Tahini at Whole Foods is a little pricey. It's like twice the cost of peanut butter. Maybe $15 for a big jar, IIRC.

It's way too much faff and expense to make your own hummus. Celery is another thing I would use, but toasted pitas are the dogs bollocks.

Hommus has been really popular here for many years. We do have a very high greek and lebanese population, so it's hardly surprising. It's one of the regulars any time you order a platter of dips as entre etc.

If I buy it, I buy it by the 1kg tub, otherwise I just make it. So easy. Takes more time to clean the food processor than it does to make. Lots of garlic in mine usually, and lots of lemon. Tangy and pungent for our place.

Tahini is one of the things I decided to leave out.
Like Ali I upped the garlic and lemon juice in mine.

I wouldn't make it now - I don't make anything from scratch any more - but if you are single and have a clean kitchen it's not too onerous, being a one blitz item. I can see why it would be better to buy with a family who have conflicting schedules though. And I would still buy the ones which involved cooking (roasted pepper for example!)

Waitrose did some really good law fat ones, a small trio in different flavours. They were often in the fridge when I lived at home.

I had roasted red pepper hummus. I went with Triscuits, brown rice with sea salt and black pepper. Not bad, but I'll not be whipping up a batch. Had a buck off coupon.