It turns out something had changed. For the first time, Illegal Pete's moved its queso production to a third party: Tico’s Mexican Foods. The company is owned by the Canino family, with whom founder Pete Turner has had a long relationship. "Rest assured, the queso is the exact recipe, down to them grating our cheese and making one of our salsas that is an integral part to the recipe," Turner says, noting "the trust, history and relationship we have with the [Canino] family," who are also longtime local restaurateurs.
There was an issue, though. The Reddit thread prompted Turner to dig into the process of reheating the now pre-made, bagged queso at the restaurant locations and found that there were corrections that needed to be made, which are in place now. "Bottom line is that our community can trust us not to take any shortcuts in anything we do," Turner says.
As a longtime Illegal Pete's fan, I've eaten a lot of its queso over the years, but this news sparked a question: How does it stack up against the other two well-known, Colorado-born burrito chains?
On the heels of the recent hummus taste test I conducted at a friend's game night, I enlisted the help of the same crew for taste test round two: queso edition.
The contenders:
QdobaFounded in Denver in 1995
Cost of a large queso: $5.95
Illegal Pete's
Founded in Boulder in 1995
Cost of a large queso: $5.49
Chipotle
Founded in Denver in 1993
Cost of a large queso: $8
Note: Each contender includes a free bag of chips with an order of queso.
The method:
I picked up orders from all three queso contenders on my way to game night, and all were still warm when I arrived. I scooped each into identical bowls, set them on the table with their corresponding chips and assigned each a letter — queso A, B and C.First impressions:
Immediately, one person declared that they knew which was which based on color alone. (Spoiler: They were wrong.)Queso A
Pale color with lots of visible seasoning and pieces of chiles.
"You get that good flavor that comes with jalapeño, but it's not very spicy."
"It has a pleasant mouthfeel."
"There's more real cheese flavor than the other two."
Queso B
Orange/yellow hue and some small bits of pepper and tomatoes.
"This one reminds me of Kraft or Velveeta."
"There's more spice than A, but less pepper flavor."
"This is like your ballpark nacho cheese."
Queso C
The whitest of the three, with small bits of chiles.
"It's sweeter than the rest."
"It's a bit smoky."
"It's pretty gloopy, though."
"The texture is like mayonnaise."
"C is like the worst parts of A and B."
The results:
Of the eight taste testers, six chose A as their favorite — by far — and two chose C. And everyone thought A was Illegal Pete's. But in fact, the crowd favorite was Qdoba, sparking a resounding "Wooooow!" from the group. The Qdoba queso scored big for its smooth texture, appropriate thickness, superior cheesiness and prevalent chile notes.
Contender C was Chipotle's Queso Blanco, which proved to be divisive. The two people who picked it as their favorite liked its "real cheese" flavor combined with a hint of smokiness, but admitted that the texture was off. It's also the most expensive of the three and came in a slightly smaller cup size.
Illegal Pete's was contender B, and while no one chose it as their top pick, everyone agreed that it had a nostalgic appeal and a pleasant texture (no chalkiness or gloopiness as the Reddit user noted) — but the orange hue was a surprise. I remember Pete's queso being a paler yellow in the past, and others agreed.
Also worth noting: All of the test testers thought all three chips tasted stale, but Chipotle's were the favorite, thanks to the hint of lime flavor.
Congrats to Qdoba, the reigning queso champ — though we all agreed that while all three are different, they're all good "because they're all cheese."
What should we taste-test next? Send suggestions to [email protected].
