Chipotle
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40 free Chipotle trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Chipotle began as one small burrito shop in 1993 and grew into a chain of more than 4,000 restaurants while keeping one of the shortest menus in the business. That short menu hides a surprising amount of history: an unlikely backer, a founder who had other plans, animated films that won awards, and kitchen rules most big chains would never accept. This quiz covers the whole story: where the name comes from, what goes into the food, how the company buys its ingredients, the promotions fans wait for every year, the side projects that came and went, and the executives who shaped the brand. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you learn something even when you guess wrong. It suits burrito regulars, pub quiz hosts and anyone warming up for Chipotle IQ, the brand's own trivia game about its sourcing, ingredients and recipes. The questions range from easy openers to deep cuts for true fans.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which appliance, standard in most fast-food kitchens, is missing from every Chipotle restaurant?
A freezer
A freezer has no place in a Chipotle kitchen, and neither do microwave ovens or can openers. Most of the food is prepared from raw ingredients inside each restaurant.
Q 02Before the first Chipotle moved in during 1993, its small building had housed what kind of business?
An ice cream shop
An ice cream shop called Dolly Madison occupied the site first. Most Chipotles hang a photo of that original restaurant, while the original itself displays a picture of the old ice cream store.
Q 03Chipotle's founder opened his first burrito shop mainly to raise money for which bigger ambition?
A fine-dining restaurant
A fine-dining restaurant was the real goal, with the burrito shop meant as a cash cow to pay for it. The burritos sold so well that he dropped the plan and built the chain instead.
Q 04Which fast-food giant was Chipotle's largest investor until it sold its entire stake in 2006?
McDonald's
McDonald's put roughly $360 million into Chipotle and took out about $1.5 billion. Under its backing the chain grew from 16 restaurants to more than 500.
Q 05The chipotle behind Chipotle Mexican Grill's name is a ripe, dried form of which chili pepper?
Jalapeño
Jalapeño peppers left on the plant until they turn deep red are smoked for days to become chipotles. It takes about ten pounds of fresh peppers to make one pound.
Q 06Which herb scented the novelty soap that Chipotle put on sale in December 2021?
Cilantro
Cilantro tastes soapy to a small share of people for genetic reasons, a running debate among Chipotle fans. The soap began as a mock Instagram post that the chain turned into a real product.
Q 07Sofritas, the vegan filling Chipotle rolled out across the US in 2014, is made from what?
Tofu
Tofu supplied by Hodo Soy is the base of sofritas. Chipotle tested it in Northern California restaurants in 2013 before taking it nationwide.
Q 08On which gaming platform did Chipotle open a virtual restaurant in 2021 to hand out free burritos?
Roblox
Roblox made Chipotle the first restaurant brand with a virtual location on the platform. Visitors could earn codes from a $1 million pool of real burritos and explore a Halloween maze.
Q 09Before apps, Chipotle customers could skip the line by sending orders using which technology?
Fax
Fax orders let customers walk to the front of the line and pay for food that was already made. Online ordering only reached Chipotle's website in 2005.
Q 10Taquerias in which San Francisco neighborhood inspired the oversized burritos Chipotle sells?
Mission District
Mission District taquerias wrap rice, beans and meat in one large steamed tortilla. Chipotle's founder ate there while working as a cook in San Francisco, then carried the format to Colorado.
Q 11Which Culinary Institute of America graduate founded Chipotle in 1993 and ran it until 2018?
Steve Ells
Steve Ells opened the first restaurant on a loan from his father, and the pair worked out that it had to sell 107 burritos a day to turn a profit. Within a month it was selling more than 1,000.
Q 12The first Chipotle opened in 1993 across the street from a university campus in which Colorado city?
Denver
Denver remained Chipotle's hometown and headquarters for 25 years. The original 850-square-foot restaurant got its first renovation only in 2017.
Q 13Brian Niccol, who became Chipotle's chief executive in 2018, had been running which rival chain?
Taco Bell
Q 21Which item, long the most requested thing Chipotle did not serve, joined its US menu in 2017?
Queso
Queso was held back because Chipotle refused to use the industrial additives that keep most cheese dips smooth. Its version relied on aged cheddar, tomatillos, tomatoes and peppers instead.
Q 22Which filling did Chipotle pull from a third of its restaurants in 2015 after a supplier audit?
Carnitas
Carnitas vanished from those menus after a routine audit found a pork supplier breaking Chipotle's animal welfare rules. The chain chose to go without rather than serve conventionally raised pork.
Q 23Until late 2013, which Chipotle staple was cooked with bacon, putting it off limits to vegetarians?
Pinto beans
Taco Bell was where Niccol had led a turnaround, and Chipotle's shares jumped 12 percent when his hiring was announced. Some analysts still complained that the move went against what the brand stood for.
Q 14A robot Chipotle unveiled in 2023 cuts, cores and peels the fruit for which menu item?
Guacamole
Guacamole takes a crew about 50 minutes per batch by hand, so the Autocado prototype halves, pits and skins the avocados. Staff still mash them and add the other ingredients themselves.
Q 15Chipotle was one of the first chains in which restaurant category, also home to Cava and Sweetgreen?
Fast casual
Fast casual restaurants skip table service but promise better food than a drive-through. The concept took shape in the United States in the early 1990s, just as Chipotle opened.
Q 16What does Chipotle call its Halloween deal, begun in 2000, for customers who arrive in costume?
Boorito
Boorito once asked customers to come dressed as a burrito to get a free one. In 2010 the theme was the horrors of processed food, with $2 burritos raising money for Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.
Q 17Chipotle's tortilla chips are fried, dusted with salt, then finished with the juice of which fruit?
Lime
Lime juice goes on every batch of chips after the salt. When Chipotle tested a chip-frying robot in 2022, it trained the machine to keep the slight variations in seasoning that customers expect.
Q 18Which coffee chain hired chief executive Brian Niccol away from Chipotle in 2024?
Starbucks
Starbucks shares jumped more than 24 percent on the day the hire was announced. In six years at Chipotle, Niccol had doubled revenue and moved the headquarters to California.
Q 19For its 18th anniversary in 2011, Chipotle swapped the silver foil on its burritos for which color?
Gold
Gold foil marked the birthday in 2011 and came back a decade later, when Chipotle wrapped burritos in it to cheer on American athletes at the Tokyo Olympics.
Q 20Which item joined Chipotle's menu in 2021 as a digital-only order, its first new entrée in 17 years?
Quesadilla
Quesadilla orders are folded and pressed in a custom oven on the digital-order line, which is why they could only be placed by app or website. Fans had been asking for one for years.
Pinto beans were simmered with bacon, so vegetarians had to know to ask for black beans instead. A recipe change in 2013 dropped the meat and made them vegan-friendly.
Q 24Chipotle opened its first restaurant outside the United States in 2008 in which city?
Toronto
Toronto got the first international Chipotle 15 years after the chain began. London followed in 2010 as the first in Europe, while Mexico itself had to wait until 2026.
Q 25What is the only thing a driver can do at a Chipotlane, which Chipotle began testing in 2018?
Collect a mobile order
Collect a mobile order is all a Chipotlane allows, because nobody can order food at the handout window. More than 500 restaurants had one of the lanes by 2023.
Q 26In 2015 Chipotle announced it was the first national restaurant chain to cook entirely without what?
GMOs
GMOs left the kitchen when Chipotle dropped genetically modified corn and soybeans. Four years later it paid $6.5 million to settle claims that its meat came from animals raised on modified feed.
Q 27Why did every Chipotle restaurant in the United States close for part of February 8, 2016?
A food safety meeting
A food safety meeting for all staff followed a run of 2015 outbreaks, including E. coli cases that shut 43 restaurants in Washington and Oregon. The company also hired a new head of food safety.
Q 28In 2018 Chipotle announced it would move its headquarters from Colorado to which California city?
Newport Beach
Newport Beach was already home to Chipotle's new chief executive, who had settled there while running another restaurant chain. About 400 jobs were affected by the move.
Q 29Which singer covered Pure Imagination for The Scarecrow, Chipotle's 2013 animated short film?
Fiona Apple
Fiona Apple recorded the Willy Wonka song for a film that follows a scarecrow through a grim food factory. It won two Daytime Emmys and the Grand Prix at Cannes Lions.
Q 30Which country star covered Coldplay's The Scientist for Chipotle's 2011 film Back to the Start?
Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson recorded the cover for a short film about the problems of factory-style animal farming. He kept it as the closing track of his 2012 album Heroes.