Coffee Mahjong

Coffee Mahjong dresses a standard solitaire stack in the contents of a cafe: roasted beans, cups, pastries and the rest of the counter appear on the tile faces. The rule underneath is the classic one — take two identical tiles that are free, and the stack comes down layer by layer. The same discipline about buried tiles applies in The Sort Agency.

Free has a precise meaning here, and it is where most levels are lost. A tile counts as free when nothing lies on top of it and at least one of its sides, left or right, is clear. A cup wedged between two neighbours is untouchable however visible it looks, so the board becomes a question of which side of a row to open first. Only tiles with an open side move in Mahjong Deluxe too.

Seventeen levels follow and they tighten as they go, with fifteen minutes granted per level. A hint and a shuffle are there for a stalled layout, and both are best spent when the counter genuinely has nothing left rather than when you are simply searching slowly. This is a 2019 HTML5 build that plays on desktop and mobile, and full screen makes the difference between telling a croissant from its pastry neighbour and guessing. The same free-tile rule governs the Pyramids pile.

1. Look for two tiles showing the same coffee-house item — the same bean, the same cup.
2. Check that both are free: nothing on top, and at least one side, left or right, unblocked.
3. Select the pair to remove it and expose whatever lay beneath.
4. Clear the whole counter inside fifteen minutes to move on to the next of the seventeen levels.

• Open a side before a top — a Coffee Mahjong tile with both flanks blocked is dead weight even when uncovered.
• Take the highest tiles first, since they unlock the widest part of the stack.
• Keep the timer in view — fifteen minutes disappears quickly on the later, denser layouts.
• Shuffle only on a dead board, when no legal pair exists at all.
• Use full screen for the pastries — several of them share a colour and differ only in shape.