Looking for a coffee themed Board Game to celebrate International Coffee Day well here are our top three choices of coffee themed board games and expansions.

VivaJava: The Coffee Game: The Dice Game

VivaJava: The Coffee Game: The Dice Game – or, more simply, VivaJava Dice – is the successor to the well-received 2012 release of VivaJava: The Coffee Game. As in its predecessor, players of VivaJava Dice take on the roles of employees at the VivaJava CoffeeCo., scouring the globe for the best beans to keep the company on top while keeping themselves one step ahead of the rest of the executives.

Also as in VivaJava, VivaJava Dice has players making the crucial decision between blending beans and research, but with a quick, new twist. Players must now use the dice in their pool to blend – using the beans to create a best-seller for quick points, then deciding whether to press their luck in subsequent rounds for bigger points but fewer dice as the blends degrade – or to research, which involves using their valuable beans to gain an ever-changing variety of dice-manipulating abilities, new ways to score, and paths that lead to aiding a competitor for a later payoff or hindering that competitor for immediate gratification. VivaJava Dice also offers a unique system of cooperative dice-rolling that can help you rise to the top, but at the price of someone else riding your coattails.

With an astounding mix of plug-and-play research abilities, subtle social play in semi-cooperative mode, and the chance to hog all the glory and blend the best for yourself, VivaJava Dice is all about choice, making each game fast and furiously different.

Cacao

Cacao is a tile-placement game that immerses players in the exotic world of the “fruit of the Gods”. As the chief of your tribe, you must lead your people to prosperity through the cultivation and trade of cacao — and to do that, you’ll need to put them to work in the best way possible.

In the game, each player has an individual deck of square worker tiles, with the number of workers on each side of the tile varying from tile to tile. The playing area starts with only a couple of jungle tiles in play: a cacao field and a small market; two jungle tiles are laid face up, and the remaining jungle tiles stacked as a draw pile.

On a player’s turn, he places one of her worker tiles on the board adjacent to one or more jungle tiles already in play, then (if two worker tiles are next to an empty space) adds one of the jungle tiles to the playing area in this space. Her workers then get busy and deliver the results of their effort: If you placed workers next to a cacao field, you receive one or two cacao markers per worker; if they’re next to a market, you can choose to sell one cacao marker per worker at the listed price; if next to a well, you receive water; if next to a temple, they stand and look good until the end of the game; and so on. He then refills her hand from her personal deck to three worker tiles.

Once all players have used all of their worker tiles, the game ends. Players score (or lose) points based on their water supply and each temple rewards whichever players sent the most workers to it. In the end, whoever has collected the most gold wins.

Istanbul: Mocha & Baksheesh

Requires a copy of Istanbul

Selling precious fabrics, the finest of spices, and the freshest of fruits in Istanbul was very good for business. But now the customers at the bazaar have discovered a new delicacy: coffee! As the cunning merchant you are, you sense the fortune you can make by selling the tasty bean.

To overcome these new challenges, you will need more help than just that of your assistants. Luckily, for a baksheesh, the guests at the tavern are willing to take a little side job. Also, at the guildhall, you can find the valuable help you need.

The first expansion for Istanbul, the 2014 Kennerspiel des Jahres, Istanbul: Mocha & Baksheesh brings four new places, more interaction between the players, and new ways to gain the coveted rubies. The Bazaar favourite of all gaming enthusiasts just got a little more attractive.

Time to Celebrate

Its time to celebrate so why not grab a coffee some friends and play one of these games today.

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