Deduce #55: The café — the solution

The Deduce puzzle from October 8, 2026, worked through clue by clue: 8 clues, 3 rounds of crossing off, and no guessing anywhere.

The puzzle

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

1. Rosa is the one with the bagel.
2. Rosa is not the water drinker.
3. The water drinker is exactly 2 hours after the one with the scone.
4. The cocoa drinker is the one at 10am.
5. Wes is the one with the scone.
6. The one with the croissant is earlier than Jonah.
7. Tess is not the one at 10am.
8. The lemonade drinker is exactly 2 hours after the one with the croissant.

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, “Rosa is the one with the bagel”: bagel comes off Wes, Tess and Jonah. That settles it: Rosa’s pastry is bagel.

Clue 2, “Rosa is not the water drinker”: water comes off Rosa.

Clue 5, “Wes is the one with the scone”: scone comes off Tess and Jonah. That settles it: Wes’s pastry is scone.

Clue 6, “The one with the croissant is earlier than Jonah”: croissant comes off Jonah; 1pm comes off Tess; 10am comes off Jonah. That settles it: Jonah’s pastry is muffin.

Clue 7, “Tess is not the one at 10am”: 10am comes off Tess.

Clue 8, “The lemonade drinker is exactly 2 hours after the one with the croissant”: lemonade comes off Tess; noon comes off Tess. That settles it: Tess is at 11am.

Round 2

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

Muffin is Jonah’s, so it comes off Tess. That settles it: Tess’s pastry is croissant.

11am is Tess’s, so it comes off Wes, Jonah and Rosa.

Clue 3, “The water drinker is exactly 2 hours after the one with the scone”: water comes off Wes and Tess; 1pm comes off Wes and Jonah; noon comes off Wes. That settles it: Wes is at 10am and Jonah is at noon.

Clue 4, “The cocoa drinker is the one at 10am”: cocoa comes off Tess and Jonah. That settles it: Tess’s drink is tea.

Clue 8, “The lemonade drinker is exactly 2 hours after the one with the croissant”: lemonade comes off Wes and Jonah; 10am and noon come off Rosa. That settles it: Rosa is at 1pm.

Round 3

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

Tea is Tess’s, so it comes off Wes, Jonah and Rosa. That settles it: Wes’s drink is cocoa and Jonah’s drink is water.

Nobody but Rosa can still have lemonade, so Rosa’s drink is lemonade.

The answer

Previous: Deduce #54 (Wed, Oct 7)

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.