Hummus, which translates to “chickpea” in Arabic, is an ancient and beloved food. It’s typically made from a handful of humble ingredients: chickpeas, tahini (sesame seed paste), lemon, and salt.
Chickpeas, also called garbanzo beans, are one of the first cultivated legumes. For more than 10,000 years they have been eaten in the Fertile Crescent, an area named for its fruitful land that includes modern-day southern Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, and Egypt, and parts of Turkey and Iran. Hummus is a staple in meze, an assortment of small appetizer dishes common in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisines. It’s also served warm as a side dish with a drizzle of olive oil or eaten as the centerpiece of a meal. In the United States, hummus is typically enjoyed as a dip and sandwich spread.
Which Hummus Should We Taste?
In the 1980s, packaged hummus began to gain popularity in U.S. stores. Since then, hummus sales have skyrocketed, with market size ballooning to nearly $1 billion in the United States. For this story, we gathered top-selling nationally available products as identified by Circana, a Chicago-based market research firm, focusing on brands widely available in American supermarkets. We also included Trader Joe’s hummus as superfans of the chain rave about it. However, if you’re lucky enough to live near a smaller shop that makes their own hummus or sells smaller, harder-to-find brands, make sure to check them out. Supermarket store shelves are packed with different versions of hummus, such as lentil, edamame, white bean, olive, jalapeño, lemon beet, mango, dill pickle, and even chocolate. We tasted each company’s original-flavored hummus in order to keep comparisons as alike as possible, trying each plain and with pita.
How Is American Supermarket Hummus Made?
Commercial hummus manufacturers usually keep their methods proprietary, but we learned from our research that most begin the process with dried chickpeas. Dried chickpeas must be separated from any debris accumulated during harvesting before being washed and soaked in water. Often baking soda is added to loosen the chickpeas’ skins. Once the soaked chickpeas have softened and expanded, they are cooked. The cooked chickpeas are then run through a grinder before being combined with additional ingredients such as water, tahini, assorted oils, an acid such as lemon or citric acid, salt, and sometimes garlic or cumin.
Some manufacturers use ingredients such as guar gum to thicken and bind their hummus or use potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate to extend a product’s shelf life. Companies may whip their hummus to achieve a desired consistency. Most store-bought hummus is pasteurized before being packaged and sealed.
Ingredients that are quite common in American packaged hummus, such as cumin for example, aren’t necessarily common in other locales. Our ATK colleague, Test Cook Laila Ibrahim, who is Palestinian-Jordanian, explained that Levantine-style hummus is prepared simply. If it includes ingredients other than chickpeas, tahini, and salt, they are “a very light touch of lemon, optional garlic that shouldn’t be detectable, and never ever cumin.” Supermarket hummus found in U.S. supermarkets are not meant to exactly replicate hummus from the regions they represent. Like many other packaged foods, hummus has been tailored to the expectations of their target market: American consumers.
How Ingredients Affect the Final Flavor of Hummus
Some of the products we tasted were very lemony and others were very tahini-forward, while still others had prominent garlic or cumin notes. To determine what made the hummus products differ, we first looked at the nutrition labels. There was a range in both fat levels and sodium levels, but neither factor ultimately influenced our tasters’ preferences. We learned more by looking at the ingredient labels.
All of the hummus we tasted contained garlic; one had roasted garlic, and tasters picked up on the difference, noting its “nutty,” “deep flavor.” Every hummus in our lineup contained an acid—typically either lemon or citric acid—to balance the richness of the chickpeas and tahini. However, one hummus contained a surprising addition: vinegar. Tasters commented on that product’s “vibrant” acidity, and some balked at the sourness.
Tasters picked up on the “nutty,” “deep flavor” of roasted garlic in one hummus and the tang of vinegar in another.
Although every product we tasted contained tahini, tahini’s flavor can vary greatly. The sesame seeds used to make it can have natural flavor that’s on a spectrum from nutty-sweet to bitter-tasting, they can be used hulled or unhulled (hulls can also contribute bitterness), or they can be raw, lightly toasted, or deeply toasted; how they are processed affects the flavor of the tahini and therefore the hummus. Tahini flavor came down to personal preference; some folks wanted more rich and roasty tahini, some wanted less.
What Affects Hummus’s Texture?
The consistency of hummus—how loose or how thick it is—is partially determined by how much water manufacturers added during processing. Guar gum, an additional ingredient included in roughly half the products in our lineup, serves to thicken and prevent weeping, and products containing it were notably thicker.
The graininess we observed in one product was likely due to how coarsely the chickpeas were ground. A grainy mouthfeel can also occur if not enough of the chickpeas’ skins have been removed. We tended to prefer smoother hummus. The product we tasted that was notably light and fluffy was likely whipped during processing, incorporating air. Tasters approved, calling it “luscious.”
Which Hummus Should I Buy?
There is no “best” hummus. It’s a varied food with deep roots across cultures. We provided tasting notes on each product so that you can dial into the hummus you like. However, we did have an overall favorite: Joseph’s All Natural Original Hommus. It was “thick and creamy” and was “very well balanced between the tahini and the lemon.” We’ve listed each hummus we tasted below according to our tasters’ preference.
- Taste plain
- Taste with pita
- Samples were randomized and assigned three-digit codes to prevent bias
