CHICAGO, IL. USA and VANCOUVER, BC, Canada – The Planting Hope Company Inc., a plant-based food and beverage company focused on producing the world’s most nutritious and planet-friendly products, is proud to announce that Hope and Sesame continues to expand distribution of its Barista Blend Sesamemilk to influential distribution partners and leading fifth wave cafés across the US and Canada, including:
- The Roasters Pack, Toronto ON (leading coffee distributor operating Canada’s largest coffee subscription business)
- The Green Line Café coffee chain (all locations), Philadelphia, PA
- JinJin Matcha’s Matcha + Tea Room, Tacoma, WA
- Two Sparrows Cupcakes & Coffee Bar, Nainamo, BC
- Hideout Coffee, Boise, IA
- 10 Dean Café, Toronto, ON
“We’re thrilled with the excitement around Sesamemilk as it’s embraced as the new ‘it’ milk by leading influential cafés and distribution partners,” said Julia Stamberger, CEO and Co-Founder, Planting Hope.
“Customers are citing a number of reasons why they’re thrilled by Sesamemilk, from taste, to fantastic performance in barista applications, to sustainability. In the ongoing evolution of the café industry, now entering its fifth wave of development, plant milk is quickly gaining traction in cafés, and Sesamemilk is entering this market at the right time and right place to become the next leading subcategory next to oat milk on the menu.”
The Plant Milk Revolution is Being Led by Gen Z – in Coffee Houses and Cafés
Multiple research reports suggest that Generation Z (“Gen Z”), the demographic cohort born between the mid-to-late 1990s and early 2010s, is turning against dairy milk: Pan-European dairy co-op Arla found that 49% of Gen Z felt ashamed to order dairy products in public in front of their peers, and 57% plan to give up dairy milk completely. Who is buying alternative milks? More than 40% are aged 35 or younger. According to the New York Times, Gen Z and young Millennials are stepping away from traditional dairy milk and consuming more plant-milk options, for both health and environmental reasons, purchasing 20% less dairy milk last year than the national average.
Gen Z is a generation of coffee house consumers; one third buy five or more foodservice beverages every week. Per the Project Café USA 2020 industry report published by Allegra Group’s World Coffee Portal, the coffee shop market in the US currently exceeds $45.8 billion and is anticipated to scale to more than $60 billion by the end of 2027.
Gen Z Values Sustainability – And Is Willing to Pay More For More Sustainable Products
Sustainability and climate awareness are top priorities for Gen Z and Millennials. More than 75% of Generation Z shoppers prefer to buy sustainable brands, and most are willing to spend 10% more on sustainable products, stating that sustainability is more important to them than brand names.
“We’re exceptionally excited to distribute Hope and Sesame to our café clients,” said Suneal Pabari, Co-Founder & CEO of The Roasters Pack. “It’s an incredibly innovative product that is pushing forward on environmental sustainability – which is exactly the direction that specialty coffee should be heading. Not to mention the fact that it steams great, is healthy and of course, tastes so dang good.” The Roasters Pack Wholesale is a specialty coffee distribution subdivision of The Roasters Pack, the largest coffee subscription in Canada. The wholesale division distributes essential supplies to more than 50 cafés in Toronto, the Greater Toronto Area, and Southern Ontario.
Leading Influential Cafés are Sesamemilk’s Early Adopters
The Green Line Café, a five-door coffee chain in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, whose primary client base is Gen Z and Millennial consumers, has also added Hope and Sesame® Barista Blend Sesamemilk to its everyday selection of alt milks after sampling Barista Blend at New York Coffee Fest in March 2023.
The Green Line Café noted on its Instagram page that “In addition to pairing really well with espresso to make super tasty lattes, sesame milk is an incredibly sustainable and planet-friendly plant-based milk. Sesame is a hearty drought-tolerant, self-pollinating, naturally pest-resistant crop, AND Hope and Sesame uses upcycled seeds already used in sesame oil production to make their milks extra low waste!”
Planting Hope showcases Six Innovative Café Beverages at the 2023 Specialty Coffee Association Expo
Hope and Sesame exhibited its full range of Sesamemilk flavors at the Specialty Coffee Association’s Specialty Coffee Expo in Portland, Oregon, April 20-23. As the café industry’s largest national trade show, the exhibition is a leading source of innovation and ideas for the café industry, from independents to major chains.
In addition to a hot espresso Sesamemilk latte, at this year’s Expo, Hope and Sesame® sampled six innovative beverages featuring Hope and Sesame® Barista Sesamemilk, including several non-coffee-based beverages. The full menu was well-received by Expo’s audience of roasters, distributors, café chains, and independent cafés, who often stopped to sample one beverage and ended up staying to try them all:
“The response we received at the Specialty Coffee Expo was outstanding,” said Julia Stamberger, Co-Founder and CEO of The Planting Hope Company. “We were excited to showcase Sesamemilk in a wide variety of beverages, from matcha to refreshers, understanding that some of the fastest-growing segments of the café beverage industry are iced beverages and non-coffee beverages.”
