Here you have it, folks: Pantone’s 2025 Color of the Year is Mocha Mousse, aka Pantone 17-1230, marking the first time in the initiative’s 25-year-history that the company has chosen a shade of brown.

The process through which the self-appointed color overlords arrive at their chosen hue is rather opaque: it involves a scheme whereby international prognosticators survey trends across fashion, design, technology, and the arts. Despite this secrecy, the pronouncement that color of the year makes is hardly subtle. Lest we forget, the 2020 lockdowns brought forth a shade called Classic Blue, while our collective return to something approaching normalcy in 2023 ushered in Viva Magenta, a vibrant color practically banging at the door to be let out.

Pantone has been selecting a color of the year since 1999. Photo: courtesy Pantone.

This year, after carefully sampling the various corners of the zeitgeist (presumably including Dune’s Fremens), Pantone has chosen a color that basically says: throw on your favorite soap opera, grab a weighted blanket and a spoon and tuck into a bowl of, well, mousse (though presumably chocolate cake or ice cream will do).

Fair enough, Pantone. The world is a little wobbly right now, but the company seems to mean the French dessert part quite literally: a dolloped bowl of mousse is the first thing one meets on Pantone’s color of the year webpage (scroll on to find a redbrick yoga studio, plush sofas, and lots of candles, presumably chocolate scented).

Juan de Zurbaran, Breakfast With Chocolate (1640). Photo: DeAgostini / Getty Images.

The color is intended to inspire “thoughtful indulgence,” “harmonious comfort,” and “feelings of contentment.” In short, lean into those fuzzy, hygge-filled “me moments,” but not too far, because that’s called excess, and excess does not breed contentment. For those in need of direction, Pantone has some more gastronomic suggestions (beyond the obvious choices of coffee and cacao) and notes that Mocha Mousse pairs well with Cannoli Cream (Pantone 11-4302) and Chocolate Martini (Pantone 19-1216).

“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, Pantone’s executive director, said in a statement that also notes that the color reflects our desire for everyday pleasures. One trend on social media, by contrast, was pictures of mud-caked streets and soggy fields posted alongside the relevant Pantone swatch.

Pantone takes its color of the year quite literally. Photo: courtesy Pantone.

There’s another side to this. Pantone’s pick for 2024 was Peach Fuzz, a color presented by the company as being gentle, contemporary, and nurturing, a shade whose “airy presence lifts us into the future,” as company vice president Laurie Pressman put it.

Not everyone agreed. The color was criticized for being boring and, rather more consequentially, resembling white skin tones and shades worn by white people. Mocha Mousse is likely an attempt to redress this perceived gaffe.

There are the inevitable marketing tie-ins, as Pantone has partnered with a make-up brand, a luxury tea purveyor, a furniture house, and a cellphone manufacturer (Hello Moto) to create products that are just the right shade of brown. But to what end? Everyone knows that despite Pantone’s efforts last year, the true color of 2024 was Charli XCX’s Brat Green.