Coffee rewards · Portland, Oregon

Tenth

Buy nine coffees anywhere. The tenth is free.

One card on your phone that works at every independent cafe on Tenth, not one card per shop, stamped into a drawer somewhere. Every coffee you pay for charges it one cell, whichever counter you're at. At ten cells, the screen turns green and the next coffee is on the house.

Freefor coffee drinkers, forever
$0/mofor cafes · no subscription
6 cafesone card, across Portland
Start your card Try it first: pay for coffee nine on the phone. Watch what it earns.
7:42Tenth · Portland
Maya's card · one card, every cafe

Almost
charged

8 of 10 charged

Last charge: oat latte, Courier Coffee, yesterday. One more paid coffee · at any Tenth cafe · earns a free one.

A working sample card. Nobody is charged.

7:43Tenth · Portland

Free.

Coffee #10 is on the house. Show this green screen at any Tenth cafe.

Maya R. · card F-10 · any drink, any size

The cafe taps once to confirm. Your count restarts at one.

Inside3 parts
The battery

Your count

Ten cells, filled by paid coffees at any Tenth counter. Cells never expire, never shrink, and the count is the same at every cafe · it's one card, not six.

The chip

One tap to pay

Pay however you already pay · card, phone, cash. Show your card code and the cell fills itself. No app to open at the register, no stamp to remember.

The antenna

The nearest cafe

Open Tenth anywhere in Portland and it points at the closest counter on the card, so a free coffee is never stranded across town from you.

That's the whole machine. Nothing else is in there.

The counter side

What a cafe sees, pasted on the back.

One green screen.Customer shows green, you tap confirm, you hand over the drink. Nothing to scan, print or reconcile.

$0 a month.No subscription, no terminal, no cut of the nine paid coffees. A redeemed tenth costs you the drink itself · about $1.80 of milk and beans.

Regulars you didn't have.Every drinker on Tenth is one cell away from choosing your counter next.

A Tuesday at one counter: 41 cells charged · 4 free coffees given · 6 first-time regulars

Part one · the battery

The count, in the open

Punch cards fail in one place: they're per shop, so your nine coffees at five different counters add up to nothing. Tenth keeps one count across all six cafes, and the count is all it keeps · every charge is listed, coffee by coffee, so you can always see exactly how the free one was earned.

Maya's card · Portland

Oat latteArlo & Fig · Mon$5.50
Drip, largeCourier Coffee · Tue$3.75
CappuccinoNever Coffee · Wed$5.00
CortadoEither/Or · Thu$4.50
MochaGood Coffee · Fri$6.00
Flat whiteArlo & Fig · Sat$5.25
AmericanoCoava · Mon$4.25
Oat latteCourier Coffee · Tue$5.50
Flat whiteArlo & Fig · just now$5.50
Coffee #10 · any drink, any cafe$0.00
Nine paid · one earned$45.25

Nine ordinary weekday coffees, five counters, two weeks. On paper cards that's five dead cards in a junk drawer. On Tenth it's a free mocha on Friday. Cells never expire · if you switch to tea for a month, your seven cells are waiting when you come back. And the free one is a real drink: any coffee on the menu, any size, not the smallest drip on the board.

"I stopped doing the drawer math. I buy coffee where I happen to be, and every couple of weeks my phone turns green at the counter. The barista at Arlo & Fig high-fived me the first time."

Maya R., rides the 14 bus, card member since March

Part two · the antenna

Six cafes, one card

Independent counters across Portland, close enough that one of them is on your way to something. Every paid coffee at any of them charges the same card · and the free tenth can be drunk at a different one than where you earned it.

Hawthorne

Arlo & Fig

Sunny corner spot, house oat-milk program, dogs under every table by nine.

Cardamom flat white · $5.75

Downtown

Courier Coffee

Delivered by bike since before it was a thing. Fast bar, kind to laptops before noon.

Large drip · $3.75

Belmont

Never Coffee

Colorful, a little theatrical, and serious about the shot. Seasonal drinks worth the walk.

Midnight Oil latte · $6.25

Sellwood

Either/Or

Two espressos on bar, always. Soda on tap for the coffee-adjacent friend.

Cortado · $4.50

Slabtown

Good Coffee

Light, plants, long tables. The mocha Maya spends her free ones on.

Mocha · $6.00

East Burnside

Coava

Warehouse roastery with the machines in the room. For people who read tasting notes.

Single-origin Americano · $4.25

Part three · the back of the phone

For the counter

$0/mo

No subscription, no hardware, no percentage of the nine paid coffees. Tenth is free to join and free to leave. Your only cost is the drink itself when somebody redeems a tenth at your counter.

$45.25what Maya spent across the six counters earning one free coffee. Every cent stayed with the cafes.
≈ $1.80what the redeemed tenth costs the cafe that pours it · milk, beans, cup. In exchange: a regular who comes back nine more times.
1 tapto confirm a green screen. No new terminal, no staff training, works next to the register you already have.

"We joined expecting to give away coffee. What actually happened: people cross the river on Saturdays because their cell count works here too. Our free ones run about eleven a week. Our new regulars pay for them many times over."

Sam O., owner, Arlo & Fig · on Tenth since January

Part four · get the card

Start at cell one

Tenth, in your pocket or on your counter

Drinkers: your card arrives as a link · first coffee charges cell one today. Cafes: we stop by with a small green sign for the counter and you're live the same afternoon.

Demo form on a fictional site · nothing is sent or stored.

Cell one is waiting.

Your card link is on its way. Next coffee, anywhere on Tenth, charge it.

Contents

  1. The count, in the openPart one
  2. Six cafes, one cardPart two
  3. For the counterPart three
  4. Start at cell onePart four