Pantone unveils its ‘Color of the Year' for 2025 — and it might not be what you'd expect

Green may have had its moment in 2024 with things like "Brat" and "Wicked," but it appears 2025 is going in a different direction.

The world's color authority, Pantone, has spoken, and the new "Color of the Year" for 2025 is: Mocha Mousse.

"A rich, warming brown inspired by chocolate, and coffee," Pantone said in its announcement Friday. "Earthy, elegant, and comforting — Mocha Mousse connects us to nature and modern refinement."

Pantone chooses its "Color of the Year" each December, naming a color that "captures the global zeitgeist."

The Pantone Color Institute's yearly tradition first began when it chose Cerulean Blue as the inaugural color of the year in 1999.

This year's selection came from what Pantone said was a collective "desire for comfort."

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"For Pantone Color of the Year 2025, we look to a mellow brown hue whose inherent richness and sensorial and comforting warmth extends further into our desire for comfort, and the indulgence of simple pleasures that we can gift and share with others," Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute, said in a statement.

Last year's color was "peach fuzz," though no one could have predicted the surge in popularity for lime green that seemed to define 2024.