This morning I made myself a tahini latte. The morning before, I mixed tahini with yoghurt and powdered ginger and poured it over my muesli. I use tahini in salad dressings, in sauces for spicy noodles, I’ve even put it in pesto. But until a few weeks ago, I only had the most vague idea of which tahini I liked or not (I just knew to avoid any brands in the health aisle) and I suspect I’m not the only picnic-attending hummus-maker that needs an education.
I gathered 18 supermarket aisle tahinis and four reviewers (including Syrian Australian author and chef Sharon Salloum, and Tuli Keidar, a friend who came close to dedicating their life to hummus before joining the coffee industry) for a blind taste test. We tasted the tahini in two rounds, hulled first and unhulled second. Before presenting the reviewers with the tahini, we stirred each container to make sure the oil and paste had mixed together.
We scored them on taste and texture, but texture was cut from the final score as the tasters decided different consistencies and mouthfeels each had valid merits and uses. As tahini is rarely eaten straight, I did an extra round on my own after the taste test, using the top- and bottom-scoring brands, as well as the most unusual, to make hummus. My thinking is if their qualities, good or bad, stand out in a hummus, they’ll stand out in a sauce, dressing or whatever other mix.
When I finished the taste test and checked all the jars, I was shocked to find every single one claimed to be 100% sesame seeds with nothing else added. Compliments to nature – it’s extraordinary how different 18 batches of ground sesame can be. Usually here I’d try to give you a neat summary of what to look for or analyse why some scored highly and others didn’t, but I found no consistency in ratios of fat to protein, country of production (I would prefer to know where the sesame is grown, but most brands don’t advertise that) or best before date. The only exception was this strange fact: all the organic tahini scored badly, except for the unhulled, where the opposite was true.
Al Kanater Tahini, 900g, $13.75 ($1.53 per 100g), available from Coles and select grocers
Score: 8/10
I have a friend who doesn’t like tahini. “It’s building material,” they say with a grimace befitting a morgue intern. What would they think of this? It’s thin, luscious and pours out of the jar like warm honey. On top of that, it tastes as though it was made yesterday – just a simple, clean nutty flavour with barely any bitterness to oppose it. It makes a silky hummus and might even convince my partner it’s a worthwhile inclusion to a cumin-drenched roast eggplant pasta or whatever other midweek experimental meal I make.
Spiral Foods Organic Tahini Hulled, 375g, $8.99 ($2.40 per 100g), available from select grocers
Score: 7.5/10
Based on nothing but prejudice against “health foods”, I assumed every unhulled product would be joyless, impractically thick and bitter, like the guys in manosphere podcasts turned into goop. I was wrong about one of those things. While bitter and hard to distribute, they all carried this intense, savoury flavour, as if a few drops of soy and sesame oil had been mixed into a very dark roast tahini. Of the four unhulled tahini, this was the most intense version. “Every flavour dialled up … strange to taste something so toasted and it’s not crunchy,” wrote one reviewer. There’s a lot of joy to be had in that.
Oh So Natural Organic Hulled Tahini, 375g, $4.79 ($1.28 per 100g), available from Aldi
Score: 6/10
Not all of the tahini had wild, differentiating flavours warranting wine label poetry; some just tasted like tahini. This was one. Reviewers described it as slightly sweet, bitter, wheaty, thick and sticky. “Feels like a textbook tahini but a little too bitter for how unmemorable this flavour is,” wrote one reviewer, seemingly doing my job for me. Of all the 14 hulled products, it was the highest-scoring organic tahini. I was proud to see my guess “tastes cheap” turn out to be true.
Al Wadi Tahini, 454g, $6.60 ($1.45 per 100g), available from select grocers
Score: 7.5/10
If Aldi wanted to create a slightly cheaper version of Al Kanater, this is what I imagine they’d come up with. It’s similarly thin but while the taste test winner feels like a velvety, pure sesame experience, this feels as though it has been watered down. Or oiled down? Along with the texture being a little slippery, the aftertaste is buttery (two reviewers said it was peanut butter-y). My guess is the difference in protein and fat. Al Kanater was the highest-protein tahini of the day (the presence of protein likely means more flavour-enhancing amino acids), while Al Wadi had the highest fat content of the day. Buttery, nutty and smooth, I’m thrilled with that.
Mezzabibi Tahini, 1kg, $19.60 ($1.96 per 100g), available from select grocers
Score: 7/10
One of the surprises of the taste test was finding out there was no relationship between viscosity and clagginess. I assumed the thicker the tahini the more likely it was to turn your mouth into a swamp but here we have a thin, silky tahini that hangs on to the top of your mouth like toffee made in a glue stick. That’s no complaint – it’s a normal part of the tahini experience. What I care about is the flavour. It’s a little more salty and savoury than its competitors but still on the mild end compared with something like Kalaajieh (below).
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Carwari Organic Black Tahini Unhulled, 375g, $9.99 ($2.66 per 100g), available from select grocers
Score: 6.5/10
I wonder what the reviewers would have written if this was a blindfolded tasting. As the colour is pitch black, like an edible horror film prop, it stands out. Surely that affected our reviews. But while there is a distinct aroma, the flavour isn’t markedly different from other unhulled tahinis other than it being a little less intense and maybe a bit peppery and sweet. For those thinking of making experimental hummus, it’s as usable as other unhulled tahini – you’ll just end up with an office-carpet grey. I will be experimenting at home to see what hulled versions are like.
Kalaajieh Tahine Extra, 450g, $6.50 ($1.44 per 100g), available from Coles and select grocers
Score: 6/10
Based on a recommendation from a man I met in the aisle of an Afghan grocer in 2018, I’ve bought this tahini many times but I’d never noticed how much it tastes like olive brine. It’s not notes of olive brine, either – it tastes smoky, bitter and fruity, just like an olive. All of the reviewers agreed. One of them, having recently picked, brined and eaten a large amount of olives, said it was unmistakable in smell and taste. Another reviewer wrote: “Very unexpected, very distinct tahini. Hard to believe it’s just sesame seeds!” I like it but, due to the crime of comparison it’s no longer what I want in a tahini.
Green Hill Tahina, 908g, $13 ($14.3 per 100g), available from Coles and select grocers
Score: 6/10
Like fish eyes, ghosting or seeing your celebrity crush dressed as your greatest fear, this is going to be appealing to some, unnerving to others – or, if you’re like me, a bit of both. The division in this group was caused by the tahini’s acidity. Tahini shouldn’t be particularly sour. It was slight and I didn’t mind it but others accused it of being metallic, oily and unlike sesame in smell or taste. In a sauce, hummus or anything else with acidity added in, you’re not going to notice.
Mayver’s Hulled Tahini, 385g, $6.50 ($1.69 per 100g), available from major supermarkets
Score: 5.5/10
Like Kalaajieh, this has the same bitter olive flavour, but worse; it’s as if the fat from the seeds has aged beyond the range of deliciousness. It’s also impractically thick and comes with a pool of oil on top –that’s fine, many tahinis separate on the shelf, you just need to mix them before you use it, I hear you saying. Sadly, few of us will have the forearm strength or stamina to actually do it. The unhulled version from the same brand was one of the only tahinis to outmatch this product in thickness. It was so thick, I held a bowl of it upside down and it just hung there without dripping. I imagined someone throwing it on to my ceiling: unless I scraped it off, it might live there for ever.
Macro Organic Hulled Tahini, 375g, $5 ($1.33 per 100g), available from Woolworths
Score: 4/10
In the tahini world, this is pretty much my nemesis. Like many products made with a goal that isn’t deliciousness, it’s found in the health food aisle despite being no more or less healthy than any other tahini on this list. Before you even eat it, you have to spend a minute working the oil and solids through couples therapy. Even if you have the patience to make it to the end, you still have a paste thick enough to build a sandcastle. For me, it’s too bitter to use in hummus (or much else) and too gritty and dry to bake with. What is the point of it other than convincing people tahini should be stocked in the building material section?
Gaganis Hulled Tahini, 375g, $7 ($1.87 per 100g), available from Coles
Score: 4/10
Many of the reviewer scorecards read the same. The first comment is about the tahini having a slight sweetness. Next is the recognition of the olive taste from previous tahinis. Then there’s the aftertaste, which one reviewer describes as “a very particular mustiness, like old powdered spices that have lost their flavour”. Other comments included “tastes artificial” and “like you’d eat in wartime”.
Chef’s Choice Stone Ground Tahini 5/10Coles Wellness Road Organic Hulled Tahini 5.5/10Macro Organic Unhulled Tahini 6.5/10Mayver’s Unhulled Tahini 5/10Melissa Organic Sesame Tahini 5.5/10Melissa Sesame Tahini 4.5/10Spiral Foods Organic Unhulled Tahini 5.5/10