diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 0a5f34317..22e53048e 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
     "test:coverage": "jest --coverage --silent --runInBand",
     "test:dev": "jest --verbose --watch",
     "test:basic": "jest tests/markdown/basic.test.js --verbose",
+    "test:variables": "jest tests/markdown/variables.test.js --verbose",
     "test:mustache-syntax": "jest '.*(mustache-syntax).*' --verbose --noStackTrace",
     "test:mustache-syntax:inline": "jest '.*(mustache-syntax).*' -t '^Inline:.*' --verbose --noStackTrace",
     "test:mustache-syntax:block": "jest '.*(mustache-syntax).*' -t '^Block:.*' --verbose --noStackTrace",
diff --git a/tests/markdown/variables.test.js b/tests/markdown/variables.test.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..04d874d90
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/markdown/variables.test.js
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+/* eslint-disable max-lines */
+
+const dedent = require('dedent-tabs').default;
+const Markdown = require('naturalcrit/markdown.js');
+
+// Marked.js adds line returns after closing tags on some default tokens.
+// This removes those line returns for comparison sake.
+String.prototype.trimReturns = function(){
+	return this.replace(/\r?\n|\r/g, '').trim();
+};
+
+// Adding `.failing()` method to `describe` or `it` will make failing tests "pass" as long as they continue to fail.
+// Remove the `.failing()` method once you have fixed the issue.
+
+describe('Block-level variables', ()=>{
+	it('Handles variable assignment and recall with simple text', function() {
+		const source = dedent`
+			[var]: string
+
+			$[var]
+		`;
+		const rendered = Markdown.render(source).trimReturns();
+		expect(rendered, `Input:\n${source}`, { showPrefix: false }).toBe('<p>string</p>');
+	});
+
+	it('Handles variable assignment and recall with multiline string', function() {
+		const source = dedent`
+			[var]: string
+			across multiple
+			lines
+
+			$[var]`;
+		const rendered = Markdown.render(source).replace(/\s/g,' ').trimReturns();
+		expect(rendered, `Input:\n${source}`, { showPrefix: false }).toBe('<p>string across multiple lines</p>');
+	});
+
+	it('Handles variable assignment and recall with tables', function() {
+		const source = dedent`
+			[var]:
+			##### Title
+			| H1 | H2 | 
+			|:---|:--:|
+			| A  | B  |
+			| C  | D  |
+			
+			$[var]`;
+		const rendered = Markdown.render(source).replace(/\s/g,' ').trimReturns();
+		expect(rendered, `Input:\n${source}`, { showPrefix: false }).toBe(dedent`
+			<h5 id="title">Title</h5>
+			 <table><thead><tr><th align=left>H1</th>
+			 <th align=center>H2</th>
+			 </tr></thead><tbody><tr><td align=left>A</td>
+			 <td align=center>B</td>
+			 </tr><tr><td align=left>C</td>
+			 <td align=center>D</td>
+			 </tr></tbody></table>`.trimReturns());
+	});
+});
+
+
+// TODO: add tests for ID with accordance to CSS spec:
+//
+// From https://drafts.csswg.org/selectors/#id-selectors:
+//
+// > An ID selector consists of a “number sign” (U+0023, #) immediately followed by the ID value, which must be a CSS identifier.
+//
+// From: https://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/syndata.html#value-def-identifier:
+//
+// > In CSS, identifiers (including element names, classes, and IDs in selectors) can contain only the characters [a-zA-Z0-9]
+// > and ISO 10646 characters U+00A0 and higher, plus the hyphen (-) and the underscore (_);
+// > they cannot start with a digit, two hyphens, or a hyphen followed by a digit.
+// > Identifiers can also contain escaped characters and any ISO 10646 character as a numeric code (see next item).
+// > For instance, the identifier "B&W?" may be written as "B\&W\?" or "B\26 W\3F".
+// > Note that Unicode is code-by-code equivalent to ISO 10646 (see [UNICODE] and [ISO10646]).
+
+// TODO: add tests for class with accordance to CSS spec:
+//
+// From: https://drafts.csswg.org/selectors/#class-html:
+//
+// > The class selector is given as a full stop (. U+002E) immediately followed by an identifier.