Chipotle Says You Can Order 65,000 Menu Combinations — We Put That Claim To The Test

Chipotle often touts that it has over 65,000 possible menu combinations. It's an interesting stat, so we decided to put it to the test. 

While their menu has remained relatively unchanged for years — Chipotle claims that it prides itself on the simplicity of its offerings — you could feasibly go to Chipotle for decades and never order an identical menu choice. 

Here's what they say as part of their promotional materials from a few years ago:

A Few Things, Thousands of Ways. We serve only a few things: burritos, burrito bowls (a burrito without the tortilla), tacos and salads. But because customers can choose from four different meats, two types of beans and a variety of extras such as salsas, guacamole, cheese and lettuce, there’s enough variety to extend our menu to provide more than 65,000 choices. 

Their menu has stayed the same and the number persists. 

So let's find out all the combinations of stuff you can get at Chipotle.

First, let's look at all your potential ingredients:

• ITEM: Burrito, Burrito Bowl, Crispy Taco, Soft Taco, Salad (5)
• RICE: Yes or No1 (2)
• BEANS: Black, Pinto, None (3)
• FILLING: Carnitas, Barbacoa, Chicken, Steak, None2 (5)
• GUACAMOLE: Yes or No (2)
• SALSA: Corn, Mild, Medium, Hot, None (5)
• CHEESE: Yes or No (2)
• ROMAINE: Yes or No (2)
• SOUR CREAM: Yes or No (2)
• VEGGIE: Yes or No (2)

1. The "65,000" number is pre-introduction of Brown Rice, so we're not holding that against them. We'll factor in brown rice later.  2. Yes, you can get none of these, it's the veggie option. 

So, if we multiply all of those numbers, we find out the total number of combinations available at Chipotle, which comes to 24,000 possibilities. 

That's pretty far short of the touted 65,000 possibilities. 

But wait, there's more. 

Let's deconstruct the salsa. 

Technically, you can get each and every type of salsa — or any combination thereof — of the four type of salsas on the item. 

For instance, you can get Mild salsa, both Mild and Corn, Mild, Hot and Corn, all four or none at all. 

These are the number of salsa combinations:

• 1 way to put all four salsas on an item 
• 4 ways to put three salsas on an item 
• 6 ways to put two salsas on an item 
• 4 ways to put one salsa on an item 
• 1 way to put zero salsa on an item 

So that means that there aren't five ways to put salsa on an item, there are actually sixteen!

When we factor this into the analysis we learn that there are in fact 76,800 ways to order at Chipotle!

So depending on how you interpret the salsa item, Chipotle is either overstating the number of options or grossly underselling itself by 11,800 combinations. 

By the way, if we go with the latter option — 76,800 ways to order — adding brown rice recently means that there are, in fact, over 115,200 combinations. 

UPDATE: Chipotle Fires Back

Chipotle has fired back in an interesting twist:

So let's incorporate that then. Now, the stats look like this:

• ITEM: Burrito, Burrito Bowl, Crispy Taco, Soft Taco, Salad (5)
• RICE: White, Brown, Both or No (4)
• BEANS: Black, Pinto, Both, None (4)
• FILLING: Carnitas, Barbacoa, Chicken, Steak, None (5)
• GUACAMOLE: Yes or No (2)
• SALSA: Corn, Mild, Medium, Hot, None (5)
• CHEESE: Yes or No (2)
• ROMAINE: Yes or No (2)
• SOUR CREAM: Yes or No (2)
• VEGGIE: Yes or No (2)

Then, since you can also allegedly combine the meats the same way as the salsas, there are 16 combinations of meats. 

As a result, after doing the calculations there are a shocking 655,360 combinations, more than 10 times as much as Chipotle's alleged 65,000 combination menu. 

The company is only digging itself into a deeper burrito permutation hole at this point. 

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-many-combinations-can-you-order-at-chipotle-2013-7#ixzz2ZV0wqqFu