Deduce #28: The café — the solution

The Deduce puzzle from September 11, 2026, worked through clue by clue: 7 clues, 3 rounds of crossing off, and no guessing anywhere.

The puzzle

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

1. The one with the croissant is exactly 3 hours after the cocoa drinker.
2. Gwen is the one at 11am.
3. The one with the brownie is not the one at 10am.
4. Jonah is the tea drinker.
5. Tess is not the cocoa drinker.
6. The lemonade drinker is the one with the muffin.
7. Tess is earlier than the lemonade drinker.

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 2, “Gwen is the one at 11am”: 11am comes off Tess, Jonah and Omar. That settles it: Gwen is at 11am.

Clue 4, “Jonah is the tea drinker”: tea comes off Tess, Gwen and Omar. That settles it: Jonah’s drink is tea.

Clue 5, “Tess is not the cocoa drinker”: cocoa comes off Tess.

Clue 6, “The lemonade drinker is the one with the muffin”: muffin comes off Jonah.

Clue 7, “Tess is earlier than the lemonade drinker”: lemonade comes off Tess; noon comes off Tess. That settles it: Tess’s drink is coffee.

Round 2

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

Coffee is Tess’s, so it comes off Gwen and Omar.

Clue 1, “The one with the croissant is exactly 3 hours after the cocoa drinker”: croissant comes off Tess, Gwen and Omar; 10am comes off Jonah and Omar; cocoa comes off Gwen; 9am comes off Jonah; noon comes off Omar. That settles it: Gwen’s drink is lemonade, Jonah is at noon and Omar is at 9am.

Clue 3, “The one with the brownie is not the one at 10am”: brownie comes off Tess.

Clue 6, “The lemonade drinker is the one with the muffin”: muffin comes off Tess. That settles it: Tess’s pastry is scone.

Clue 7, “Tess is earlier than the lemonade drinker”: lemonade comes off Omar. That settles it: Omar’s drink is cocoa.

Round 3

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

Scone is Tess’s, so it comes off Gwen, Jonah and Omar.

Nobody but Jonah can still have croissant, so Jonah’s pastry is croissant.

9am is Omar’s, so it comes off Tess. That settles it: Tess is at 10am.

Clue 6, “The lemonade drinker is the one with the muffin”: muffin comes off Omar. That settles it: Gwen’s pastry is muffin and Omar’s pastry is brownie.

The answer

Previous: Deduce #27 (Thu, Sep 10) · Next: Deduce #29 (Sat, Sep 12)

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.