Hummusgirl's Blog

Why are there so many different brands of hummus out there?  They seem to vary depending on where you live.  Hummus is so simple.  It’s just chickpeas, tahini, garlic, olive oil, and spices.  Why is the US marketplace so competitive for hummus?  It must be America that makes so many different brands pop up.  I know, it’s the immigrants who brought it over, but maybe they’re so proud of their heritage, they push their hummus that much further. 

But it can’t all be immigrants who own the hummus companies.  I know every food here has competition.  Just look at pizza for example.  There’s so many different frozen brands and then we have pizza restaurants.

I know we have a lot of Middle Eastern restaurants, but it’s definitely not as high as Chinese, Italian, or even Japanese.  So why has hummus taken over our display cases and why are there no hummus monopolies?

I have to ask.  Which brand is most similar to Middle Eastern hummus?  Is authentic hummus too good for us and so we “settle” for the store brand? Do we like it warm or cold better?  With chips or pita or veggies? Just think, no other bean is as commercialized as the garbanzo, except, of course, the soybean, which is a vegetarian bean as well.  Maybe someday, lentils or black beans will be competing amongst themselves for the highest bidder, but until that day, we’ll just have to make do with chickpea domination.