Pantone has announced their color of the year for 2025, Mocha Mousse. And while brown is far from my favorite color, I don’t hate it. I do like that this is more of a cool medium brown, which pairs well with many other colors I love. Many years ago, Beloved and I moved into a massive apartment in a pre-war building in Brooklyn on iconic Ocean Parkway. With the exception of our kitchen which was Tiffany blue and crisp white, the rest of the colors in the apartment were based upon Breyers Neapolitan ice cream. Breyers Neapolitan was a happy feature of my childhood, and I’ve never lost my fondness for anything that reminds me of the stuff (which I still prefer to almost all other ice cream flavors). The brown I used was a cool medium taupe brown just like Pantone’s Mocha Mousse, and it worked remarkably well with our burgundy leather furniture. I would use those colors again.

Anyway, back to Pantone. Mocha Mousse is a shade that the Pantone Color Institute describes as “an evocative soft brown that transports our senses into the pleasure and deliciousness it inspires while appealing to our desire for comfort.” Well, I’m certainly in the market for comfort, and the shade does play well with others. And as Huffpo pointed out, at least it’s not Brat Green.

You can learn more about the Pantone Color of the Year on their website.