Deduce #20: The café — the solution

The Deduce puzzle from September 3, 2026, worked through clue by clue: 7 clues, 4 rounds of crossing off, and no guessing anywhere.

The puzzle

Four people — Tess, Sam, Kit and Eve — and three things to work out about each: their drink, pastry and time. The clues only ever rule things out.

1. Kit is the one with the scone.
2. Eve is the one at noon.
3. Sam is not the one at 11am.
4. The coffee drinker is not the one with the muffin.
5. The tea drinker is the one with the croissant.
6. The juice drinker is exactly 3 hours after Tess.
7. The coffee drinker is earlier than Sam.

The walkthrough

A round is one pass over the clues. Each round applies what the last one settled; every step below is an elimination the clues force, in the order a solver would take them.

Round 1

Start with every possibility open, and take the clues in order.

Clue 1, “Kit is the one with the scone”: scone comes off Tess, Sam and Eve. That settles it: Kit’s pastry is scone.

Clue 2, “Eve is the one at noon”: noon comes off Tess, Sam and Kit. That settles it: Eve is at noon.

Clue 3, “Sam is not the one at 11am”: 11am comes off Sam.

Clue 5, “The tea drinker is the one with the croissant”: tea comes off Kit.

Clue 6, “The juice drinker is exactly 3 hours after Tess”: juice comes off Tess, Sam and Kit; 10am and 11am come off Tess. That settles it: Tess is at 9am.

Clue 7, “The coffee drinker is earlier than Sam”: coffee comes off Sam and Eve; 9am comes off Sam. That settles it: Sam is at 10am.

Round 2

Go back over the clues with the new facts in hand.

Nobody but Eve can still have juice, so Eve’s drink is juice.

9am is Tess’s, so it comes off Kit.

10am is Sam’s, so it comes off Kit. That settles it: Kit is at 11am.

Clue 5, “The tea drinker is the one with the croissant”: croissant comes off Eve.

Clue 7, “The coffee drinker is earlier than Sam”: coffee comes off Kit. That settles it: Kit’s drink is lemonade.

Round 3

Go back over the clues with the new facts in hand.

Lemonade is Kit’s, so it comes off Tess and Sam. That settles it: Sam’s drink is tea.

Nobody but Tess can still have coffee, so Tess’s drink is coffee.

Clue 4, “The coffee drinker is not the one with the muffin”: muffin comes off Tess.

Clue 5, “The tea drinker is the one with the croissant”: croissant comes off Tess. That settles it: Tess’s pastry is bagel and Sam’s pastry is croissant.

Round 4

Go back over the clues with the new facts in hand.

Bagel is Tess’s, so it comes off Eve. That settles it: Eve’s pastry is muffin.

The answer

Previous: Deduce #19 (Wed, Sep 2) · Next: Deduce #21 (Fri, Sep 4)

About Deduce

Deduce is Noggin’s daily logic grid: four people, three things to work out about each, and clues that never hand you an answer. Every puzzle has exactly one solution and can be finished by crossing off alone. How to play Deduce, or play today’s.