$200 vs $30 Rice Cooker Review & Taste Test

Do Rice Cookers Really Make a Difference?

If you talked to me years ago, I would’ve told to just get the cheapest rice cooker – they’re all the same, you don’t even really need one! But times have changed and so has my mind, haha! Turns out, the rice cooker really makes a difference, and if not in the rice itself, then in the user experience. But is that difference worth the money you pay? Watch the video to find out!

In Thailand, people don’t really put much thought into their rice cookers, and as I’ve discovered in my taste test, it turns out that it’s because white jasmine rice, the rice most Thais eat most of the time, is very forgiving. You can cook it in anything, and as long as you used the right amount of water, it’ll turn out fluffy and soft and delicious.

But not all rice is like that. There is a reason why the Japanese put so much thought into their rice cookers…because Japanese short grain rice is a lot more finicky.

How I’m Testing

As you’ll see in the video I do two different tests: one for jastmine rice, the other for Japanese short grain rice. And for each type of rice, I cook it in the fancy Zojirushi Micom Neuro Fuzzy rice cooker, my old red Sunbeam ($30 when I bought it), and simply in a pot on the stove. Then I do a blind taste test to see which one I like best!

Watch the video above to see the verdict!

PS. I still need to do a test on brown and other whole grain rice!

Buy The Recommended Rice Cookers Online

You can check out my “Kit” where I list all my kitchen tools and appliances, including the rice cookers I recommend. These are affiliate Amazon links, so if you buy something on Amazon through my link I will get a little bit of commission.