On a bright Saturday in Royal Oak, you might catch sight of a vibrant booth: jewel-toned banners, hummingbirds and butterflies printed on colorful sachets, and a woman who seems to glow from the inside out, smiling as she pours samples of drinks.
That’s Jing DiPiero of Plants by People. Her plant-powered blends ship to kitchens across the country, bringing centuries-old herbal wisdom into modern daily life.
“I want people to see the beauty of nature,” she says. “The colors, the harmony…that’s what’s been supporting us for millennia.”
Jing’s journey began in Beijing, where her maternal grandparents—devoted home cooks—took her along to open-air food and herb markets. “They cooked based on the season and how everyone felt,” she recalls. “Cooking was the way they showed their love to us.”
At age five, Jing developed antibiotic resistance. Sick and exhausted, she became the patient of her family’s neighbor, a renowned herbalist. Around the same time, she watched this same neighbor help her grandmother recover from COPD—an illness Jing assumed would take her life. “That was a pivotal moment for me,” she says. “Seeing her health come back made me a believer.”
From then on, Jing was the herbalist’s shadow. She trailed him through stalls of dried roots and fragrant leaves, learning which herb soothed a stomach, which nourished the blood, which helped a young girl sleep.
Years later, after moving to the U.S. for graduate school, Jing’s health faltered again. A diet heavy in fast food left her with severe acne, made worse by harsh topical treatments. “It was humiliating,” she says. “I was starting my first job, ambitious, but I woke up every day with a face covered in breakouts.”
She returned to Beijing for an herbal detox. “It wasn’t quick—it took a year and a half for my skin to calm down—but it changed my life,” she says. “This is a lifestyle. Not something you do for a week and then forget about.”
When COVID hit, Jing fell ill before vaccines were available, with a high fever that lingered for days. “We were all so vulnerable,” she says. “Medicine isn’t always the lifesaver. I wanted to create something that helps us count on our own immunity.”
From her basement, she began developing Plants by People, vetting over 100 suppliers, insisting on purity in every ingredient. She even hired a food scientist. After a year of formulation and testing, she launched her first line in August 2021.
Today, Plants by People offers five functional blends: Energy, Immunity, Digestion, Detox, and Relaxation. Each is built around a “hero herb” and paired with fruits and lemon for both flavor and synergy. “We’re down to four ingredients per blend,” Jing informs me, “with lower calories, less sugar, and the same functional benefits: you’ll hydrate and nourish at the same time.”
The Immunity blend, for instance, combines 1,000 milligrams of elderberry, long used by Native Americans to fight colds, with 640 milligrams of astragalus, a staple in Asian immune support. The Relaxation blend, which Jing says one grateful hockey dad swears by, pairs pomegranate for blood sugar balance, with rhodiola to calm the nervous system.
Jing’s ingredient rules are strict: no artificial or natural flavors, no additives, no maltodextrin. “If I can’t recognize it from nature, it doesn’t go in,” she says. Her customers range from a 70-something boutique owner in Florida who chooses blends daily based on her energy needs, to a dedicated pickleball player who uses Bloom as a pre-workout boost, to parents sending Glow in their kids’ lunch bottles. Teachers stock up before the school year. One family even packed Immunity sachets for a safe, healthy trip to the Paris Olympics.
“There’s no side effect,” Jing says. “You can have two or three a day. And it’s good for kids too.”
While the brand’s primary reach is online, Jing still connects in person at the Royal Oak Farmers Market as often as her schedule allows. “It’s like coming back to the good old days,” she says. “I grew up going to markets. It feels like home.”
Jing’s commitment to wellness extends to our community: she sponsors youth sports programs, including the Lindsay Hunter Foundation’s seventh-grade basketball team and the Daniel Cleary hockey camp.
In just a few years, Plants by People has been featured in Forbes, VegNews, CBS, and NBC. It’s a tribute to both to the quality of Jing’s products and the vision behind them: to make functional, all-natural hydration part of everyday life.
“I give a hundred percent of myself to this brand,” Jing says. “My family uses this product day in, day out. I give my customers the same love I give my family.”
To find the right Plants by People blend for you, visit plantsbypeople.com
“I wanted to create something that helps us count on our own immunity.”