Merchant Gourmet Brown, Red, Wild Microwave Rice - Pack of 6 x 250g Pouches, Source of Fiber, Low Fat & Vegan, Ready in Minutes, Plant-based Ready Meal

Bit boring as no added flavours but bought to take on holiday where I had no cooking facilities. They were easy to use and went with the tasty fiid meals very well

Initially, I bought a single packet at a supermarket, just to try it. I liked it, and decided to buy it in bulk. (Well, six packets). It is more flavourful than regular rice - hearty and satisfying. A good blend of rices. A few dabs of butter rounds out the flavour profile and adds to the mouth-feel.

These are well designed, tasty pouches of rice let down by the texture of the rice.The flavour, first of all, is just right - rich and interesting, without being overwhelming. It's ideal for adding a bit of interest to something you just cooked in the microwave. The ingredients are sensible and reasonably natural for something you microwave. All in all, it tastes and smells much better than a lot of other microwave rice packets.It's a generous portion, too; I'm a pretty hungry person but it's plenty for me. It comes in a practical, well designed pouch which is easy to rip - no need for scissors. It microwaves quickly and easily, and the pouch wasn't too large even for our small microwave.The texture, however, I find really disappointing: it's dry and chewy, essentially tasting like it hasn't quite been cooked properly. Obviously it's a challenge making microwaveable rice fluffy and soft like the real thing, but it's certainly possible to do better than this. It feels like a fair bit of work getting through it. Even when I tried adding extra water to the packet to microwave one batch it still came out dry and hard.If they updated the texture, I'd buy this regularly. Until then, not so much.

Would recommend buying this very tasty

The instructions say to cut a 2cm slit in the bag and place it in a 700W microwave for 2 minutes. I did exactly that, but around 1:45 I heard the most almighty bang. I wouldn't want to hear that with a heart condition! The inside of the microwave got splattered, but was cleaned up pretty quickly.Taste-wise it's okay. There's definitely some tomato and herb flavouring, but I found the rice rather dry. It might be nice with some pan-seared chicken. We'll probably use what's left of our order, but I'm unlikely to order again after the bad experience with the bag exploding.

This pack of x6 250g pouches of microwaveable rice arrived in a branded cardboard box which is easily recycled. The rice that I received was the sunblush tomato and basil wholegrain rice and it has a nice balanced flavour from the slow roasted tomatoes combined with the fragrant aromatic taste from the basil. Neither of these ingredients overwhelm the overall dish and I found it to be very tasty.The rice is made up from 43% wholegrain rice and 34% white rice of which both are a great source of fibre and are low in both fat and sugar. At 191 calories per serving this is an ideal option as part of a healthy balanced meal. One pack is ideal as a side dish for two people or could be used by one person as the main component of a meal.The rice is very easy to cook and can be done in either the microwave or on the hob and can be eaten both hot or cold. The pouches are easy to open with a tear mark at the top and I like the clear packaging with the recipe suggestion on the back. It is suitable for both vegans and vegetarians and has a good shelf life too (about 22 months from the date of receiving).Priced at £12 at the time of reviewing, this works out at £2 per pouch which although quite pricey is reasonable due to the good quality ingredients and ease of convenience – I would definitely recommend this rice by Merchant Gourmet.

This was my first taste of the Merchant Gourmet brand and on the strength of this, I’ve already ordered some other flavours to try.The presentation is much like other (including cheaper) rice packs from other brands, but the quality of the rice is at least as good as any other brand I’ve tried. After the two minute cooking time, you get rice that’s a little bit fluffy, moist but not damp, and which spreads and behaves little proper cooked rice- it’s just slightly on the sticky side, but doesn’t clump together in one lump like some other rice packs do.The mango, chilli and lime flavour sounds a bit overcomplicated to me, but it works because none of the flavours is especially strong. The mango in particular is very mild, to the point where I’m not sure it should be listed first in the flavour name- the lime tang to it is more noticeable to me. The chilli is very mild and a little bit sweet, and the spice level is low but builds slightly as you work through a pack- but even my spice-weak palette had no problem with it.When bought in a supermarket, other rice packs are sometimes slightly cheaper. But at the current asking price that works out at two quid per pack, I think this is quality rice reasonably priced.