Deduce #71: The creamery — the solution

The Deduce puzzle from October 24, 2026, worked through clue by clue: 7 clues, 3 rounds of crossing off, and no guessing anywhere.

The puzzle

Four people — Kenny, Aaron, Eddie and Lupe — and three things to work out about each: their flavor, topping and time. The clues only ever rule things out.

1. Aaron is exactly 3 hours after the one with raspberry.
2. The one who added hot fudge is not the one there at 7pm.
3. Eddie is the one who added pretzels.
4. Eddie is the one with cherry.
5. Aaron is not the one with maple.
6. The one with cherry is the one there at 5pm.
7. The one who added brownies is exactly 2 hours after Kenny.

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, “Aaron is exactly 3 hours after the one with raspberry”: raspberry comes off Aaron; 4pm, 5pm and 6pm come off Aaron. That settles it: Aaron is there at 7pm.

Clue 3, “Eddie is the one who added pretzels”: pretzels comes off Kenny, Aaron and Lupe. That settles it: Eddie’s topping is pretzels.

Clue 4, “Eddie is the one with cherry”: cherry comes off Kenny, Aaron and Lupe. That settles it: Eddie’s flavor is cherry.

Clue 5, “Aaron is not the one with maple”: maple comes off Aaron. That settles it: Aaron’s flavor is vanilla.

Clue 6, “The one with cherry is the one there at 5pm”: 5pm comes off Kenny and Lupe. That settles it: Eddie is there at 5pm.

Clue 7, “The one who added brownies is exactly 2 hours after Kenny”: brownies comes off Kenny and Aaron; 7pm comes off Kenny and Lupe; 6pm comes off Kenny; 4pm comes off Lupe. That settles it: Kenny is there at 4pm and Lupe is there at 6pm.

Round 2

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

Vanilla is Aaron’s, so it comes off Kenny and Lupe.

Nobody but Lupe can still have brownies, so Lupe’s topping is brownies.

Clue 1, “Aaron is exactly 3 hours after the one with raspberry”: raspberry comes off Lupe. That settles it: Lupe’s flavor is maple.

Clue 2, “The one who added hot fudge is not the one there at 7pm”: hot fudge comes off Aaron. That settles it: Aaron’s topping is cookies.

Round 3

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

Maple is Lupe’s, so it comes off Kenny. That settles it: Kenny’s flavor is raspberry.

Cookies is Aaron’s, so it comes off Kenny. That settles it: Kenny’s topping is hot fudge.

The answer

Previous: Deduce #70 (Fri, Oct 23) · Next: Deduce #72 (Sun, Oct 25) · All Deduce solutions

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.