Louisiana’s 'Jazzmen' rice no match for the real thing

When it comes to rice, don’t mess with Thailand. That includes you, Louis Armstrong.
   
In one of the Bangkok Post’s top stories on Thursday, the country’s Agriculture and Cooperatives minister is quoted as saying the ministry ordered DNA tests on a U.S. fragrant rice brand known as “Jazzmen” -- a name that plays on Thailand’s famed aromatic jasmine rice strain.

According to the Jazzmen website, it’s an “exclusively designed aromatic rice” variety developed by the Louisiana State University AgCenter. Jazzmen’s packaging features images of the late jazz great Louis Armstrong.

“When you get Jazzmen Rice at your grocery, it has not spent months being shipped in climate environs or large vessels into the U.S. from Asia like most other aromatic rice," brags the site. "Jazzmen Rice is guaranteed to have the best aromatic flavors of superior long stem rice.”

Them’s fighting words! Upon hearing of this possible threat to its aromatic rice supremacy, Thailand decided to carry out tests to see if the brand had violated a patent for Hom Mali (the Thai name for jasmine rice) and to compare the qualities of the two.

The verdict? Not to worry: Jazzmen is actually developed from a Chinese strain and therefore inferior to Hom Mali, reports the "Post."

As hilarious as it all may sound, Thailand’s concern is legit. Times are already tough for the country’s rice farmers due to fluctuating prices and yearly droughts so the government is wise to do what it can to protect them.