Why BeerMood’s Mascot Is a (Slightly Drunk) Cat

Every good brand story starts with a word. Ours starts with “cat.”

If you’ve come across BeerMood before, you’ll know the mascot — a round, orange, occasionally tipsy-looking cat that shows up everywhere from the logo to the key visual to your ticket. But have you ever wondered why a cat, and not a beer glass, a hop cone, or something more obviously “on brand”?

The answer is a Cantonese pun.

In Cantonese, there are two common ways to say someone’s drunk: “jeui2 maau1” (醉貓, literally “drunk cat”) or, more colloquially, “yam2 dou3 maau1 jo2” (飲到貓咗, roughly “drank yourself into a cat”). It’s an expression that’s been part of everyday Hong Kong speech for generations — and to us, no image captures that warm, slightly-fuzzy feeling of a good beer better than a cat.

That idea lines up with the name BeerMood itself — beer for every mood, beer for any time — as a story that’s rooted in Hong Kong, told in Hong Kong’s own language. We picked a cat partly because cats are everywhere right now, but mostly because we wanted BeerMood to be unmistakably a Hong Kong brand, in on its own local joke, from day one.

From Idea to Artwork

Once we had the concept, the next step was finding someone who could actually bring it to life. We’re lucky to have worked with Hong Kong illustrator Jane Lee of Messy Desk, who designed BeerMood’s logo, key visual, and every cat you’ll see across the brand.

Jane’s style — bold color, rich detail, and a warm sense of humor — turned out to be exactly right for what we wanted BeerMood to feel like: lively, welcoming, and just a little bit tipsy in the best way. From the crowd of cats drinking their way across the Victoria Harbour skyline in our key visual, to the single cat stamped on every ticket, it’s all her work.

So Next Time You See the Cat

Next time you spot BeerMood’s cat — on a ticket, on Instagram, or in person at the festival — you’ll know it’s not just cute. It’s carrying a piece of Cantonese humor, a bit of Hong Kong street wisdom, and the work of a local illustrator who gave it life.

That’s where “drunk cat” comes from.