# How did "mocha" come to mean a coffee-with-milk color? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 16, 2005, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-mocha-come-to-mean-a-coffee-with-milk-color/284960 "2005-01-16T02:09:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-mocha-come-to-mean-a-coffee-with-milk-color/284960/1 "2005-01-16T02:09:23Z")
If “mocha” was originally the name of a town in Yemen, and also of the coffee produced in the region, then how did it come to mean a lightish brown color, as of coffee mixed with milk? I even remember an episode of “Different World”, where in a heated verbal exchange somebody called Cree Summer’s character “mocha”, because she was mulatto. If anything, “mocha” should mean a pure dark coffee color, but it doesn’t. How did this come about? ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-mocha-come-to-mean-a-coffee-with-milk-color/284960/2 "2005-01-16T02:15:41Z")
To me, Mocha means coffee with chocolate, not coffee with milk. And Mocca is coffee from Yemen. At least, that’s the way I’ve always understood it. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-mocha-come-to-mean-a-coffee-with-milk-color/284960/3 "2005-01-16T02:17:56Z")
Oh and also, I’ve always heard “mulatto” as Cafe-au-lait, which, of course, means “Coffee with milk.” ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-mocha-come-to-mean-a-coffee-with-milk-color/284960/4 "2005-01-16T04:08:52Z")
I believe Mocha is a coffee exporting seaport in Yemen but has come to mean Espresso with chocolate and milk. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-mocha-come-to-mean-a-coffee-with-milk-color/284960/5 "2005-01-16T05:21:24Z")
What **TellMeI’mNotCrazy** said. Cafe-Au-Lait was my grandmother’s nickname when she was taking French in college in the forties. She reportedly liked that better than “redbone.” ---
**Author:** ![Peregrine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a6a055/32.png) [@Peregrine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peregrine)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-mocha-come-to-mean-a-coffee-with-milk-color/284960/6 "2005-01-16T05:31:06Z")
Mocha now means coffee with chocolate, or more correctly, chocolate with coffee. As I understand it, the word was first used for this combination when coffee was added to chocolate cake (or chocolate icing for cake, I’m not too sure). If you are making some fancy chocolate concoction and you add coffee to it, you might as well give it a name that calls attention to the coffee. According to the [Word Mavens](http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20010308), “by the late 1800s, the word mocha had come to mean a mixture of coffee and chocolate used in the making of cakes and other sweets.” Now we tend to take the coffee for granted and associate the word mocha with the chocolate part, which is just confusing. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-mocha-come-to-mean-a-coffee-with-milk-color/284960/7 "2005-01-16T14:26:29Z")
No real help but [etymonline.com](http://etymonline.com) says mocha as a color’s first appearance was in 1895. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Girl)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-mocha-come-to-mean-a-coffee-with-milk-color/284960/8 "2005-01-16T18:20:46Z")
> [@Peregrine](#): > > Mocha now means coffee with chocolate, or more correctly, chocolate with coffee. As I understand it, the word was first used for this combination when coffee was added to chocolate cake (or chocolate icing for cake, I’m not too sure). If you are making some fancy chocolate concoction and you add coffee to it, you might as well give it a name that calls attention to the coffee. According to the [Word Mavens](http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20010308), “by the late 1800s, the word mocha had come to mean a mixture of coffee and chocolate used in the making of cakes and other sweets.” Now we tend to take the coffee for granted and associate the word mocha with the chocolate part, which is just confusing. Or it could be a reference to the chocolate flavor _of_ coffee, rather than chocolate flavored _with_ coffee: Mocha/Moka/Mocca, as in coffee grown in typically grown in Yemen, sometimes has noticeable undertones of chocolate in its flavor. If one couldn’t get Yemeni coffee, one could add chocolate to the coffee to imitate its flavor.\* Ergo, Mocha = coffee flavored with chocolate. - Obviously, though, you’d have to be quite conservative with the amount of chocolate added to achieve an “undertone.” This is not normally the case with typical Mocha drinks. ---
**Author:** ![Asteroide](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@Asteroide](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asteroide)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-mocha-come-to-mean-a-coffee-with-milk-color/284960/9 "2005-01-16T20:12:07Z")
Interesting point about mocha being a light color - thinking about it, coffee-colored always seems to refer to a much lighter color than coffee ever is. Coffee is usually closer to a ‘mahogany’ color. [Moka](http://coffeetea.about.com/cs/espressoequipment/gr/bialettimoka.htm) to my way of thinking is simply a type of coffee maker. Maybe that light brown color should be called “cappuccino” ?