The Pantone Color Institute* named “Mocha Mousse” the new color of the year, describing it as “a warming, brown hue imbued with richness.”

The Pantone Color of the Year program engages the design community and color enthusiasts in a conversation around color, highlighting the relationship between color and culture. Pantone selects a color each year that captures the global zeitgeist – the Color of the Year express a global mood and an attitude, reflecting collective desire in the form of a single, distinct hue.

For 2025, the Pantone Color Institute selects PANTONE 17-1230 Mocha Mousse, a warming, brown hue imbued with richness. It nurtures us with its suggestion of the delectable qualities of chocolate and coffee, answering our desire for comfort.

“Underpinned by our desire for every day pleasures, PANTONE 17-1230 Mocha Mousse expresses a level of thoughtful indulgence. Sophisticated and lush, yet at the same time an unpretentious classic, PANTONE 17-1230 Mocha Mousse extends our perceptions of the browns from being humble and grounded to embrace aspirational and luxe”, – Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director Pantone Color Institute

Why Mocha Mousse?
Aside from the more obvious chocolate connection, Laurie Pressman, the Pantone Color Institute's business and creative director and Leatrice Eiseman, the Pantone Color Institute's executive director, tell that the shade creates a sense of harmony and warmth.

In 2023 and 2024, Pantone selected shades of magenta and peach, respectively, reflecting a desire to be celebratory after prolonged COVID lockdowns. Now, with the pandemic firmly in the collective rearview, the world is ready to embrace a softer, quieter joy Pressman and Eiseman say.

"The overriding theme as we went into looking for this year's color was this whole idea of harmony," Pressman says. As the world becomes more complex, consumers are searching for inner peace and balance, she says. A "versatile" light brown that can reflect both luxury and an alignment with the natural world is the perfect shade to communicate that desire.

"We have enough going on outside of us we're looking for things that are softer and things that are lighter," Pressman says. As for those "dopamine brights" (read: Barbie pink and Bratz green), there's a place for those as well, but mocha mousse reflects a mood much larger than any fleeting zeitgeisty trend, she says.

How does Pantone decide color of the year?
The color of the year has been around since 1999 and, contrary to what some may believe, is not just a handful of people at Pantone looking at swatches and placing their bets. Selected by an international team, the color of the year draws upon a large body of consumer data across the fashion, design, culinary and auto industries.
It's actually "a very detached exercise," Pressman says. However, our reaction to it does not have to be.

Part of the joy of the annual reveal, Eiseman says, is that it unleashes a "necessity to talk about color." In sparking that conversation another more subtle one emerges alongside it − a dialogue about how we feel our years went and what mood we want to represent this chapter at both a communal and individual level. "Our reaction to color is very personal, isn't it?" Eiseman says. "It brings back childhood memories – our first tricycle or the time you got sick when you ate too much cotton candy.”
Whether the whole world nods its head, or cocks it to the side in confusion instead, over this morning's reveal, it will have sparked a debate with cultural implications that stretches beyond "mocha mousse."

Objects in a light brown hue of Mocha Mousse, featured in the Western European Glass Art and Ceramics section of the museum repository:

Onion-shaped vase. Émile Gallé manufactory. France, Nancy. Circa 1900
Vase with the image of nasturtium. Émile Gallé manufactory. France, Nancy. Circa 1900
Vase with the image of spray roses. Gabriel Argy-Rousseau. France, Paris. First half of the 20^th century
Vase with the image of roses. Daum Freres manufactory. France, Nancy. Early 20^th century
Vase with golden knops. Daum Freres manufactory. France, Nancy. The 20^th century
Vase with the image of chrysanthemum. Émile Gallé manufactory. France, Nancy. 1904-1906

*At Pantone Color Institute, they unite the science and emotion of color. Recognized globally as a leading source of color expertise, Pantone Color Institute provides color insights and solutions; collaborating with our clients to strategically address color challenges and develop a color and design approach consistent with their brand vision.