are, there were some purple seeds mixed in with the green ones, sometimes a seed sticks in the machine which packs them, that sort of thing. The green ones turn yellowish with a brown husk when fully ripe, the purple turns turn a dull purple with yellowish tinges and a brown husk when fully ripe. I personally don't notice much difference in flavor between the green and purple, but the purple ones I grew a few years back were smaller than the green, so were more of a pain to process. I haven't grown them since. I personally am fond of the really big green ones, am growing 'Gigante' from Burpee this year, and some of them are almost four inches across.

Did you notice any taste difference between the purple and yellow tomatillos?

I am planning on growing some purple tomatillos next year from SSE.

Dean

You know Katib I find the same. I am growing green tomatillos but from time to time I find a purple one. Not sure why, it seems to be the same as growing corn, i grew blue corn, but some of the kernels were white, others red. Mutations maybe?

Well, the jury is in. I cooked up those purple tomatillos to make some salsa and it turned out so sweet! I could not believe the difference. Usually the tomatillos don't add a ton of flavor, but this time they did. I had thrown a nice homegrown jalapeno in the mix, so it came out sweet at first with a nice slow burn. I am shocked at the difference in flavor.

My son noted the sweetness of the salsa verde with purple tomatillos, we did need to add extra hot pepper to balance....