Zojirushi NS-TGC10 5.5 Cup Micom Rice Cooker and Warmer

We have cooked basmati in it, which works beautifully. And we have cooked brown rice. I hate brown rice.
And guess what? I now love brown rice. It takes some practice to get just the right amount of water to get the rice to the consistency you prefer. But once you get there, it's perfect.
The cooking takes longer than basic rice cookers. But this is a rice cooker the Japanese themselves use, and it shows.
I have no complaints, only praise.
Shipping was fast and the machine was well-protected. No problems at all.

I cannot make rice in a pot on a stove to save my life. I can't even make Minute Rice without messing it up. But my husband really wanted to start eating rice, and knowing that he probably wouldn't want to eat the glue that I always produce, I started to look into rice cookers. After reading a ton of reviews, I narrowed it down to this one, and one other. I chose this one, only because it was the more recent model (and it was on sale...)

I've used it a few times since receiving it a couple of weeks ago, and am I ever impressed with it. The rice has come out fragrant, fluffy, with a little bit of stick, but not gluey, basically exactly how I like rice. It tastes so good! I'm now looking forward to experimenting with it, and will probably order a Rice Cooker cook book to see what this baby can do! Well worth the money you'll spend on it though.

Our family has gone through a number of the single button rice cookers over the last 20 years. Each had been replaced in succession due to either the non-stick coating on the inner pot wearing away exposing the aluminum or outright failure of the cooker. They all worked as advertised, but brown rice in particular never tasted very good from these cookers. We always had to mix the brown with white rice to make it tasty enough before our kids would eat it.

This time I thought I would spend more (actually much more compared to the single button cookers) than usual and try out a higher end fuzzy logic cooker. Reviews on the Zojirushi brand were positive, this particular unit looked attractive with its stainless steel finish to match other appliances in our kitchen, and it was on sale.

After 3 months of ownership, I can say without reservation that I wish I had gotten one of these years ago. The bottom line is that rice cooked in the Zojirushi is the best I have ever tasted. White rice is light and fluffy, and brown rice is moist and flavourful. I no longer need to mix the brown with white rice. My kids all agreed that the straight brown rice tasted great. The results from the intelligent different cooking cycles for rice types (brown is about twice as long as for white) is impressive.

The quality of the build of the cooker is pretty high. The inner pot is heavy with a robust thick non-stick coating applied, and has clearly etched markings for the different water levels for each type of rice. The cooker can also make porridge and bake cakes, but I have not had a chance to try those uses yet. The LCD menu system is fairly clear, and being able to setup the cooker for a pre-determined finish time is a very handy feature. The only setting it does not have that I wish it did is a "Warm Leftover Rice from Day Before". For that you need to revert to your trusty microwave oven.

The other consideration is capacity. We are a family of five, and I thought about getting the big brother 10 cup cooker. Note that a cup as it applies to Asian designed rice cookers, is smaller than a North American measure cup. My wife was adamant about the smaller 5.5 cup cooker for the smaller physical size it would take up on our counter, and also that even when we entertain guests we have never emptied all the rice from an old 10 cup cooker. For a dinner when we are all home, 3 cups of rice is usually enough (we have a Chinese heritage, so we eat a fair amount of rice on nights when we include it as part of our dinner). I also found an article that suggested most Japanese families own a 5 cup capacity cooker. Case closed - I bought the NS-TGC10.

In summary, the Zojirushi costs more than conventional one button rice cookers but the old adage "you get what you pay for" definitely holds true in this case. The instruction manual is reasonably written, and a measuring cup and plastic spoon comes a s part of the package. Rice just tastes a whole lot better coming from this cooker, it is solidly built and attractive, and it has a lot of flexible control features. Highly recommended!