The Best Tahini

Tahini is a potent paste made from toasted sesame seeds; it’s similar in texture to natural peanut butter. Apart from being a core ingredient in hummus, tahini is often thinned with water or lemon juice and drizzled over falafel, kebabs, pilaf, and roasted or raw vegetables in Middle Eastern recipes. Sesame seeds are generally the sole ingredient—so how different could competing tahinis be? To find out, we tasted seven products, priced from $6.44 to $11.99 and sold in 15- to 16-ounce containers, plain and in hummus.

Right off the bat, our tasters noticed big differences in flavor in the plain tasting, calling our preferred tahinis “toasty” and “nutty” and lower-scoring tahinis “bitter” and “sour.” Flavor discrepancies were less evident in hummus. Although tahini can be made with whole sesame seeds, most manufacturers use seeds that have their outer coatings (hulls) removed before grinding. The hulls contain bitter compounds called oxalates that can be the source of those unpleasant flavors (seeds with the hulls intact are also harder to grind to a smooth consistency). Overroasting the seeds is another factor that can lead to bitterness. Off-flavors can also be the result of rancidity from poor handling or storage of the seeds.

Consistency was another important factor. Sesame seeds are 50 percent oil by weight, which is very similar to the oil content of peanuts. As with natural peanut butter, the oil in tahini typically separates from the paste at room temperature. For some products, a gentle stir was enough to reincorporate the components and form a fairly smooth, fluid tahini that poured neatly from the container. But other options were gritty or so thick that we had to scrape them from their containers with a metal spoon or stiff spatula. The thickest tahini was simultaneously dry and damp, like wet sand. Even after a spin in the food processor, the thick and grainy tahinis produced hummus that was also thick and slightly grainy. While the chickpeas and oil had covered up the biggest textural differences, they couldn’t conceal them completely, and those products earned spots at the bottom of our rankings. Tasters much preferred the “silky,” “buttery” texture of hummus made with smooth, fluid tahini.

Our new favorite, Ziyad Tahini Sesame Paste ($7.59 for 16 ounces), is made with hulled sesame seeds and is fairly pale in color, indicating gentle roasting. Tasters loved its “strong, clean tahini flavor.” It was also one of the smoothest products in our lineup, so hummus made it with had a “lush,” “silky” consistency that made it our clear favorite.