Hommus always feels like a more virtuous dip choice to me, even though some of the packaged ones are getting pretty high on fat content. Packaged hommus is pretty light on garlic (a good thing to my thinking, I'm not into raw garlic) and tahini, but you can always mix those in to szjush it up (fresh lemon juice is also good). Or even stir in some plain yoghurt to cut the kilojoules.
Hommus must be popular - I ended up buying 7 brands including some I'd never noticed before (not sure if they're completely new), plus the Coles home brand just because it was there.
I also picked up a tub of Captain's Table Middle Eastern Olive Hommus Dip, which turns out to be made by Kraft, who have clearly decided to extend their water cracker brand. This one was a bit of a ring-in because it's really a different concept to plain hommus, so I don't include it in the overall ratings. If you like olives it's really not bad - pretty heavy on the olives and chili, but you can still taste the chickpeas and there's a nice lemon tang.
Black Swan 
A nice lemony tang (like most the brands tested, it contains both lemon juice and vinegar - not that you'd use vinegar in home-made) and the flavour seems to be just a bit more lively than the others. It's one of the few where you can actually taste the tahini, though there's not much garlic. It's smooth and creamy but with a little bit of chickpea graininess to give it a less processed feel.
Copperpot 
Very similar to Black Swan. It also has a nice, grainy texture with a little bit of crunch. There's a nice tang that comes from a good balance between the lemon juice and vinegar, with just a hint of garlic.
Chris' 
This tastes a bit flat compared to Copperpot and Black Swan, maybe because it relies only on vinegar rather than lemon juice for acid. It's a bit heavier on the garlic but still quite mild. It has a noticeably dense texture.
Coles 
Looks a bit watery (even though it contains thickener) and the flavour is also thin rather than the fullbodied smoothness I want in hommus. The ingredients list says it contains lemon juice concentrate and no vinegar, but it just tastes sharp with no freshness to it.
Poseidon 
Very creamy texture. It's very mild and flat-tasting, but at least there is detectable lemon. For some reason it contains sugar, and there is a slightly sweet flavour that really doesn't belong in hommus, and which is good enough reason to lose a couple of cupcakes in the ratings.
Mum's Choice 
This is distinctly different to the other products, with a strong tahini taste that is actually quite bitter. There's also no zing, maybe because there's no lemon (or any other flavour) added. I'd normally be the first to buy into the whole mama's cooking thing, but this was the only hommus I really didn't like at all. Nice pack, though, and if it matters to you the only additive is food acid. It also has the lowest fat content (11%) of all the brands tested.
Yumi's 
If not for the spirit of experimentation I wouldn't have bought this one, because the pack does nothing for me - bright yellow and mustard just doesn't work for me. And in fact I shouldn't have bought it. This hommus is the smoothest because it's quite light and thin (not watery, just no real denseness or creaminess) and a very bland flavour. It just doesn't taste much of anything.
OVERALL RATINGS
Black Swan. Good texture, with a bit of freshness and zing to the flavour.
Copperpot. Very similar to Black Swan, just not quite as fresh-tasting.
Chris'. Good texture but the flavour is a bit flat and probably needs some lemon in to liven things up.
Coles. It's too thin-flavoured to stack up to the top raters, but there's nothing really wrong with it and would do if nothing else were available.
Poseidon. The flavour is a bit flat, but it really loses points for being sweet.
Yumi's, Mum's Choice. Yumi's is too bland and thin, and Mum's Choice is just too bitter and flat-tasting.
HOMMUS RECIPE
If you do ever feel moved to make your own, here's the basic recipe I use, cobbled together over the years from various vegetarian and ethnic cooking sources (and which I realise probably bears no resemblance to the real thing but it works for me). It's easy to make a lighter version by omitting the oil and using plain yoghurt and/or a little water. Thinned down, it makes a great sauce for lamb or felafels.
400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 clove crushed garlic
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons tahini
2 tablespoons olive or canola oil
salt to taste
Whizz together in a food processer and adjust consistency as necessary with more oil, a little water, or plain yoghurt.
Optional extras (depending on how simple you want to keep it) - finely chopped parsley, finely chopped spring onions, a little ground cumin.
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