How does Kotori compare to other rice cooker brands?
Kotori is the result of many years of experience designing, developing and selling rice cookers, combined with a clear understanding of what customers who love Asian food want from a compact appliance.
From the very beginning, our priority was clear:
Kotori had to cook exceptional-tasting rice.
But we also wanted it to be much more than a basic rice cooker. We wanted to create a compact appliance that combined excellent cooking performance, attractive design, useful multi-cooking functions, high-quality materials and dependable reliability comparable with the leading rice cooker brands, including Zojirushi.
Designed Around What Customers Actually Want
We spent many years developing the concept behind Kotori and carefully considered which functions would be most useful to people who regularly cook rice and Asian food.
We wanted Kotori to be an appliance that looked as good as it performed, while offering outstanding value for money.
Every aspect of the cooker was considered in detail, including:
Display and control panel
Exterior design and moulded materials
Cooking technology
Inner bowl
Inner lid
Internal components
Packaging
User manual and documentation
Nothing was treated as an afterthought.
Our aim was to create a premium compact rice cooker that offered the technology, performance and attention to detail normally associated with larger and more expensive leading-brand appliances.
A Specialist Manufacturing Partner
Selecting the right manufacturing facility was an important part of Kotori's development.
The factory we chose to manufacture Kotori also produces rice cookers for highly regarded brands including Cuckoo, Cuchen and Tiger.
This means Kotori is manufactured by a facility with extensive experience in producing sophisticated rice cooking appliances and an established understanding of the quality and manufacturing requirements involved.
However, Kotori is not simply an off-the-shelf product. We specified the design, functions, materials and performance requirements and worked closely with our manufacturing partners to develop the finished appliance.
Extensively Tested for Cooking Performance
We extensively tested Kotori throughout its development to ensure that it performed to the standard we expected.
One of the most important tests was, naturally, the quality of the rice itself.
We conducted blind taste tests with members of the Yum Asia team, comparing rice cooked in Kotori with rice prepared using a Zojirushi rice cooker.
The consensus within our team was that Kotori produced rice that was every bit as good as the rice produced by Zojirushi – and, in our opinion, potentially even better.
Of course, taste and texture preferences are subjective, and everyone has their own idea of what constitutes perfect rice. However, the results gave us confidence that Kotori had achieved our primary objective:
Exceptional rice cooking performance from a compact appliance.
More Than Just a Mini Rice Cooker
We also wanted Kotori to offer considerably more versatility than you would normally expect from a small rice cooker.
That's why we included functions that are not commonly found on compact or mini rice cookers, including:
Steaming
Slow cooking
Porridge
Other versatile one-pot cooking possibilities
This allows Kotori to be used for much more than rice, giving you the ability to prepare soups, stews, casseroles, steamed foods and other meals in one compact appliance.
Safety, Materials and Durability
Cooking performance was only one part of our design philosophy. Safety, durability and material quality were equally important.
Kotori features our hard-wearing Ninja ceramic-coated inner bowl, designed to provide excellent non-stick cooking performance while offering a durable cooking surface for everyday use.
We also chose a stainless steel inner lid rather than aluminium, providing a robust and durable component designed for regular cooking and easy maintenance.
The exterior and other components use durable thermo-polymer materials, selected for their suitability in a kitchen appliance and designed to provide a combination of durability, hygiene and long-term everyday usability.
Compact Size, Premium Design
The result is Kotori: a compact rice cooker that combines advanced cooking technology, carefully selected materials, versatile cooking functions and extensive testing.
We wanted to prove that a small rice cooker doesn't have to mean small ambitions.
Kotori was designed to deliver the quality and cooking performance of a premium rice cooker, while remaining compact enough for kitchens where space is limited.
Most importantly, we focused on the thing that matters most:
great-tasting rice.
Kotori may be small, but the technology, testing and attention to detail behind it are anything but.