The 2025 Pan­tone Col­or of the Year has been released and Mocha Mousse def­i­nite­ly has peo­ple talking! 

There is nev­er a short­age of opin­ions when the Pan­tone Col­or of the Year is announced, but it feels like there is more appre­hen­sion towards this hue than in years past. In real­i­ty, Mocha Mousse makes per­fect sense. After a few years of embrac­ing high-chro­ma or bold col­ors, a move away from more vibrant hues was like­ly. After all, trends tend to be cycli­cal over time. Addi­tion­al­ly, giv­en the nature of cur­rent glob­al events, a col­or that feels com­fort­ing and pre­dictable makes per­fect sense. 

While Mocha Mousse may not feel excit­ing to some, there are cer­tain­ly indus­tries and areas where it works well! So before you dis­cred­it Mocha Mousse, let’s get to know this hue a lit­tle better! 

Mocha Mousse Explained: What Pantone’s 2025 Color of the Means for Branding

How Mocha Mousse Influences Our Emotions

Psy­cho­log­i­cal, phys­i­o­log­i­cal, and cul­tur­al fac­tors can influ­ence our reac­tion to col­or. The chal­lenge is that you can’t always pre­dict which one of these areas will influ­ence peo­ple first. When you devel­op a deep­er under­stand­ing of the emo­tions aligned with a trend­ing col­or, you can take that infor­ma­tion to craft brand iden­ti­ties, mar­ket­ing cam­paigns, and sto­ries that align that feel­ing with your mis­sion. Nev­er force a nar­ra­tive to align with a trend­ing col­or just because it’s a trend—not every hue will align with your purpose. 

Let’s look into 3 key emotional drivers for Mocha Mousse

1. Grounding

When the world feels uncer­tain, seek­ing ways to be more at ease is nat­ur­al. This is espe­cial­ly true now, when tech­nol­o­gy is mov­ing incred­i­bly fast or unpre­dictable socioe­co­nom­ic chal­lenges lead us to crave com­fort and sta­bil­i­ty. This warm, soft brown hue is like­ly one of the rea­sons this trend was pre­dict­ed, as it is clos­er to neu­tral shades, which often evoke feel­ings of pre­dictabil­i­ty and comfort.

2. Taste

This hue also con­nects our sense of taste to a lux­u­ri­ous, sophis­ti­cat­ed indul­gence that is nei­ther pre­ten­tious nor lack­ing in ele­va­tion. Mocha Mousse evokes a deca­dent con­nec­tion to refined choco­late, cof­fee, and pastries.

3. Nature

It’s unde­ni­able that Mocha Mousse has a deep con­nec­tion to nature and pro­motes a sense of bal­ance. Brands are striv­ing to reduce their car­bon foot­print and adopt more sus­tain­able prac­tices. This shift toward sus­tain­abil­i­ty will like­ly encour­age brands to explore using sus­tain­able mate­ri­als, such as myceli­um-based pack­ag­ing, as alter­na­tives to poly­styrene, plas­tics, and leather. It’s eco­nom­i­cal, biodegrad­able, and effec­tive. Addi­tion­al­ly, we can uti­lize more nat­ur­al dyes to cre­ate this hue, which is less harm­ful and pro­vides longer-last­ing wear com­pared to sea­son­al fash­ion trends.

Marketing and Branding

Col­or is a pow­er­ful com­mu­ni­ca­tion tool that can help shape how we per­ceive prod­ucts and expe­ri­ences. This year, Pantone’s Col­or of the Year, Mocha Mousse, intro­duces a mix of warmth, bal­ance, and dis­crete glam­our that goes beyond sea­son­al trends. From fash­ion and beau­ty to food, auto­mo­tive, and inte­ri­or design, this hue offers unique oppor­tu­ni­ties to con­nect with both aes­thet­ics and practicality. 

While Mocha Mousse may not align with every indus­try, there are sev­er­al areas where it is a nat­ur­al fit.

Areas you might see Mocha Mousse in: 

1. In fashion, using Mocha Mousse can cre­ate an ele­vat­ed yet unpre­ten­tious look. It pro­vides flex­i­bil­i­ty for refined min­i­mal­ism. This hue also lends itself to casu­al and com­fort­able looks that can with­stand sea­son­al trends.
2. The beau­ty indus­try can eas­i­ly embrace Mocha Mouse as a warm, neu­tral pig­ment that com­pli­ments near­ly all skin tones, allow­ing for a more nat­ur­al look.
3. Food indus­tries, espe­cial­ly those cen­tered around choco­late and cof­fee, can lever­age this hue and tap into its deca­dent appeal, as Mocha Mousse appeals more to our sense of taste and smell.
4. In the auto­mo­bile indus­try, Mocha Mousse offers a har­mo­nious yet sophis­ti­cat­ed inte­ri­or option. Details like stitched pan­el­ing can enhance the over­all design, ele­vat­ing it and mak­ing it feel comfortable.
5. For inte­ri­ors, Mocha Mousse cre­ates a har­mo­nious envi­ron­ment of nature and peace. Con­sid­er a focal point like a Mocha Mousse-inspired couch and bal­ance it with nat­ur­al accents like light-col­ored wick­er pieces. Too much Mocha Mousse can feel over­whelm­ing if you don’t have enough nat­ur­al light or bal­ance it with lighter, com­pli­men­ta­ry hues. If you want to paint a wall in this hue, you must work with your paint sup­pli­er to get a close match.

We com­piled an entire Adobe Stock library to get you start­ed with 150 assets rang­ing from pho­tos, tex­tures, pat­terns, and illus­tra­tions inspired by Mocha Mousse. 

Using Mocha Mousse for a Brand Identity

When talk­ing about brand iden­ti­ties, it can be help­ful to study a sam­ple using the col­or of the year. But this year, it became a chal­lenge to find an exam­ple that ele­vat­ed Mocha Mousse’s qual­i­ties while still feel­ing rel­e­vant. So, we cre­at­ed one!

Xocolox draws inspi­ra­tion from the pro­found lega­cy of the Olmecs, Mayans, and Aztecs—who val­ued cacao as a trea­sure more pre­cious than gold. This choco­late brand reimag­ines tra­di­tion through a mod­ern lens. Spe­cial­iz­ing in high-end yet acces­si­ble cacao-infused choco­lates, the brand strikes a bal­ance between sophis­ti­ca­tion and approach­a­bil­i­ty. Xocolox is com­mit­ted to sus­tain­abil­i­ty, and its sup­port for Indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties forms the foun­da­tion of its mis­sion, hon­or­ing the ances­tral stew­ards of cacao’s heritage. 

The brand’s visu­al iden­ti­ty reflects a pro­found con­nec­tion to the earth and its cul­ture and strate­gi­cal­ly incor­po­rates Pantone’s Mocha Mousse. The col­or har­mo­ny draws from the rich hues of cacao. It is com­ple­ment­ed by gold­en yel­low, earthy reds, and calm­ing pur­ple, evok­ing both ele­gance and nature while remain­ing root­ed in heritage. 

These col­ors were then applied to var­i­ous social media tem­plates to pro­mote the brand through edu­ca­tion­al posts, sales, and client testimonials.

Some­thing pow­er­ful hap­pened while design­ing this iden­ti­ty. We real­ized that these tem­plates could help oth­er busi­ness­es get their foot off the ground, so we part­nered with Adobe Express to pro­vide these Mocha Mousse-inspired tem­plates that you can remix and use for free. You can learn more right here.  

Best Practices for Using Mocha Mousse 

The unveil­ing of Mocha Mousse points to a cycli­cal trend in col­or psy­chol­o­gy. In uncer­tain times, peo­ple toward com­fort­ing hues. And while I tend to favor vibrant, high-chro­ma hues, grasp­ing the rea­sons behind this col­or selec­tion is insight­ful for brand­ing and marketing.

Here are some things to consider when using Mocha Mousse:

• Neu­tral tones like Mocha Mousse can add warmth and sta­bil­i­ty to a brand’s palette, but rely­ing on them alone risks cre­at­ing a flat, one-dimen­sion­al identity. 
• Pair Mocha Mousse with com­ple­men­tary or con­trast­ing hues to ampli­fy its ground­ing qual­i­ties and add depth to your message.
• Too much Mocha Mousse in some envi­ron­ments or brands can lead peo­ple to feel over­whelmed or, worse, asso­ciate too much brown with a dirty experience. 
• Mocha Mousse can work well as a ground­ing neu­tral that you can add as an accent col­or. It does­n’t have to be the star of the show.
• Acces­si­bil­i­ty and leg­i­bil­i­ty are essen­tial for any mar­ket­ing con­tent you cre­ate. Mocha Mousse lies around a mid-chro­ma, so it isn’t too dark or too light, and what that means is that we have to take more cau­tion with how we use this with our text and backgrounds

We have a full break­down on how to strate­gi­cal­ly use Mocha Mousse and oth­er 2025 col­or trends in our LinkedIn Learn­ing Col­or Trends course! 

As you explore design appli­ca­tions for your brand or mar­ket­ing con­tent, under­stand­ing how you can strate­gi­cal­ly lever­age Mocha Mousse will help you bet­ter con­nect with the needs of your audience.