Listen, no one’s going to give you a free burrito in this world. And considering how high Chipotle’s prices are, it makes sense that people would try to do everything they can to both eat at the restaurant (their guac is legend…wait for it…ary) and pay as little as possible. That’s why one intrepid burrito enthusiast did experiment after experiment to figure out exactly how you can get way more Chipotle for free.
Here’s how Dylan Grosz conducted his trials:
…I took my geeky love of data and my black hole of a belly to Chipotle for several days and ordered 5 burritos each day (35 burritos total), then returned to the Apartment List office to meticulously separate out and weigh the ingredients. Finally, I combined all the best methods to confirm the total burrito size increase. Additional methodology footnotes are below, but for now – on to the meat of the experiment (pun intended).
That’s a lot of burritos. But Grosz’s hard work has yielded some interesting results. Here are just some of the things he suggests you do to get more bang for your burrito-loving buck:
At its onset, Chipotle introduced the innovative burrito bowl that combined its authentic Mexican cuisine with the ease of knife-and-fork dining. Burrito legend has it that the bowl’s lack of tortilla constraints influences servers to give burrito bowl customers huge portions in general. In my experiments, I found that this method alone gets 15% more ingredients across the board, without changing anything else about the order. Still craving that full burrito experience? No problem – you can easily ask for a tortilla on the side.
Yeah, you’re going to have to wrap it all up yourself, but isn’t it worth it for the free meat and salsa you’re getting? Dude, the answer is yes! Plus, tortillas are delicious as a snack by themselves, so just eat your bowl and then take the tortilla with you. Put it in your pocket, Napoleon Dynamite-style. Or, get two tortillas for even more burrito in your face.
This method of calling in tortilla reinforcements was initially introduced by Chipotle to save burritos that busted open their first tortilla, but Chipotle sometimes lets you ask for a double wrap for free, which adds another 4.25 ounce tortilla to your burrito (ask for the tortillas at the end, when the staff just wants you to go away). Congratulations, your burrito just became 25% bigger. Ordering tortillas on the side and wrapping it yourself may be a daunting task for some, but if you value the time it takes you to wrap the burrito at $0 per hour (hey, burritos are worth your time), then you should add this method to your burrito maximization arsenal.
Dude. There’s something for everyone! Grosz has got more tips for you—for instance, you should order both kinds of rice because people don’t have time to portion everything perfectly and will just give you lots of extra rice—and you should absolutely try them on your next visit! (Also: this isn’t technically a money-saving tip, but there is nothing more delicious than an extra-grilled quesadilla which might annoy the workers, but they’ll still make it for you and also probably give you extra cheese.)
(Via Apartment List)