Fresh on the heels of vegans petitioning Starbucks to offer dairy-free Pumpkin Spice Lattes, Chipotle is following up on its own vegan promise.
Vegans and vegetarians will soon be able to chow down on Chipotle's pinto beans at any of the chain's U.S. stores. The beans were made with a small amount of bacon. According to the Consumerist, two years after a Chipotle's customers complained for not listing bacon as one of the ingredients in their pinto beans, the company has finally introduced the porcine-free version.
Consumerist shared a picture announcing the recipe change at one Chipotle location and confirmed the new beans will get a national rollout.
"We are phasing in a new bacon-less pinto bean recipe around the country," a Chipotle spokesperson told the site. "In testing some recipes, we simply didn't think the bacon added anything and, by removing it, we make the pinto beans vegetarian."
Chipotle customer Seth Porges, a self-proclaimed non-pork eater, was reportedly stunned to learn that the Chipotle beans he had been eating for years were prepared with bacon. Porges rants on Twitter caught the attention of Chipotle's CEO Steve Ellis, who called Porges to apologize and explain the issue. It took a few months for the company to change the menus in all of its locations to reflect the porky ingredient in the Pinto beans.
A Consumerist reader sent a photo of a sign at his local Chipotle oupost, which reads: "We've created a new pinto bean recipe that no longer uses bacon, but is still just as delicious. So, vegetarians, vegans, and the bacon-averse, rejoice. Omnivores, enjoy them as you normally would."
Chipotle's pinto bean mixup is the latest of the chain's posturing toward the meat-free crowd.
Early this year, Chipotle announced it was testing a new tofu filling for its burritos called "sofritas."
