Irish Coffee

Title: Irish Coffee

Rating: 3/5

It's unseasonably warm, but today's dreary weather makes this mix (Irish whiskey, hot coffee, and brown sugar, topped with cream) perfect.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must add to the indicated sum (denoted by +) or multiply to the indicated product (denoted by *).   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the sum/product for adjacent regions of each of those colors.  
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that repetition doesn't violate the first rule.

Mirage

Title: Mirage

Rating: 2/5

Amid the desert of your Wednesday, this puzzle is a cool drink of water.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must multiply to the indicated product.   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the product for adjacent regions of each of those colors.  
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that doesn't violate the first rule.  

Maze

Title: Maze

Rating: 3/5

Sometimes it's easier to work from the end than from the beginning.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must add to the indicated sum.   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the sum for adjacent regions of each of those colors.
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that doesn't violate the first rule. 

Caipirinha

Title: Caipirinha

Rating: 1/5

Brazil's national cocktail is made with cachaça, lime, and sugar, served on the rocks.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must add to the indicated sum (denoted by +) or multiply to the indicated product (denoted by *).   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the sum/product for adjacent regions of each of those colors.  
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that repetition doesn't violate the first rule.

What Do You Mean?

Title: What Do You Mean?

Rating: 2/5

Not just a question you might ask during your Thanksgiving holidays, but appropriate for the little tweak in the last rule.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must multiply to the indicated product.   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the product for adjacent regions of each of those colors.  
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that doesn't violate the first rule. 
• The center square is the geometric mean of the four squares immediately diagonal to it. 

Frame Job

Title: Frame Job

Rating: 3/5

It may be easier to see without the colors, but the shapes of the regions in this week's puzzle are meant to convey a picture, matted and framed.  As has happened before, there are certain cells that belong to intersecting regions, namely those cells in positions (3,5), (5,3), (5,7), and (7,5).  The colors of these cells is the average of the colors of the horizontal and vertical regions that intersect there.

The official rules:

• The digits 1 through 9 appear in each row and each column exactly once.
• Digits in each shaded region must add to the indicated sum.   
• Squares with multiple colors contain a number that’s used in the sum for adjacent regions of each of those colors.
• Remember: numbers can repeat within a shaded region if that doesn't violate the first rule.