Although I consider myself a Chipotle enthusiast, I am also a creature of habit. My usual meal at the popular restaurants chain is a chicken burrito bowl (tortilla on the side, of course) with brown rice, black beans, fajitas, mild salsa, corn, cheese, and lettuce. But as I was indulging in my favorite cause of food coma last week (with a side of chips to boot), I started thinking about one of the restaurant’s biggest selling points, namely the ability to offer a highly customizable product at a low cost (both in terms of raw ingredients and labor). It seemed apparent that I could go to Chipotle twice a day every day for a whole year and still be able to eat a different meal every time, but the power of combinatorics never fails to astound me. Taking my train of thought to the spreadsheet, I found that given Chipotle’s diverse menu of options, you could theoretically eat 442,368 different meals. That’s 606 years of Chipotle if you managed to eat there twice a day!

You can take a quick look at my work here. As a bonus, I used Excel’s random number generator to suggest a different meal every time you refresh the sheet, so if you’re ever unsure of what to get at Chipotle, feel free to use it. Just don’t blame me when probability laughs in your face and suggests 3 hard shell tacos and nothing else 😛