Tints & Shades
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Scale from white (50) through Mocha (500) to black (900), interpolated in Lab color space.
Color Values
- HEX
- #967117
- RGB
- rgb(150, 113, 23)
- HSL
- hsl(43, 73%, 34%)
- OKLCH
- oklch(0.571 0.11 84)
- CMYK
- cmyk(0%, 25%, 85%, 41%)
--color-mochabg-[#967117]Accessibility
Score: 54/100On White (#FFF)
4.5:1
On Black (#000)
4.67:1
On Light Gray (#F5F5F5)
4.12:1
Best text color on this background:
Design Applications
background-color: #967117
color: #967117
bg-[#967117] text-[#000000]
border-left: 4px solid #967117
Color Harmonies
Complementary
Klein Blue
#002FA7
Split-Complementary
Similar Colors
Color Meaning & Psychology
Brown is the color of earth, wood, and food — the most organic color in the spectrum. It conveys honesty, dependability, and unpretentiousness. Unlike the engineered precision of black, brown's warmth feels handmade and authentic. Coffee culture has made brown aspirational in ways it never was in the 20th century; the smell and warmth of a coffee shop is inseparable from its brown palette. Darker, richer browns signal luxury craft — leather, walnut, dark chocolate. Lighter sandy browns feel outdoor, regional, and approachable. Brown's weakness is its association with dirt and decay in medical contexts, where it is largely avoided. Its deeper, richer tone gives it gravitas and sophistication, making it well-suited for primary brand colors, typography, and contexts where authority matters.
Industry Usage
Common contexts and industries where Mocha is applied in professional design.
- Coffee shops and specialty beverage brands
- Chocolate and premium confectionery
- Outdoor gear and hiking equipment
- Furniture and home furnishing brands
- Craft beer and artisanal food products
- Leather goods and accessories
- Organic and natural food products
- Heritage and classic whiskey/spirits brands
Accessibility Considerations
Normal Text
Passes AA
4.5:1 minimum required
Large Text
Passes AA Large
3:1 minimum required
UI Components
Meets 1.4.11
3:1 for non-text UI
Mocha is a light color. Use black (#000000) text on top of it for maximum readability (4.67:1). Avoid white text on this background.
CSS & Code Examples
Background
background-color: #967117;Text
color: #967117;Border
border: 2px solid #967117;Box Shadow
box-shadow: 0 4px 20px #96711740;Gradient
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #967117, #ca9f47);Tailwind-style
--color-mocha: #967117;Tailwind CSS Utilities
Use arbitrary value syntax in Tailwind CSS to apply Mocha without a custom config.
Background
bg-[#967117]Text
text-[#967117]Border
border-[#967117]Ring
ring-[#967117]Fill
fill-[#967117]From (gradient)
from-[#967117]Via (gradient)
via-[#967117]To (gradient)
to-[#967117]Design Tokens
Ready-to-use Mocha design token in CSS custom properties, SCSS, Tailwind v3/v4, and JSON formats.
CSS Custom Properties
:root {
--color-mocha: #967117;
--color-mocha-rgb: 150, 113, 23;
--color-mocha-hsl: 43, 73%, 34%;
}SCSS Variables
$color-mocha: #967117; $color-mocha-rgb: 150, 113, 23; $color-mocha-hsl: 43, 73%, 34%;
Tailwind v3 Config
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'mocha': '#967117',
},
},
},
};Tailwind v4 (@theme)
/* tailwind.css */
@theme {
--color-mocha: #967117;
}JSON Design Token (W3C format)
{
"mocha": {
"value": "#967117",
"type": "color",
"description": "Mocha — #967117"
}
}More brown colors
View all →What Does Mocha Mean? Color Psychology & Cultural Symbolism
In an era of digital abstraction, Mocha operates as a powerful anchor to the material world. Its deep character at 34% lightness registers as reliability—a response built from millennia of associating earth-toned environments with stability, shelter, and natural abundance.
- Across color psychology research, brown consistently tests high for "authenticity" associations, making Mocha a reliable vehicle for reliability in cross-demographic audiences.
- Brand designers draw on brown-family tones to project naturalness and warmth—values that Mocha communicates in a deep key.
- At 73% saturation, Mocha reads as moderately saturated—neither overwhelming nor passive, landing in the earthiness, stability, warmth, and authenticity zone with measured confidence.
- Mocha's deep lightness (34%) shifts its psychological register: Deep chocolate, espresso, and mahogany tones carry luxurious weight—rich, sophisticated, and associated with premium craft materials and indulgent flavors.
Mocha asks for trust without performance—and that quiet confidence is its greatest design asset.
How to Use Mocha in Design: Applications, Pairings & Best Practices
Mocha is one of design's most underused versatile tones. It works as a neutral, an accent, a dominant brand color, and a sophisticated alternative to black—and it brings a warmth to palettes that no other color family delivers.
- Avoid: technology products, clinical healthcare, and anything that needs to project cleanliness or digital precision.
- Color harmonies: Mocha's complementary color creates a high-energy split ideal for promotional design; its analogous palette (±30° hue) builds cohesive, monochromatic sophistication.
- Proportional use: Mocha's moderately saturated saturation (73%) means small applications—accents, highlights, icons—deliver maximum impact without visual fatigue. Reserve large-scale use for intentional brand moments.
- Mocha creates strong legibility with black text overlays (4.7:1 contrast ratio), making it a reliable background or surface color in design systems
- Typography: Mocha as text requires a dark background; its 34% lightness means it provides 4.5:1 contrast on white, meeting WCAG AA.
Mocha asks for trust without performance—and that quiet confidence is its greatest design asset.
Mocha Accessibility: WCAG Contrast Ratios, Color Blindness & Inclusive Design
Mocha (#967117) reaches 4.67:1 contrast with black text—meeting WCAG 2.1 AA minimum of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. It clears standard production accessibility requirements. Relative luminance: 18.4%.
- As text on white (#FFFFFF): 4.50:1 — AA ✓
- As text on black (#000000): 4.67:1 — AA ✓
- Best text color on Mocha background: Black (#000000) at 4.67:1
- WCAG 2.1 luminance: 18.4% — mid-range luminance—it sits in the transition zone where both dark and light text approaches require testing against the 4.5:1 WCAG threshold
- Mocha qualifies for normal body text and all larger sizes (AA).
- Color blindness consideration: protanopia and deuteranopia (red-green color blindness, ~8% of males) may affect how brown-family colors are distinguished from greens and browns. For critical UI states, supplement color alone with shape, label, or pattern cues.
Always verify Mocha at its final intended size and weight using a real contrast checker—font weight and rendering environment affect perceived legibility beyond what raw ratios capture.
Mocha in Industry: Branding, Design & Market Applications
Mocha's brand positioning falls squarely in the territory of earthiness, stability, warmth, and authenticity. Industry data supports its strongest performance in food & beverage, outdoor & lifestyle, coffee categories, where the moderately saturated saturation calibrates the message at a deep, considered level.
- Food & Beverage: Brown's associations with coffee, chocolate, bread, and wood-fire cooking make it indispensable for food brands that want to project artisanal quality, warmth, and natural origin. The color does the work of suggesting handmade, slow-craft processes before a single word is read. (examples: Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Blue Bottle Coffee) Light browns work for dairy and bakery; dark browns for coffee, chocolate, and premium spirits.
- Outdoor & Lifestyle: Outdoor, hiking, and adventure brands use brown as an earth tone that grounds the product in natural environments. Combined with forest greens and slate grays, it creates a palette language of terrain, durability, and wilderness competence. (examples: REI, Patagonia, Arc'teryx) Brown leather and canvas associations make it particularly effective for gear, footwear, and heritage outdoor brands.
- Craft & Artisanal: The craft movement across food, beer, candles, and home goods has made brown its unofficial color—it signals hand-made, small-batch, locally-sourced, and premium-for-a-reason. Any product that wants to claim artisanal credentials benefits from earthy, brown-anchored packaging. Kraft paper brown in particular has become synonymous with sustainable, artisanal packaging.
- Brand positioning: Mocha is best suited for brands projecting authenticity, craftsmanship, reliability. Categories outside this positioning—technology products—tend to see weaker results.
- Adjacent applications: Beyond primary industries, Mocha works effectively in coffee and chocolate brands, craft beer packaging, outdoor gear—contexts where authenticity serves a secondary but reinforcing role.
For marketers and brand strategists, Mocha is a commitment to earthiness, stability, warmth, and authenticity. Match it with industries that make that promise and it will pay dividends consistently.
Accessibility & Design Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the hex code for Mocha? ▾
- The hex code for Mocha is #967117. Its RGB values are rgb(150, 113, 23) and its HSL values are hsl(43, 73%, 34%).
- What does Mocha mean in design? ▾
- Brown is the color of earth, wood, and food — the most organic color in the spectrum. It conveys honesty, dependability, and unpretentiousness. Unlike the engineered precision of black, brown's warmth feels handmade and authentic. Coffee culture has made brown aspirational in ways it never was in the 20th century; the smell and warmth of a coffee shop is inseparable from its brown palette. Darker, richer browns signal luxury craft — leather, walnut, dark chocolate. Lighter sandy browns feel outdoor, regional, and approachable. Brown's weakness is its association with dirt and decay in medical contexts, where it is largely avoided. Its deeper, richer tone gives it gravitas and sophistication, making it well-suited for primary brand colors, typography, and contexts where authority matters.
- Is Mocha WCAG accessible? ▾
- Mocha (#967117) passes WCAG AA on white with a 4.5:1 contrast ratio. Its overall accessibility score is 54/100.
- What colors go well with Mocha? ▾
- Mocha pairs well with its complementary color Klein Blue (#002FA7). Analogous colors like Burnt Sienna and Sandy Brown also work harmoniously. Check the Color Harmonies section above for the full palette.
- What is Mocha used for? ▾
- Mocha is commonly used for: Coffee shops and specialty beverage brands; Chocolate and premium confectionery; Outdoor gear and hiking equipment; Furniture and home furnishing brands; Craft beer and artisanal food products.
- What are the CSS and Tailwind values for Mocha? ▾
- In CSS, use `color: #967117` or `background-color: #967117`. The CSS custom property is `--color-mocha: #967117`. In Tailwind CSS, use the arbitrary value class `bg-[#967117]` for backgrounds or `text-[#967117]` for text.