The 8 best rice cookers in 2023, tested and reviewed

Pros: Keep Warm timer starts immediately, My Mode features for personalized flavor and textures, attractive coffee-colored inner pot, longer power cord, built-in spatula holder, cleans easily

Cons: Overcooks white rice, significant bounce-back in lid operation, water line markings are hard to read, no handle, condensation catcher can leak

With all this talk of soaking brown rice, you'd think that the cookers who do it longest would make the best. I did. But after extensive testing, I found that extended soaking broke down the bran a bit too much, resulting in a mushier bite rather than the firm, gemmy one that comes with perfect rice. Plus, you lose the popcorn element that's so distinctive to brown rice — one of the greatest pleasures of it.  

With this cooker, though, a propensity for cooking softer, mushier white rice benefited its brown rice execution. Although there's a hint of hot-heat scorch to the rice if you eat it as soon as it's done, it mellows after a few minutes of resting to a pleasant toasted nutty richness. This cooker blooms the grains visibly, but stops short of any blow-out. It breaks down the bran just enough to make it more easily digestible without compromising the chew. 

Every bite of brown rice from this cooker showcased the best qualities of this type of rice. Grains remained fully distinct, avoiding any kind of clumping, crusting, or wetness for a shocking 50 hours on Keep Warm. Plus, it also has a setting for GABA rice, a sprouted variety of brown rice with purported nutritional benefits. Get this cooker if brown rice is your primary pick, and just use less water than marked on the occasions you make white rice.