Jasmine rice brand reccs please!!

July 28, 2018 6:20 PM

It is time for us to buy a bag of jasmine rice. Looking at reviews on Amazon etc., no brand jumps out at me as being obviously superior. Got a favorite? Tell me about it please!

So when I buy rice I buy a large bag of it, usually 20-25 pounds, and keep it in an airtight gamma-lidded bucket. A bag like that will usually last us a year. I have eaten Super Lucky Elephant (Costco had it) a few years back, seemed fine. More recently I bought a smaller bag of Three Ladies new crop and it was fine. I guess I just want to make sure I don't buy something unfragrant so that then we're stuck with it for a year. Has to be from Thailand, has to be best grade (i.e. not a lot of broken pieces) and must be fragrant! Do you have a favorite? Please let me know! Thanks!

posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee to Food & Drink (7 answers total)

I love Jasmine rice and have bought we least a dozen brands and I can’t recall being disappointed except once at Costco. It smelled like bug spray and Costco exchanged it right away for a perfectly good one. We have access to some amazing Asian groceries here, but right now, I have Costco’s Kirkland’s Choice in the cupboard.
posted by advicepig at 6:31 PM on July 28, 2018

I go to the local Chinese market and get a bag of whatever the newest crop is. I trust the local community way more than I’d ever trust Amazon.
posted by bile and syntax at 6:58 PM on July 28, 2018

My mom is super picky about her rice and primarily buys the Golden Elephant Brand. It is from Thailand. We can get it at our local Asian markets here, see photo here.
posted by inevitability at 7:27 PM on July 28, 2018

Three Ladies was what I grew up on in California. In Australia, so far, Pomelo is fine. I am in still in the process of trying rices in Sydney so my preferences may change. I will say, that Sun Rice brand of Jasmine is OK but definitely not worth a premium, at all. Sun Rice, weirdly, sells the most available Japanese rice. The Japanese community here seems to buy the Koshikahari Sushi Rice of Sun Brand. It is impossible to find haiga rice in Sydney, which is surprising since that rice was available in large bags in Minneapolis.
posted by jadepearl at 9:19 PM on July 28, 2018

I like Golden Phoenix - it's Thai and I find that it cooks very well (I use absorption method), other brands can go a bit gluggy. I see it's available on Amazon (as per link), I'm in Australia and sometimes can get it at Coles but otherwise go to an Asian grocery to buy it. Always slightly disappointed when I buy another brand that it is not as good.
posted by AnnaRat at 1:38 AM on July 29, 2018

I like Trader Joe’s jasmine brown rice. They have white as well, but I’ve never tried it. Chemo has messed up my sense of smell, so I don’t know if it’s fragrant. It is from Thailand. It comes in three-pound bags. I keep it in the freezer.
posted by FencingGal at 7:52 AM on July 29, 2018

A word of caution: much of the U.S. rice crop is grown on land that used to be cotton farms, which used arsenic-based insecticides not allowed on food crops. Tests have shown elevated levels of arsenic in much of that rice, and in products made from it. Consumer Reports has been investigating this issue for some time. Here's one of their reports on it.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 10:38 AM on July 29, 2018