When I was tapped to collaborate with the Doña Maria Rice brand, it might have been the easiest “yes” I ever said. See, my family has been buying Doña Maria Rice for years. It was a love at first bite affair, because after trying it out for the first time we’ve never bought another brand.
For someone like myself who doesn’t eat rice every single day, I find that I can’t resist Doña Maria’s rice all the same. Whether it be white or brown, Doña Maria rice has this sublime quality to them: fragrant, sticky, fluffy. As far as rice brands go I honestly think it’s one of the best out there.
I know what you’re thinking: This brand’s too expensive! But if you actually think about it, nothing of good quality ever came super cheap. Doña Maria’s premium rice is soft and flavourful, and the awesome part is it supports Filipino farmers by keeping everything homegrown.
Doña Maria is developed by SL Agritech Corporation in their 40-hectare Research and Development farm in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. Choosing to work with local farmers for their production, it is the Filipino farmers who directly profit from every bowl of this premium rice. I happen to believe that this country could change for the better if only we valued our farmers a little more. This is yet another reason why I love this brand so much.
By my thinking, if we can shell out money to buy the latest phones and gadgets, we surely can add a few more pesos to get amazing and locally-grown rice from the store. We should always carefully choose what we put in our bodies! Take it from these celebs, who know exactly what I’m talking about: Daniel Matsunaga, Ruffa Gutierrez, and and Maricel Laxa-Pangilinan.
But honestly speaking, even without the endorsements, I’m still a solid fan of this brand.
Doña Maria’s Jasponica Rice is a fragrant and soft Jasmine rice, with all the qualities of the world famous Japanese rice ingrained into it. With long grains, it becomes tender and juicy when cooked and eaten. In comparison, the Miponica Rice is stickier and fluffier. With slender grains, it is great for making sushi, paella and risotto. Both of these rice variants are available in 1kg, 2kg, 5kg, 10kg, and 25kg packaging.
These two types of rice also have a Brown Rice version. I know most people who want to lose weight cut out rice from their diets completely, and believe me when I say I’ve been there and done that; but I found that without carbs in the picture I often find myself with a little less energy to meet all the demands of work and play. Thankfully Doña Maria has has us all covered with their brown rice, which has all the features of their white rice counterparts, plus added nutrition from the bran layer of each grain of rice.
Brown rice has a whole bunch of health benefits, and just to name a few:
- Good source of dietary fiber that aids in healthier digestion and weight control
- Rich in essential oils, manganese, and anti-oxidants
- Helps to regulate blood sugar levels thanks to presence of magnesium
- Helps protect against colon cancer thanks to selenium
- Helps produce energy from proteins, carbs, and vitamin B complex to fuel the body
For people who still want to get the satisfaction from their fluffy white rice fix but want to gradually shift into a healthier eating habit, Doña Maria has their Jasponica White Plus Brown Rice. We’re regular buyers of this stuff, and I guess lots of people are too since sometimes the supermarket runs out of this. What we do when that happens is just buy a sack each of the white and brown and mix it on our own.
Doña Maria also has this Congee Rice, which I actually didn’t know about. Apparently it’s good as an alternative to malagkit rice, making it perfect for risotto, sticky rice, and maki. Can’t wait to try this out!
In the world of Filipino cuisine, rice is the perfect pairing for pretty much every Filipino dish out there, especially for barbecued dishes like this Chicken Inasal.
And of course, you can turn the rice itself into something special, just like this Bagoong Rice I made before.
Or how about branching out to other Asian cuisines? Doña Maria makes an especially wonderful Korean Bibimbap.
It pairs so well with spicy flavourful dishes such as this Coconut-Cilantro Spicy Shrimp.
All the recipes involving rice that I’ve posted on the blog were all made using Doña Maria rice. In the coming days, I’ll be sharing two more recipes that will make perfectly good use of my favourite Doña Maria rice! Meanwhile, you can check out their website, like them on Facebook, and follow them on Instagram for some more ideas!
Full disclosure: This post is sponsored by Doña Maria Rice, but all opinions stated above are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that help keep The Tummy Train up and running!
