The Best Hummus Brands You Can Buy [Taste Test!]

The best hummus is creamy, chickpea-forward, and perfectly seasoned. It is good eaten by the spoonful as well as on a chip or in a pita or on a pita chip. True hummus purists will tell you that the best hummus is made at home. But we think you can find some seriously good hummus at the grocery store. 

Depending on who you ask, hummus has either never been better or never been worse. The flavored hummus trend is getting out of control. There’s apple pie hummus, thai coconut curry hummus, Buffalo style hummus, and a brownie batter dessert hummus. Hummus is sliding into dip territory—and hummus is so much more than that. Sporked contributor Danny Palumbo is particularly bothered by the phenomenon. “Can I add green beans, fried onions, and a can of mushroom soup to a chickpea puree and call it green bean casserole hummus?” he poses. “Moreover, if I did that, should I still be allowed to vote?” 

Anyway, let’s get back to the task at hand: finding the best hummus brand. 
Here’s what we look for in the best hummus (flavored or not): We want a smooth, creamy  texture. We want to be able to taste four key ingredients (chickpeas, tahini, garlic, and lemon) even if it’s a flavored hummus. If the lemon tastes too much like citric acid, the hummus gets docked points. If the tahini doesn’t shine enough, docked points. If you put a picture of garlic on the package and it tastes nothing like garlic, docked points. Hummus is a delicate balance; it’s a marriage of great ingredients in one gorgeously simple spread. Mouth watering yet? Check out our list of the best store bought hummus.

Best Sandwich Hummus

Sure, Tribe Hummus did some really weird crap back in 2009 when they decided to make pizza flavored hummus, but their classic hummus is pretty good. It’s tangy, creamy, and will do the job just fine. It’s thick and flavorful, so it’s the best hummus to spread onto a sandwich or some flatbread. There’s also a subtle cumin flavor here that’s different from the rest. Sandwiches need spice, don’t ya know. If you like tangy hummus and spiced undertones, Tribe is the best brand of hummus. — Danny Palumbo

Credit: Ryan Martin / Instacart

Rating:

5/10

Sporks

Best Lunchbox Hummus

This is the best hummus for the busy human or alien-inhabiting-a-human’s-body on the go. The flavor here is admittedly tame, but maybe that’s your thing. Plus, you get a lot of little individual cups of hummus for the price. A cup of Kirkland hummus would be a great lunch addition for any child or adult. Speaking of which, it blows my mind that kids now eat hummus for lunch. I grew up in Pennsylvania in the ‘90s. We ate frozen chicken patties slathered in mayonnaise, sheet tray pizza loaded with sugary tomato sauce, and strawberry milk. School lunch used to be lawless. But, hummus is healthy. We should all be eating hummus. Now excuse me while I Google “where to buy strawberry milk.” — Danny Palumbo

Credit: Ryan Martin / Amazon

Rating:

6/10

Sporks

Best with Crudités

The flavor of this Target-brand hummus is mostly lemon (see the ingredients: concentrated lemon juice and citric acid), but there’s still a lovely creaminess that makes it shine. Pairing the sharp acidity with some sweet carrots or crunchy cauliflower is a no-brainer. Good & Gather doesn’t score high marks in the tahini, garlic, or chickpea categories, but the tanginess is wonderful and it’s the best brand of hummus for raw vegetables. — Danny Palumbo

Credit: Ryan Martin / Target

Rating:

7/10

Sporks

Best for a Bowl

If you love the earthy sweetness of beets, then this is the best hummus to satisfy your flavored hummus fantasies. With that sweetness comes lemony zestiness, and that is really what takes this hummus from good to great. Plus, it’s a gorgeous hue of pink—straight out of a Lisa Frank paint palette. It feels like something you would get as an option at Cava or another Chipotle-esque Mediterranean spot. And I’d recommend using it as such—scoop some into a bowl with grains and roasted veggies and other toppings. — Justine Sterling

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

7/10

Sporks

Best for Game Day

Yes, the Buffalo sauce flavor in this flavored hummus is good. It’s tangy and spicy. And that’s great. But what I think is really cool is that it also tastes like celery sticks. I’m pretty sure that’s the ranch flavor attempting to come through, but it ends up tasting like celery—like the stuff you have with Buffalo wings. And that tastes great when combined with creamy chickpeas and tahini. I think you could totally go wild and dip a chicken wing into this hummus. — Justine Sterling

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

7/10

Sporks

Best Almost Homemade

We want our hummus to taste like chickpeas and Roots hummus definitely tastes like chickpeas. It’s a bit more rustic than some of the other store bought hummus brands on this list, and I love that. It has an earthy flavor and an earthy texture—more grainy, like it was freshly made in a food processor at home. It’s vibrant and vegetal—almost carrot-y? But the true charm is the texture. It’s not at all gummy like some hummus can become when it’s over processed. This is the best hummus for the texture freaks out there like me. — Justine Sterling

Credit: Liv Averett / Kroger

Rating:

7/10

Sporks

Best Spicy

Before you ask, yes, hummus and hommus are the same thing. It’s just a matter of spelling. And this hommus is shockingly good. You don’t even need to like hot honey to think that it’s some of the best spicy hummus on the market. It’s topped with a pile of chile flakes and laced with just enough honey to add depth and intrigue. You really can’t take just one bite; you need to have another just to figure out what the heck you just tasted. If you can’t handle heat, you can’t handle this. But if you can manage some red pepper flakes on your pizza, you can take this level of spice. It’s the best hummus brand for heat seekers.  — Justine Sterling

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

7.5/10

Sporks

Best Restaurant Quality

It’s creamy, it’s nutty, and it’s brightly acidic. This is exactly the type of hummus we expect when we sit down at a Lebanese restaurant. It’s got that beautiful hummus swirl, and there’s almost a hint of onion that you’ll find attractive (although no onions are listed in the ingredients). Simply put, Fresh n’ Nova made our mouths water. — Danny Palumbo

Credit: Ryan Martin / Whole Foods

Rating:

7.5/10

Sporks

Best Fresh Hummus

Ithaca hummus is thick. This isn’t a droopy and watery spread like some other hummus brands. Like, careful you don’t lose your pita chips in this garbanzo bean quicksand. Still, Ithaca has an exceptionally lemony tang, garlicky bite, and nutty taste. Confidently spread this onto a sandwich and bring it to the beach or on a hike. Dip vegetables in it. Eat it with flatbread. Ithaca hummus goes with everything because it has serious flavor. Also, there’s no citric acid. The container tells you to “enjoy within 7 days of opening.” This is as fresh as store bought hummus gets and that makes it one of the best store bought hummus brands. — Danny Palumbo

Credit: Ryan Martin / Amazon

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

Best Chunky

I won’t say anything about the name or how I guess it’s the same hummus Jesus ate when he was a boy. Instead, I’ll talk about the unique texture of this hummus. It is rustic. It’s downright chunky. And it’s topped with a lot of paprika, pureed red pepper, and whole pine nuts. It’s an appetizer in a tub. The only thing it’s lacking is a spritz of lemon, but that makes this some of the best hummus for people who are sensitive to acidity. — Justine Sterling

Credit: Liv Averett / Fresh Direct

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

Best Traditional

Cava hummus is creamy. You know a good whipped mashed potato with a ton of butter and milk? That gives you an idea what Cava hummus is like. The flavor is perfectly balanced. You taste the nutty earthiness of the tahini, the tanginess from the lemon, and a subtle hint of garlic near the end. Also, this is one of the only brands of hummus where you can actually taste the chickpeas. This is way up there on our list of the best hummus brands. — Danny Palumbo

Credit: Ryan Martin / Amazon

Rating:

9/10

Sporks

Best of the Best

This was the number one best hummus after our initial taste test. And it’s still tied for first. The flavoris superb. The roasted garlic in the mix has a deep garlicky flavor with none of the pungency of the raw stuff. The hummus itself is thick, not watery, and it’s got a nice balance of sesame flavor and lemon to boot. Really great stuff here. Roasted garlic should be in way more things. — Danny Palumbo

Credit: Ryan Martin / Amazon

Rating:

9/10

Sporks

Best of the Best

This extremely creamy hummus is the newly crowned best store bought hummus in our ranking. It has an unbelievably good tahini-forward flavor that is unlike any other store bought brand of hummus we’ve ever tasted. And the texture is irresistible—super smooth without being gummy. You know when you see concrete being poured and you think, wow, that looks so good? Like that, but then it actually does taste good and not at all like pureed rocks. If you’ve been eating those big hummus brands your whole life and have never experienced real hummus, give this brand a try. — Justine Sterling

Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart

Rating:

9/10

Sporks

Other hummus brands we tried: Trader Joe’s Three Layer Hummus, Haig’s Original, Haig’s Garlic, Park Street Deli Significantly Spicy Hummus, Marketside Pine Nut Hummus, Simple Truth Organic Hummus, Boar’s Head Hummus, Sadaf Traditional Hummus, Organics Hummus, Signature Cafe Hummus Original, Trader Joe’s Organic Hummus, Mediterranean Style Hummus, Sabra, Holy Hummus Homestyle Hummus with Olive OIl, Sadaf Traditional Hummus, Hafla Hummus Classic   

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