The plain hummus of New Zealand supermarkets, ranked from best to worst

We tried six standard tubs from the local chiller aisle.

The dizzying number of hummus varieties at New Zealand supermarkets – 34!!! – is enough to make you choke on some dukkah sprinkles. They’re all made by six brands: Lisa’s, Greater Hummus, Obela, Woolworths and Turkish Kitchen (variety dwindled further after Just Hummus was discontinued by Heinz Wattie). For the sake of brevity and not forcing Spinoff staffers to eat three dozen flavours in one afternoon, this ranking is limited to “original” varieties. 

Hummus is officially a supermarket staple, monitored by the Statistics New Zealand’s Consumers Price Index since 2008. Woolworths estimates its supermarkets started stocking hummus 30 years ago and specialty stores have sold it since the 1980s. The country’s palates diversified and hummus benefited.

The dish is a fixture of Middle Eastern cuisines. What we call hummus/hommus/houmus is more accurately called hummus bi tahini, Arabic for chickpeas with tahini – they’re the critical ingredients, alongside lemon, garlic, olive oil and salt.

In Lebanon, hummus isn’t just a dip, but a dish in its own right, explains Samir Allen, owner of Auckland restaurant Gemmayze Street. His award-winning hummus is thick, velvety smooth and takes three days to make. Hummus eaters outside the Arab world often have the wrong textural expectations, says Allen. “Hummus isn’t supposed to be chunky or runny. Traditionally, it should be really smooth and creamy.”

Flavour is just as important, with a good balance between the nuttiness of the tahini and the acidity of the lemon. “Neither should overpower the other.” Allen says most of what’s sold at supermarkets is “vastly different” from traditional Lebanese hummus. “A lot of the hummus that Kiwis are familiar with doesn’t have enough tahini or lemon and is far too chunky to be considered authentic.”

There’s no definition of hummus in the Australasian Food Standards Code. The supermarket varieties in our trial all contain chickpeas (some more than others), oil, tahini, lemon (though one brand omits this), garlic and salt. It sounds simple, but products vary widely, as we discovered.

We assembled 12 Spinoff staffers for our ranking, who tried six hummus varieties on pita (to assess form and stickability) and spoons in a blind test, rating each out of 10, then averaged out to reach the final scores.

6) Lisa’s Original Hummus With Lemon & Garlic

$4.49 for 200g from Woolworths ($2.25 per 100g)

5.5/10

It’s New Zealand for hummus, or so the ads said. Lisa’s Hummus hit shelves in the 1990s amid a burgeoning health food movement and founder Lisa Er (whose husband came from Türkiye) was clearly onto something. Her company, Lisa’s Middle Eastern Foods, was making $6m a year when it sold to Sanitarium in 2002. Two decades on, how does it hold up?

Although many of our Spinoffers buy Lisa’s, it performed poorly. “Solid but unremarkable,” said Henry, who noted some textural shortcomings. “Gritty, verging on watery.” I found it lumpy in a way that felt unfinished, like the blitzing was only half completed.

Other testers were merely whelmed. “Kind of nothing sauce,” judged Sophie Albornett, who found it fairly inoffensive and “fine”. Perhaps it just needs more of “something?” wondered Chris Schulz. “Anything?” There was a shred of redemption delivered by Hayden Donnell, who commended this hummus for its heavy garlic quotient. “Very tasty and moreish up front.” 

5) Greater! Hummus Roasted Garlic

$6.99 for 500g from Pak’nSave ($1.40 per 100g)

5.8/10

Greater! Hummus is also produced by Sanitarium, which is a (tax-exempt, Seventh Day Adventist-owned) registered charity. It would be charitable to call this a “good, solid, reliable, 9-5 hummus”, as Joel MacManus did. Although this contained the fewest kilojoules per 100g compared to others in our lineup, it did have the most carbs – over double Turkish Kitchen and Obela. Not privy to that detail, Sophie was nonetheless confused. “I feel personally at odds with it in a way I don’t understand.”

Although described by our testers as “watery” and “ugly” with an “odd” consistency, Ben Fagan was more kind, calling Greater! “friendly and relaxed”. Lyric Waiwiri-Smith went a step further, complimenting the “great gloop” with a “wow factor”. It is well seasoned, with a “nice topline” of garlic and lemon, as Henry Oliver observed. But how much is too much? Gemma Spring wouldn’t recommend this “garlic bomb” for a date-night snack.

4) Obela Classic Hommus

$5.39 for 220g from Woolworths ($2.45 per 100g)

6.2/10

This one’s pretty heavy on the tahini – “too much”, according to Sophie – which accounts for 13% of the hummus. It’s notably smooth, something Hayden liked (he told us so, repeatedly) and found “texturally appealing”. For others, it was perhaps too much, with Henry remarking on a “slight gumminess”. This hummus was thick to the point of gluggy, and it created a “paste-like film” in Gemma’s mouth. Chris hated the “horrible” aftertaste and gave Obela 3/10. Joel, reminded of “porridge that’s been left out too long”, awarded it a lowly 2.

Disconcertingly for something that calls itself hummus, a critical ingredient appears to be missing: there’s no lemon listed, only citric acid. It’s also the only one of our hummuses not to be produced locally, being made in Australia, by

Obela is a global brand bought by PespiCo after which was subject to protest action in 2024 as a primary target for the global BDS (boycott, divest, sanction) movement. In November 2024, Obela was bought out by PepsiCo, and while activists declared the divestment a success, it still encourages consumers to avoid the products.

3) Pams Original Hummus

$3.49 for 200g from New World ($1.75 per 100g)

6.3/10

Ah Pams, so classic yet still with surprises up her sleeve. This lemon-forward hummus turned out to be the most tart of all. “Too acidy for moi,” judged Cal. 

Other testers were more judgemental, criticising this for being “cheap”, “inconsistent” and overly watery. “The loose stool of the hummus world,” ventured Hayden, frowning gloomily as he gave this a 4/10. “Hate the look.” So did Lyric, who likened it to “beer vomit”. But as Oscar Wilde said – surely inspired by supermarket condiments – the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. This hummus is “forgettable”, ruled Joel, giving it a 3/10. “Jog on.” 

Screw the haters! As Pams’ average score suggests, plenty of testers were pleased. “I like this a lot,” said Chris. “It’s basic but moreish.” Texture “isn’t a dealbreaker” for Sophie, who was wowed by the “kapow” of the garlic.

2) Woolworths Hummus Original Garlic And Lemon

$3.49 for 200g from Woolworths ($1.75 per 100g)

6.6/10

Woolworths own-brand hummus looks basic and is. Judging only on taste (very chickpea-y) and texture (rather watery), our team were disappointed by the consistency and “boring” flavour. “It’s not knocking my socks off,” remarked Alice Neville. 

Chris, however, still wearing his socks, was impressed and commended this hummus for its “touch of tang” and “good texture”. Sophie suggested it had a certain “je ne sais quoi” that others lacked. Alas it stirred no foreign tongue nor excitement for Hayden, who declared this hummus “spiritually bereft”. Bereft or not, this serviceable hummus managed to scrape into the top two due to its inoffensive qualities – suggesting centrism still has some life in it yet.

1) Turkish Kitchen Traditional Hummus With Roasted Garlic

$4.39 for 200g from New World ($2.20 per 100g)

7.5/10

The top of the pack and rightly so! This is the most authentic-tasting hummus of the lot. It’s the only one with olive oil as a listed ingredient – it also has the highest calories, nearly twice Lisa’s, and fat content, but lowest percentage of chickpeas. Turkish Kitchen is produced by local company Brelita Foods, which has a factory in Auckland’s Mount Roskill. 

Their hummus was so popular with our testers that the bowl was scraped clean. They were impressed by the flavour and texture, which Hayden described as “interesting” and “lovely”. Lyric and I both gave this a 9/10. Sophie was impressed too: “well balanced” and “smooth”, she judged, guessing correctly that this was “the purple lid one”. Tina Tiller was bowled over. “YUMBOS!” she wrote, next to a big 10/10.