Aroma ARC-856 Rice Steamer Cooker

Price Range: Moderate

Rice Quality: Very Good

Benefits & Features: Multiple

Performance: Good

Pros vs. Cons: Pros Outweigh Cons

Overall Rating: Very Good

Limited Item, May Be Discontinued According to Aroma-Housewares.com

At the time of this review, the Aroma ARC-856 rice steamer cooker is one of the only advanced rice cookers that offer multiple benefits & features for a low to moderate price tag. Currently, it is one of their best micro-computerized models.

Advanced Rice Cooker Technology

This Aroma 6 cup rice cooker uses something they call Sensor Logic when cooking rice. Generally what this refers to is "Fuzzy Logic", a term in the rice cooking industry that means the unit uses a special internal monitoring computer that pays attention on how the rice is cooking instead of just boiling to a finish.

Like fuzzy logic, Sensor Logic will make fine adjustments in cooking time and temperature insuring that the rice comes out to a very good quality standard with moist, fluffy, consistent results each and every time.

It literally takes the guess work out of cooking rice (especially the challenging brown rice type).

Aroma ARC-856 Benefits, Features, & Settings

For cooking rice, folks can select: white rice, brown rice, and/or sushi rice. There is no texture setting for white rice, something which have helped earn this cooker an excellent rating. So, for softer rice, just soak for 20 minutes...for more crunchy rice start the cooking process right away.

This Aroma model also has a slow cooking setting, a steaming setting, and a soup & stew cooking feature.

Unfortunately we are not all that impressed by the slow cooking setting since it cooks at a very high temperature (boiling point) for about an hour and then slowly simmers at a lower temperature for another hour; 2 hour max cook time.

In our opinion it is not a true slow cooker, and could have taken some pointers from Sanyo's slow cooking features...but it is still nice to have aboard.

On the flip side, the Aroma ARC-856 rice cooker is one of the few rice cookers of its kind that allows the user to steam food while the rice is cooking! A neat little convenient feature that makes this unit worth buying. Not all fuzzy logic cookers have this simultaneous bell and whistle.

It does however take some experimenting and proper timing, and always use caution when working with hot steam!

The Aroma ARC-856 unit is a 6 cup cooker that will prepare up to 18 cups of cooked white rice and comes with a non stick bowl, measuring cup, rice paddle, soup ladle, steaming tray, and manual.

Pros

Cons

Where to Buy an Aroma Rice Cooker

Purchase From Amazon.com (while supplies last, may go discontinued)

Conclusion

When it comes down to it, for around $70 dollars, this Aroma ARC-856 model is a very good buy. It offers a lot for the money, will not crust the bottom layer of rice, will not boil over, and makes rice perfectly with consistency.

If it offered a rice texture setting and had a high and low temperature setting along with a 6 to 12 hour slow cooking timer, we would have given this model an Excellent rating!

Either way for once and a while use, or daily use for white or healthier brown rice, this Aroma rice cooker should fit in your kitchen quite nicely.

Measurements: 11.2 x 10 x 14 Inches | 6 Cup Capacity (approx, 18 Cups Cooked Rice)