Sushi Nori Grades Explained

July 23, 2018

Nori sheets for sushi come in different grades. You can usually tell which is which from the colour of the packaging. In England, nori is graded with alphabets and colours, in Japan there are 9 grades. Japanese grade their nori by colour, shininess, weight, thickness, spots (holes), and also if the nori contains any other seaweeds.

British nori grades are often shown as alphabets and colours. 

1. Gold or A grade
2. Silver or B grade
3. Blue or between B and C grade (usually upgraded to B)
4. Red, Yellow or C grade
5. Green or D grade

Most nori grades can be identified by this scale. This is not a definitive guide however, different manufactures allocate different grade letters or colours to their nori and have their own grading system, so there are some exceptions.

The grade of nori is not determined by the flavour, as you would think. What is important is how nori looks.The darker the colour, the better. Higher grades, such as gold has a jet black hue to it, becoming lighter colours down the grades. (Jet black- black- dark green- green).

Also, better quality nori is identified by its sheen.

(Shiny jet black nori)

As the nori grades go down, sometimes nori sheets are a bit thinner, and contains another kind of seaweed. They may also have spots on the surface. Spots appear when the seaweed is becoming dry resulting in the sheet to shrink slightly, which results in the spots. Even though, like mentioned earlier, nori grades aren't about the taste. It is all about how it looks. If you are making sushi at home, then lower grades nori sheets are reasonable. For the restaurant use, of course the higher grades nori will look much nicer.

 

Normal nori (Tiny bit greener than black nori sheet)

 

Some grades are set as green C and red D, also yellow can be C too, the best way is compare the price of nori of each companies.

Here are example of nori grades  

Yaamotoyama Gold A Silver B Yellow C Green D

Asakusa (Nagai) Gold A Blue B Green C Red D

 

Takaokaya Blue B Green C

Nagai   Gold A Blue B Green C Red D

 

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