What is the best rice for sushi? I love making sushi at home - it is a satisfying and delicious experience that is very quick and easy (and I can use whatever food is leftover in the house).

However, I'm limited by the type of rice I have been using, and most of the sources I've found are confusing about details and brands. I have been using Botan Calrose Rice, and I've used the Whole Foods brand sushi rice, but neither is particularly good.

So, what are the specific considerations for good sushi rice? Obviously it should be a white, short-grained rice, but what else should I look for? Is it worth it to order rice online when you live in a place that only sells the Botan rice?

Edit: The method for making the rice is either by boiling in a pot with a tight lid or using a rice cooker - both seem to produce very similar results for me. I am looking for a rice with more consistent texture and with a stronger, less chalky flavor.
According to Seductions of Rice (which also has the best written instructions for making sushi rice I've seen), any Japanese-style rice will work fine for sushi rice.  They further define Japanese Rice as Japonica short rice which has a length:width ratio of 2.5:1.  The grains should look translucent and rounded, sometimes with a small white spot at one end.

For example, I personally use "Akita Komachi" organic rice.  This is also a "half-brown" rice, which gives it more vitamin content than pure white rice, as well as a nice nutty flavor. 

According to them, Japanese rice is frequently covered in talc or powdered starch to keep it dry, which is why rinsing it prior to cooking is essential.

I'm not going to go through their entire instructions for preparing sushi rice -- you can borrow the book from your local library for that -- but I will go over the essentials to make sure you're not missing major steps:


Rinse the rice
Soak the rice in cold water for 20 minutes
Cook the rice
Mix the rice with vinegar, sugar and salt
Spread the rice out in a wide pan to cool
Make sushi within 3 hours.