The reviews are in for Chipotle's queso — and they aren't good.
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Chipotle customers are slamming the chain's new queso as a 'crime against cheese' (CMG)
Chipotle says it's "still tweaking" its queso recipe after customer backlash.
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On Tuesday, Chipotle began serving queso at every location across the US.
The chain debuted queso in its New York City test kitchen in July, and began serving queso at roughly 350 restaurants in California and Colorado in August.
When Business Insider tried the queso in July, we had some issues with the cheesy dip. The texture was off — too grainy, and not gooey enough.
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And, now that the dish has rolled out across the US, most customers seem to agree with our negative review.
"If you are reading this, avoid the Queso, it is grainy and does not taste good," one customer wrote on Chipotle's Facebook page on Friday. "I'd rather have melted Velveeta."
Chipotle's queso is actuall... @ amanda
It's as if not a single per... @ Derrick J
"I was so excited when I heard you were testing queso," wrote another customer. "I was even more excited to hear all stores were selling the queso now. I am not excited to taste said queso. I love everything Chipotle, but this is a hard pass."
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Hey @ChipotleTweets if you ... @ eLstoko
If you haven't tried Chipot... @ brea
"Very disappointed in the Queso," wrote a third customer. "I have not met one person who liked it. Back to the drawing board?"
chipotle queso is trash... @ reg#emo#
Final verdict on Chipotle q... @ Pat Reynolds
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Online, reactions have been overwhelmingly negative. Scrolling through dozens of tweets and Facebook comments, Business Insider only uncovered a handful of positive reviews.
Y'all hating on chipotle's ... @ cass
Chipotle spokesperson Chris Arnold told Business Insider that "not all" of the reaction has been negative, and that many of the negative reviews are centered on the texture of the queso.
"Most [quesos are] made with a bunch of artificial ingredients (stabilizers, preservatives and artificial flavors, for example) and that is not something we do," Arnold said. "Given the pre-conceived notion many people have about what queso is (and isn't), we knew there would be some who didn’t like it based on the simple fact that ours is different, largely because it’s not made with artificial ingredients. "
According to Arnold, queso sales and customer reactions in test markets were sufficiently encouraging that the chain decided to roll it out at all locations.
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Chipotle is addressing negative feeback on Twitter with promises to continue to tweak the recipe.
@CobrahDave While our queso... @ Chipotle
"While our queso may be different than other artificial-ingredient-infused cheese dips, we're still tweaking things," the chain tweeted on Friday.
Arnold said that these tweaks wouldn't be wholesale changes. So, if your biggest issue with Chipotle's queso is the texture, don't expect that to change any time soon.
Queso has long been one of Chipotle customers' most-requested items.
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For a long time, the chain said it was impossible to add queso to the menu while continuing to exclusively use all-natural ingredients. However, as the chain struggles to win back customers nearly two years after sales plummeted following an E. coli outbreak, the company made a major investment in the cheesy dip.
Now, Chipotle has to find a way to create an all-natural queso that customers actually want to eat.
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