Does Rice Taste Different from a ¥20,000 vs. a ¥100,000 Rice Cooker? Ryuji Compares Them Blind

When asked for their predictions at the start, the staff gave hopeful answers like "If it's expensive, I want it to taste better." The rice cooker Ryuji normally uses is a Zojirushi model priced at about ¥20,000, which reportedly goes for around ¥8,000 secondhand. Ryuji has used it for about 10 years, and while there may be some wear from age, they say it still cooks rice that tastes plenty good.

When they asked an AI on the spot about typical prices, the answer was that they range widely from a few thousand yen to over ¥30,000, with the best balance of price and performance in the ¥10,000 to ¥30,000 range.

The opponent in the comparison was the latest version of Zojirushi's high-end "Enbu-daki" model. It was obtained as a furusato nozei (hometown tax donation) gift, with a donation of ¥400,000. That works out to the gift being roughly one-third of the donation amount. Market prices fluctuate, but it sits in the ¥100,000 range, making it five times the price of the ¥20,000 model.

Side by side, they look different from the outside. The Enbu-daki is about twice as heavy and has a thicker body. It has few physical buttons and is operated with a touch panel. Ryuji speculated that "the way the heating coils are laid out seems to be different." According to a staff member who loves home appliances and says they spend money on them, the conclusion from their research is that pressure-type cookers are considered better. The ¥20,000 model is a standard IH type, while the Enbu-daki is a type that applies pressure.

The Enbu-daki has a "Waga-ya Daki" ("Our Home's Way") menu that lets you set 121 different textures by combining firmness and stickiness. Ryuji laughed, "Who needs that many?", but for this test everything was set to standard. There also seems to be a menu for cooking rice intended for freezing, which caught the interest of Ryuji, who habitually freezes rice right after cooking it. The staff also mentioned that expensive models like this keep cooked rice from drying out as easily.

The rice used was "Fukkurinko" from Hokkaido. Ryuji describes it as "ridiculously good" rice, and 2 go (300 g) was measured out for each. Both batches were washed the same way, just as usual, water was added to the 2-go line, and the water was also weighed in grams to avoid any difference. There was no soaking, and both cookers were switched on at the same time.

The scheduled finish times were 52 minutes for the regular rice cooker and 55 minutes for the Enbu-daki, nearly the same. The Enbu-daki made a clunking sound while cooking, which Ryuji said was probably the sound of it applying pressure.

Ryuji also admitted that if they switched to the Enbu-daki, people would probably say "It only tastes good because it's an Enbu-daki," so honestly they hoped it wouldn't taste much better.

Ryuji did a blind taste test of the two finished batches. Both smelled good and seemed almost the same, but on tasting them, Ryuji reacted, "Totally different." One was on the hard side.

Ryuji judged A to be the tastier one, because the moisture level was just right. The other was described as hard. Ryuji also correctly identified A as "tasting like my usual rice," and A was in fact the ¥20,000 model they normally use. Ryuji explained that they could tell because they've always eaten the rice at home.

However, even at the time, some suspected the settings, since it was unnatural for rice to be so hard on standard settings without soaking. When the footage was reviewed after filming, it turned out the water had been mismeasured: 2 go of rice had been cooked with 1.5 go worth of water. Naturally it wouldn't taste good, so the rice was cooked again.

The re-cooked rice looked indistinguishable. Ryuji left the room, the staff prepared the bowls, and Ryuji tasted them blind once again.

Ryuji began by saying "First of all, both are delicious," then judged one to be better. This one was slightly sweeter and had a stronger rice aroma. While calling the difference subtle, Ryuji answered that the one they chose was the Enbu-daki, and was correct.

The deciding factor Ryuji cited was how the rice held its moisture. Even though both had been sitting in the bowls for the same amount of time, the rice from the ¥20,000 model had started losing moisture from the edges. The Enbu-daki rice hadn't lost moisture even at the edges and was chewy and springy.

Ryuji's overall verdict was that even with the same ingredients and only the appliance being different, the difference is fairly clear. However, it isn't dramatic; it's about the difference of switching to slightly better rice. On the other hand, Ryuji said the gap widened once the freshly cooked rice was exposed to air for a while, and the longer it sat, the better the Enbu-daki tasted by comparison. Ryuji said they didn't know whether that was due to the pressure.

Ryuji had the staff try as well, saying that while they themselves, being used to cooking, could tell, if the two amateurs couldn't, it would mean the benefit was "something only I can tell," so the two staff members' opinions actually mattered more.

The appliance-loving staff member distinguished the bowls by the colored lines on them (white and brown), eating the white first and the brown second. On tasting the brown one second, they reacted, "Got it," and answered that brown was the ¥100,000 one, which was correct.

The other staff member answered confidently but got it wrong. They got a laugh by offering the excuse, "At home I cook rice in a clay pot." This person had thought the one they found tastier had more moisture, and their impression of the one they didn't pick as the ¥100,000 one was "a little hard, maybe it's lost moisture." Still, they said both were delicious.

The staff member who got it right explained that the fluffiness the moment it went into your mouth was totally different, and it was moist. The result was one correct out of two, and Ryuji smiled wryly, "Am I really such a minority?"

Opinions were split on whether the price difference was justified. The appliance-loving staff member hesitated, saying that if this is what an ¥80,000 difference gets you, they might end up thinking a regular rice cooker is fine. However, they also said it's worth choosing for people who really love rice.

The other staff member valued the fact that it still tastes good after time has passed. Not every family member can eat rice fresh out of the cooker. If even a household where the kids eat it freshly cooked and the father who gets home late eats it later can all enjoy it, then it might be worth ¥100,000, in their view.

Ryuji, who ate the now-cooled rice at this point, said "After some time passes, it's completely different." The rice from the ¥20,000 model keeps losing moisture, while the Enbu-daki's rice doesn't lose it as easily. The difference, Ryuji said, is whether the moisture escapes rapidly or gradually. The conversation turned to how, if it makes good cold rice, it could be well suited to rice balls and bento lunches and therefore highly valuable.

Ryuji summed up the test results so far as: the ¥100,000 rice cooker makes rice that's "a little better" than the ¥20,000 one.

To check the difference once cooled, they made salted rice balls from both batches of rice. Each was 120 g, sprinkled with Ajishio seasoned salt, shaped, and left in the refrigerator overnight. While shaping them, Ryuji said the Enbu-daki rice "feels different when you hold it."

The next morning, the staff reheated the rice balls from both cookers in the microwave for about a minute and a half and served them blind. Ryuji described one as "really delicious" and "fluffy," answered that it was the ¥100,000 one, and was correct. Ryuji said that reheating narrows the difference to some extent, but if eaten cold, the Enbu-daki's should be definitively better. The rice ball from the ¥20,000 model had lost moisture, and Ryuji also said they could tell right away because it came from their own familiar rice cooker. Asked which they would use going forward, Ryuji answered the Enbu-daki.

The appliance-loving staff member also tried the rice balls, but struggled to decide, tasting again after giving an answer. It was also mentioned that the rice balls cooling down while waiting and uneven microwave heating made the judgment difficult. Their impression was that the difference was "about that much," and that both were delicious.

The test concluded with the assessment that it's a good rice cooker if you think of it as making your rice just one or two notches tastier.