Watermaid Brand Rice Versus Mahatma Jasmine Rice

Having just been given a rice cooker from my girlfriend as a graduation gift, I have found myself quite intrigued by nature’s most abundant grain and the various ways it can be cooked and served. So far I have only tried two brands: Watermaid and Mahatma. Let me just say that, even though it is just rice, there is still quite a difference between the two brands, and if you are going for quality, even as an amateur chef, Mahatma brand is the way to go.

You’re probably thinking, “How can one brand of rice be that much different from any other.” Well I’ll tell you, it may all look the same before it’s cooked, but the quality difference can definitely be seen once it’s ready to be served. Mahatma is fairly even and smooth, whereas Watermaid is sticky and pasty, and the grains bind to each other even well after they have been steamed. It almost looked like mashed potatoes the first time I made it. You’ll find yourself needing some butter to separate it all. The Mahatma rice, once cooked, looks a lot more like it should (the way rice would look in a kung fu movie, for example).

The Watermaid brand seemed to stick to the pan more and was a little more difficult to clean. Also, though all rice is going to contain some starchiness, I think Watermaid had more. Before you cook rice, you are supposed to rinse it in a pan several times, and you’ll notice the water become murky. Watermaid needed more rinses in order to get the starch out before cooking than Mahatma did. This is probably the most important factor, since using a rice cooker involve time efficiency, and having to rinse something out time after time can become quite the inconvenience.

There seems to be a slightly better flavor with Mahatma as well. Of course, it can’t really be that big of a difference, but, since rice is so cheap no matter what brand you get, why not get the better stuff? To be fair, Watermaid was the first brand I bought (because it was so cheap, and I knew I would probably mess up my first batch any way, so why get the more expensive stuff?). I think I may have put a little too much water in with my first couple of dishes (2 cups of water for every 1 cup of rice is the generally accepted rule, though I’ve found that it really doesn’t need that much), which is why it may have been pasty. But I’m certainly not a rice expert now, so any rice that can come out fairly decent would have to be of at least some quality.

Of course, there are certainly better brands than Mahatma, and if you really want to make an impressive quality dish, I would suggest checking out an oriental store. Mahatma was available at Wal-Mart. Like I said, I’m about the farthest thing from a rice expert, and as far as cooking goes, I am nothing more than an amateur, aspiring chef. So my opinion is unfortunately limited to only these two brands, and I can only recommend Mahatma for starting out.

In the end, it really does not matter what brand you use if you are just making rice for the fun of it or as a light meal or snack. But if you are the kind of person who pays attention to detail, then you will definitely prefer Mahatma jasmine ice, and the extra few cents are worth it. And if not, well, anything’s better than Ramen noodles.