VivaJava: The Coffee Game: The Dice Game

Blend dice into coffee bestsellers or research new tricks, and press your luck as the blend degrades.

Designer: T. C. Petty III
Published by: Dice Hate Me Games
Editions by: Pegasus Spiele

VivaJava: The Coffee Game: The Dice Game, or VivaJava Dice for short, follows the 2012 card game VivaJava: The Coffee Game. You are an employee at the VivaJava CoffeeCo., hunting the globe for the best beans to keep the company on top, and the choice each turn is between blending and research. Blend with the dice in your pool to create a bestseller for quick points, then decide whether to press your luck in later rounds for bigger points with fewer dice as the blend degrades. Or research, spending your valuable beans on an ever-changing set of dice-manipulating abilities. A roll-and-write race on a scoresheet, one to four players, about forty minutes.

Blend or research each turnPress your luck as blends degradeDice abilities change from game to game

Who it's for

You like roll-and-write games with a push-your-luck core and a coffee theme, and want a short, tidy game that also works solo.

Not for you if…

You want a cooperative or story-heavy game. The dice decide plenty, and the scoresheet play is more mathematical than narrative.

Vibe's take

Brisk and crunchy for its size. Each blend is a small gamble with fewer dice and a bigger payoff, and the research choices keep every game feeling a little different.