Trader Joe's Chocolate Hummus

This is some weird-ass shit.

I have no idea what the intended use here is. At first, I thought that it could be used like regular hummus, and that the "chocolate" was maybe a modest infusion of unsweetened cocoa that didn't overpower the hummus but complemented it in some unexpectedly delightful way.

Nope. Dip a corn chip or tortilla chip into that stuff, pop it in your mouth, and you'll immediately know that you've made a mistake.

The texture is like canned cake frosting--stiff. It's not that sweet, though it's sweet enough that it falls squarely in the "dessert" category. The only thing I could think of to do with it was to use it as a fruit dip. So I bought some strawberries, and dipped them in the hummus. This actually worked. The combination was not bad.

A one-pound container of berries got me through about 2/3 of the hummus. I threw the rest away, because, though it was tolerable, I didn't enjoy the combination enough to get more strawberries and do it again, and I couldn't think of a single other way I might want to use the stuff.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Hummus Dip

This is definitely not a new Trader Joe's product; I find reviews of it online going back several years. Yet somehow I had never noticed it, even when I went through a period of deliberately trying to sample every hummus TJ's had to offer. Nina bought it and served it for an appetizer before a dinner at her house, which then led me to buy a tub for myself.

Let's first talk about the product name, with that suspicious word "dip" in it. Why is that there? In 2015 TJ's had one called "Freshly Made Original Hummus Dip." It boasted of having no tahini, and I speculated that that was the reason TJ's was fudging on the name and not straight-up calling it "hummus." But this one definitely has tahini and yet still gets the "dip" label. I don't see anything in the list of ingredients that is out of the ordinary for hummus. I have no good explanation for why this is a "dip." Maybe it's just to catch the attention of people who don't know what to do with hummus, but will understand what a "dip" is.

There's nothing special about it as hummus. It's just middle-of-the-road, plain stuff. I had the odd reaction of initially liking it at Nina's house, then not much caring for the tub I bought for myself. Perhaps that was due to the difference in chips used to scoop it up with.

I mentioned to Nina that I didn't like it as much as either the Cedars Zesty Lemon (for which Nina and I share a fondness), or the Whole Foods store brand lemon-flavored, which is a close knockoff of the Cedars. (And, as I've mentioned several time before, both of those take a back seat, in my view, to a couple of the heavily flavored varieties of the outstanding Roots Hummus, a local Asheville product, now distributed almost nationwide. But those are so far removed from plainer hummus that it's not an apples-to-apples comparison.) She pointed out that I could just add some lemon juice myself. So I did--and it greatly improved it, to the point that I liked it just as much as my other two go-to lemony ones.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes. It's OK as is, bumped up to excellent by stirring in some extra lemon juice. And it's cheap!



Addendum, 12/10/19: Washington Post says that this won its 11-way taste test of store brands of hummus.

Trader Joe's Organic Buffalo Style Hummus

This was OK, but I thought it was (1) too hot, (2) hot without being especially flavorful, and (3) a little too mushy/soupy for my taste. Nina disagreed; she liked this a lot. I should also note that if you read the list of ingredients, you'll find that it contains no actual buffaloes.

IMHO, the platonic ideal of hot hummus is the hot chipotle variety from Asheville-based Roots. It is superior to this TJ's one in every way.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Organic Spicy Avocado Hummus

Nina bought this.

It's a little too spicy for my taste--and kind of one-note-heat-spicy, not complex, interesting spicy. The avocado is not nearly as prominent as you'd expect, given that it's the feature that's really unusual and unexpected in hummus.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Green Tahini Dip & Sauce

Nina picked this up; I had not noticed it.

I thought it was OK, but not nearly as good as hummus, and I didn't even like it as much as Trader Joe's regular tahini sauce (tried but still awaiting review). The dill is by far the most prominent component here, so the sensation is sort of like eating pickle-flavored hummus. A little odd, not terrible, but doesn't trigger any craving for more.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Nina's View

I like this stuff a lot, and have already bought a second tub of it.

It starts out with a big hit of dill, but as you eat it the dill fades and all sorts of other nice green things come forward. It's great on TJ's garlic naan, or as a condiment with eggs. My guess is, it would actually make a decent pesto sauce on pasta (perhaps with a little doctoring).

Trader Joe's Roasted Garlic Hummus

Today's review is presented in the form of a syllogism.

I do not like garlic.

This hummus is garlicky.

Therefore, I do not like this hummus.

QED.

(I will grant that it has an unusually nice, creamy texture. But that is not enough to save it from the irrefutable logic of my syllogism.)


Will I buy it again? 

No. That would be illogical.

Nina's View

Logic has no place in food assessment. This is deliciously garlicky hummus, with a pleasant mildness, because: roasted. Get some.

Trader Joe's Sriracha Hummus

This is a brand-new item at Trader Joe's; they haven't even put up a product introduction on their web site yet.

My first impression was not good. Though the texture was nice--smooth and creamy--I thought it tasted like plain hummus into which somebody had mixed some generic sriracha sauce, and too much of it.

By coincidence, the day before I saw the first tweets from people discovering this item on the TJ's shelves (which is how I most often learn about new things), I had been in our local Harris-Teeter store and happened upon a brand of hummus I had never noticed before: Tribe. I bought a tub of their "Fiery Sriracha" variety. So of course it was obvious that I had to do a comparison between that and this new TJ's stuff. Despite my mediocre first impression of the TJ's, I liked it a lot more than the Tribe, which I thought tasted way off, and somehow artificial.

I had more of the TJ's on two subsequent occasions, and liked it better each time. By the third tasting, when Nina was here for dinner, I was genuinely enjoying it.

In retrospect, I wonder if it was suffering simply because it wasn't the same as what have become two of my favorite hummus flavors--the hottest versions of Roots brand, which is made here in Asheville. They have a "Hot Chipotle" and a "Mango Sriracha," both of which I love to a wholly unreasonable degree. The latter, I think, may have set in my mind an ideal of what a sriracha hummus should be, and the TJ's wasn't that. Well, of course it wasn't! It lacked the mango component, which nicely balances the sriracha heat with the cool, fruity sweetness of mango.

I think it took me three tries to get that out of my head and evaluate the TJ's on its own merits, at which point I found that I liked it quite a bit. Still not as much as my home-team favorites, but definitely enough to give it at least a second try.


Will I buy it again? 

Yes, on my very next TJ's run. The tub was almost empty by the time I was warming up to it, so I need to take another stab at it.


Update, February 29, 2016 

I had another go at it. I did like it, but not enough to buy it again. I think it's a bit too garlicky for my taste. And to have all that heat with nothing to cut it (the way the wonderful mango sriracha that I'm used to does) limits how much I want to keep eating. It's not bad, but it's just short of being good enough to keep in my regular rotation.

Trader Joe's White Bean & Basil Hummus

For the sake of truth-in-labeling, Trader Joe's ought to call this product "Basil & Basil. And Oil. With Maybe Some Hummus. And a White Bean or Two."

This is oiliest hummus I've ever had, from any manufacturer. It's the only one that has a visible layer of oil floating on the top--you can see it in the side view of the tub above. I suppose I could live with that, after stirring it in, but then the flavor is basil, basil, and more basil. (Trying to come up with a Fawlty Towers joke here, but failing.)

The net result of these two characteristics is gross, inedible hummus, and automatic inclusion in my Bottom Ten list. This will become the sixth item I return for a refund.

Will I buy it again? 

Only after I have my stroke and forget having had it before.

Trader Joe's Mediterranean Hummus

I have a problem. I've tried so many different kinds of hummus lately, both Trader Joe's offerings and others, that they're running together in my brain. I remember which ones I liked or didn't like, but little about why, or what set each one apart.

That's the case here. I remember stirring this stuff up, so as to distribute all the little extras (seen in the top photo) evenly throughout the hummus, and then trying it and liking it--but nothing about what it was that I liked about it.

Oh well--guess I'll just have to get myself some more!

Will I buy it again? 

I have to, don't you see?

Update 

I did buy it again. I do still like it, though it's not my favorite hummus. I have developed a preference for the products of an Asheville company, with a denser, stiffer, more whipped texture. This is pretty oily. It doesn't have quite enough bite for me, in terms of lemon/tanginess.

Nina's View

Not my favorite version of hummus. I like olive oil, but I do not care for olives themselves. I keep thinking maybe some day I'll change my mind about this, but we are four or five decades into the testing process and it seems unlikely.

Update [from Nina]: 

So we DID have a second edition of this recently and either 1) the add-ins have changed or 2) my sampling was skewed or 3) I am insane. I categorically reject the third alternative. 

This second time I detected no untoward olivyness. In fact, no flavoring predominated whatsoever. It just seemed to me to be a pretty much ideal basic hummus. Very edible. I would buy and serve this without hesitation, and I would expect it to be well-received by most.  

We may have to have a tie-breaker sample. 

Trader Joe's Organic Hummus

For plain hummus, this is pretty good. However, I admit that I have become enamored with nontraditional forms--lemon, chipotle, sriracha, black bean, etc. So I would deem this stuff perfectly decent, but boring. If you're looking for traditional hummus for some situation where you don't want something more adventurous, this will work just fine.

Will I buy it again? 

Probably not--but that's because my preferences lie elsewhere, not because there's anything wrong with it.


Update 

I did buy it again after this, because I really wanted some hummus, was already at TJ's, and didn't want to make another stop. I liked it even better the second time. It is now unquestionably my favorite of all the varieties of TJ's hummus I've had. It's not quite as tangy with lemon as Cedars Zesty Lemon, which Nina and I both think is superb, but it gets close. Will definitely buy again.

Trader Joe's Smooth And Creamy Cilantro And Jalapeno Hummus

Photo by Nina.

I had passed on buying this myself several times, suspecting that I would not like either the cilantro or the jalapeno. But Nina bought it and served it to me with dinner, so I could try it in a low-risk situation.

My suspicions were correct. The hummus itself was OK, though nothing special. But if I scooped up with it more than a minuscule amount of the central clump of green seasoning, it was too much for me. And it seemed like heat without much added flavor--unlike my favorite hummus, which is a strange but wonderful mango-sriracha combination.

Will I buy it again? 

That's the question I pose every day, but here it is inapposite, since I didn't buy this hummus in the first place, and, in fact, passed it by. But the answer is no.


Nina's view 

This is tangy and a little spicy and pleasantly green-tasting. I think I like it best of all the TJ's hummus I've tried.

Trader Joe's Smooth And Creamy Spicy Hummus

I am becoming a fan of hummus. This is a recent phenomenon. Last week, I ate a tub of TJ's red pepper hummus in two sittings.

But that's not happening with this version. Something about it immediately put me off. I have a hunch it's the cilantro, partly because I also suspected the cilantro dressing to be what made me dislike an otherwise enjoyable salad. Maybe cilantro just isn't for me. Or maybe it was the jalapeno pepper. I'm really not sure.

Will I buy it again? 

Not this one, though I like others in TJ's line of flavored hummus.

Nina's View

Would eat again. But Bob seems to like mixing in the flavorings into ALL the hummus from the get go, and I prefer to snag a little bit of it, unblended, along with the plain hummus. It makes for a more interesting flavor experience, in my opinion.

Don't blend the things! They have more of a conversation with one another, flavor-wise, when they sit side by side on the tongue.

Trader Joe's Edamame Hummus

I passed this by many times, kind of afraid of what it might be like. The slightly green color is not the most attractive thing ever.

But my worry was for naught. It doesn't have much of a distinctive soybean taste or aftertaste. The most different thing about it, compared to TJ's plain hummus, is that it seems to have more tang from lemon. Nina and I ate about 3/4 of a tub of it with chips as an appetizer before dinner.

Will I buy it again? 

Maybe. It was good. However, I'm fast becoming a hard-core fan of the line of exceptionally good hummus varieties made right here in Asheville by a small company called Roots. I'll still try other things sometimes to continue my exploration of the whole category, but most of my hummus purchases are likely to be non-TJ's.

Nina's View

I like this very, very much. It's wonderfully lemony and the pale green color is sort of nice once you make your peace with it. I will happily eat more of this.

Trader Joe's Freshly Made Original Hummus Dip

I am continuing Project Try Every Kind of Hummus On The Planet Except The Obviously Icky Ones Like If They Have "Onion" Or "Garlic" In The Name. I might need to work on shortening that.

Anyway, this was next in line as I plow through Trader Joe's lineup of hummus. The first one I ever bought was the "Tomato Basil Hummus Dip." It was clear why that was a "hummus dip" rather than "hummus," because its first-listed ingredient was tomato paste, not chickpeas. Here, though, I'm stymied on why they're qualifying "hummus" with "dip." Is it the absence of tahini? That's my best guess.

But I couldn't tell from tasting that this is anything other than pretty straightforward plain hummus. Flavorful and a little bit tangy with lemon. It seems very similar to TJ's original version of its "smooth and creamy" line, except, unexpectedly, maybe even smoother and creamier. I think I'd have to taste them side by side to discover any big differences; my memory finds none.

Will I buy it again? 

Sure. It's not spectacularly unusual or memorable, but a perfectly good plain hummus.

Trader Joe's Smooth And Creamy Classic Hummus

It has been an interesting discovery for me in recent months that I can not only tolerate hummus, but actually like it. I have been gradually working my way through TJ's assortment of hummus products, though skipping over the obviously icky ones.

I perhaps should have started with this, their plain-jane version. It is, as far as I can determine, just like the red pepper version, except without the red pepper sauce in the middle. Which is to say, it's perfectly fine, though a tad less interesting.

As a bit of self-education, I purchased on the same day at another store a locally produced hummus, also that maker's plain version, so that I could try them side by side. The TJ's was creamier, apparently containing more oil. The other brand had many more ingredients, obviously including more seasoning.

It was not difficult to tell that they were different, but it was difficult to determine which I liked better. I finally landed on the TJ's side, but not by a lot. I think it was mainly due to the smoother, creamier texture.

Will I buy it again? 

That all depends on my ongoing experiments to find out which kind I like best--because I might find something I like so much that I'll abandon all others. But if I had to stop experimenting now, then yes, this would be one that I would revisit.

Addendum 

It's been almost four months since I wrote the above, and my tastes in hummus have shifted hugely. I tried both this TJ's product and the locally produced one (Roots), and my impression was entirely different the second time. I strongly prefer the Roots version. Even more, however, I'm completely in love with several of their other varieties: black bean, roasted red pepper, hot chipotle, and mango sriracha. I'm now pretty much done with all TJ's hummus. I think the Roots stuff is incomparably superior. (So, if you see below, Nina was right all along--it just took a while for my experience with hummus to develop enough to recognize it.)

Nina's View

This is a bland, boring hummus. Despite having less oil than the other variety, it coated the tongue in a way I found unpleasant. I prefer my hummus to have an airier texture, and I don't mind if it's not totally smooth. This would probably never be a pick of mine.

Trader Joe's Kalamata Olive Hummus

This is the third hummus I've ever purchased. It's still early in the process, but I feel myself turning into a hummus fan.

I didn't know what to expect from this. I don't eat olives. I don't mind the flavor of olives when mixed in with other things, but something about the texture of the fruit feels kind of icky.

Here, I think it melds really nicely with the chickpeas. But the best part is the tartness and acidity contributed by the lemon juice. The net result is that this is my favorite of the three TJ's hummus products I've tried. It makes me want to go back and try again the lemon hummus that Nina found at another local grocery store.

Will I buy it again? 

I have lots more kinds of hummus to try, both at TJ's and from other sources, but yes, I strongly suspect I'll come back to this one as at least an occasional one to bring home.


Nina's View

I like olive oil in salad dressing and in cooking, but I don't care for olives on their own. And I don't particularly care for extra oliveyness (yes, it's a word! okay, maybe not) in my hummus. Begone, I say.

Trader Joe's Smooth And Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

As explained previously, my experience with hummus is extremely limited. But I liked this stuff. For more than a week now, I've been eating it every day with lunch, using various chips to dip into it. I have a hard time describing it, because I have no mental database of other hummus against which to compare it.

This is where we cue Nina....

Will I buy it again? 

Maybe. I liked it. But I liked even better a non-TJ's lemon hummus that Nina served recently. That, plus the limited selection of hummus at TJ's, makes me suspect that there is more and better stuff in other stores. If I find that there's something I like better, I might not come back to this particular product.

Nina's View

This is a decent roasted red pepper hummus. Which is to say, it'll do.

But so far I have not had a TJ's hummus that I've liked better than those available at my local supermarket. They all taste like they've been blandified, or adulterated with non-hummusy substances.

Trader Joe's Beet Hummus

This is a brand-new product at Trader Joe's, and it's exactly the kind of offbeat, category-busting, "who thought of that?" item that makes shopping at TJ's so much more interesting than picking up groceries at Safeway.

I didn't mind this stuff, but I didn't love it. The beets completely dominate the traditional hummus ingredients of chickpeas and tahini, though the label promises that they're in there somewhere. A more accurate product name would be "beet mash," but they probably wouldn't sell much of that.

Will I buy it again? 

No--not because it's bad, but because when I want hummus, I want something that actually looks and tastes like hummus. I have not yet experienced a urge to eat beet mash. If I ever do, my answer here will change. Still, I do expect to encounter it again--at Nina's house, because of what I'm pretty sure she's about to tell you. (Spoiler: "Nom!")


Nina’s View

I will stipulate that it’s not particularly hummus-y. Fair enough.

But what it is, is remarkably—nay, outrageously!—tasty. When Bob mentioned that this existed, I said to myself: “That sounds like it might be good. I’d try it.”

I ate 9/10ths of the tub in about 8 minutes. So good. Really really good. Again: not so much with the hummus, but I don’t care. It’s got kind of an earthy sweet ’n’ sour thing going on (balsamic and other vinegar, which they could dial back a wee bit I will admit, but just a skosh). As Bob spoilered above, NOM!

If he thinks I’m going to serve this to him at my place, he is sadly mistaken. Why would I put this fabulous food in front of someone who clearly does not appreciate it the way it deserves (“didn’t mind?” "beet mash?" how disrespectful!)? More for me, none for him. I will hug it and pet it and call it George.

And then I will devour it.

Trader Joe's Tomato & Basil Hummus Dip

I believe I have eaten hummus exactly twice in my life. The first time was with Nina at a Mediterranean restaurant when I was living in Las Vegas. I was a little like this woman, though I didn't go quite so far as to claim that I had terminal cancer.

The second time was just a couple of weeks ago, at Nina's house, when she put out some crackers and lemon-flavored hummus (not a Trader Joe's product). She said she thought I would like it, and I did.

Just for the record, I am not alone in my hummus naivete.

Anyway, I had already tried the lentil chips mentioned in the last post, but I had eaten them unadorned. It occurred to me that they could stand some good dip. Because of the recent lemon hummus experience, I decided to see what TJ's had to offer by way of hummus. They had several, but the "tomato-basil" variety struck me as the most likely to be something I would like. I did notice the word "dip" in the name, but I assumed that that only meant that they did something to the texture to make it more suitable for scooping up with chips.

It was only after I got it home that I looked more closely at the label and realized that this wasn't slightly modified hummus; it was dip that had some hummus in it. The first listed ingredient is tomatoes. Oops. Oh well. Live and learn.

But regardless of the erroneous mental process that led to my selection, I liked the stuff. It's bold and substantial. The texture is just right for dipping--it's not hard to pick up, not runny or drippy. I dub it a winner.

Will I buy it again? 

Yes. It's not often I feel an urge for chip dip, but when I do, this will be high on the list of choices.


Nina’s View

I found this dip very weird. It’s basically a chilled, congealed version of TJ’s Vodka Sauce for pasta (which you will probably eventually see a review of from Bob). I was so weirded out by the similarity in flavor profile that I could not get behind this dip in the slightest.

I like hummus in many, many different guises. But not this one.


Addendum 

An advantage of having a long lag between when I write most posts and when they publish is that sometimes I have tried an item one or more additional times and can add more perspective. In the three months or so since I wrote the above, I went on a hummus mini-rampage. I have tried about a dozen different kinds, and have started to develop definite preferences.

So the last time I was in Trader Joe's, having now tried most of their hummus varieties, I decided to return to this hummus dip, since it was the first one I bought, and see if my opinion on it would be changed by all the hummus I had had since.

Boy howdy, did it ever change. I was going to try to describe it, but sitting down to write, I came across Nina's description, which I had completely forgotten about. She nailed it. That is exactly how it seems to me now. I had ten or so chips dipped in it, and just couldn't stand it anymore. I threw the rest of the container away. It's nasty.

Maybe it's good that I started with this, because being tomatoey it was familiar and unfrightening. I'm sure that's why I selected it from all the choices TJ's has for sale. But it's precisely for that reason that it just ain't hummus. There is apparently some hummus in there somewhere (both garbanzo beans and tahini are on the list of ingredients), but it really does taste and feel like cold, thick pasta sauce--which is not what I want when I'm in a hummus mood.

Now I read my original review above and can't help but wonder: what was I thinking???

Me and hummus

This video pretty much sums up how I am loving the hummus these days.