The objectives of this study were to identify the relation between consumer acceptance and instrumental quality measurements, and to investigate the drivers of liking and disliking descriptive attributes for seven samples of aseptic‐packaged cooked rice. Nineteen descriptive attributes were finally determined by analysis of variance and adjusted F‐test. There was a difference in sensory profiles of 7 aseptic‐packaged cooked rice samples by the descriptive analysis. Boramchan, Suryejinmi, Suwon528 and HA had distinctive characteristics; Dami, Suwon 534 and Suwon 538 had relatively neutral characteristics. Haiami was the most accepted preferred sample, followed by Suwon 528 by consumer acceptance test. Consumer acceptances and instrumental quality measurements were not strongly correlated. A total of 11 key attributes for aseptic‐packaged cooked rice were determined as drivers of liking (rice cake, sweet, roasted aroma and flavour, cohesiveness of mass, deformation and shininess) and disliking (rice bran aroma and flavour, hardness and smoothness of surface).