• Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend is a breakthrough new plant milk for hot and iced drinks, tested by professional baristas for top performance in frothing, foaming, steaming and latte art
• Hope and Sesame® offers independent and chain coffee, tea and smoothie shops and at-home baristas the power of planet-friendly, delicious and sustainable sesamemilk with its innovative Barista Blend

CHICAGO, IL and VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 1, 2022 / The Planting Hope Company Inc. (TSXV:MYLK)(FRA:J94) ("Planting Hope" or the "Company"), a plant-based food and beverage company focused on producing the world's most nutritious and planet-friendly products, has partnered with expert baristas to create Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend, a barista-friendly sesamemilk that tastes great, froths beautifully and performs like a dream in both hot and iced beverages.

"After many months of formulation and performance trials, we are thrilled to debut our brand-new Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend, a barista-friendly sesamemilk that steams and foams beautifully without sacrificing taste or quality," said Julia Stamberger, CEO and Co-Founder of Planting Hope. "Developed in collaboration with professional baristas, our Barista Blend Sesamemilk meets the market demand for a plant-based, planet-friendly milk option that truly performs (deliciously!) in café-inspired drinks, both at home and at your favorite coffee shop."

"Our breakthrough Barista Blend supports Planting Hope's growth strategy to reach independent and chain coffee, tea and smoothie shops with a truly sustainable and functional value-added product, ultimately increasing consumer awareness of sesamemilk," Ms. Stamberger added.

In the United States, Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend is available to consumers to purchase online at the brand's website, HopeandSesame.com, as well as Amazon.com and Deliciousness.com, and is available to wholesale customers at Faire.com and Tundra.com. In Canada, the Barista Blend Sesamemilk is currently available for wholesale purchase through EcoIdeas and will be available to consumers later this week at EcoIdeas.ca.

Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend

• 4g complete plant-based protein per serving (provides all 9 essential amino acids)
• Excellent source of Calcium and a good source of Vitamin D and Phosphorus
• Vegan/ Soy-Free / Dairy-Free / Gluten-Free Certified / Kosher Certified
• Froths, foams and steams like a dream, great for latte art!
• Delicious in any hot or iced drink

Sesame - One of the Most Sustainable Crops on the Planet

• Requires little water to cultivate, thrives in drought conditions
• Bee-friendly, self-pollinating
• An excellent cover crop, contributing positively to sustainable agriculture
• Sesamemilk upcycles the protein remaining after sesame seeds are pressed for oil (traditionally considered a by-product used primarily for animal feed)

The new Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend joins Planting Hope's award-winning shelf stable and refrigerated sesamemilk line-up, continuing the brand's mission to "Do Better". Currently Hope and Sesame® offers Organic sesamemilk in shelf-stable cartons in five different flavors: Original, Unsweetened, Vanilla, Chocolate and signature Chocolate Hazelnut. The recently launched Hope and Sesame® Refrigerated Non-GMO Verified sesamemilk is available in Unsweetened Original, Unsweetened Vanilla and Chocolate Hazelnut in 48 oz refrigerated bottles.

The Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend will be sampled at The Specialty Food Association's (SFA) 2022 Winter Fancy Food Show, February 6-8, 2022 at the Las Vegas Convention Center booth #4126. Attendees of the Show will have the opportunity to see the new product in action for the first time as the booth will feature a professional barista serving espresso drinks.

About Hope and Sesame®

Hope and Sesame® has cracked the code on unlocking the dense nutrition in tiny sesame seeds, creating an important new trend in plant milk: sesamemilk, both ultra-nutritious and highly planet-friendly. Sesame is sustainable, requiring very little water to cultivate, is naturally drought- and pest-resistant, and can self-pollinate. Sesamemilk is nutritionally comparable to dairy milk, delivering 8g of complete protein per serving (including all 9 essential amino acids) - that's 8x the protein in most nut milks and 3x the protein in most oat milks! Hope and Sesame® sesamemilk is vegan, a good source of protein, an excellent source of vitamin D and calcium, is Certified Gluten-Free and Certified Kosher, and is free from soy and dairy. All Hope and Sesame® products are Non-GMO Project Verified and Certified by the Plant Based Foods Association. Hope and Sesame® was awarded Best Milk Alternative and Best Plant-Based Sustainability in FoodBev's 2021 World Plant-Based Food Awards and signature Chocolate Hazelnut flavor received the 2020 Sofi Award for Best New Product, Plant-Based Milk from the Specialty Food Association.

About The Planting Hope Company Inc.

Planting Hope develops, launches and scales uniquely innovative plant-based and planet-friendly food and beverage brands. Planting Hope's award-winning and cutting-edge products fill key unmet needs in the skyrocketing plant-based food and beverage space. The Planting Hope brand family includes Hope and Sesame® Sesamemilk, RightRice® Veggie Rice, Mozaics™ Real Veggie Chips and Veggicopia® Veggie Snacks. Founded by experienced food industry entrepreneurs, Planting Hope is a women-managed and woman-led company with a focus on nutrition, sustainability and diversity. For more information visit: www.plantinghopecompany.com.

Contacts

Company Contact:

Julia Stamberger
CEO and Co-founder
(773) 492-2243
julia@plantinghopecompany.com

Media Contact:

Rachel Kay Public Relations
Becca Stonebraker
(818) 383-3929
becca@rkpr.net

Investor Relations Contact:

Caroline Sawamoto
Investor Relations
(773) 492-2243
ir@plantinghopecompany.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statement

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" (collectively referred to hereafter as "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements that address activities, events, or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will, or may, occur in the future, including statements about the Company's ability to execute on its goals, the timing pertaining to these goals the potential demand for the Company's products, the timing and success of anticipated product launches and distribution of the Company's products, and the Company's business prospects, future trends, plans and strategies. In some cases, forward looking statements are preceded by, followed by, or include words such as "may", "will," "would", "could", "should", "believes", "estimates", "projects", "potential", "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "continues", or the negative of those words or other similar or comparable words. In preparing the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including, but not limited to, the assumption that demand for the Company's product will be sustained or increase in accordance with management's projections, that the Company's current business objectives can be achieved and that its other corporate activities will proceed as expected, and that general business and economic conditions will not change in a materially adverse manner. Although the management of the Company believes that the assumptions made and the expectations represented by such statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that a forward-looking statement herein will prove to be accurate. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, or intended. Risks and uncertainties applicable to the Company, as well as trends identified by the Company affecting its industry can be found in the Company's annual information form dated January 6, 2022 and the Company's continuous disclosure record available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Such cautionary statements qualify all forward-looking statements made in this news release. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

SOURCE: The Planting Hope Company Inc.