“The only places that see better margins than that are software companies.” “People are shifting away from the way my grandparents drank coffee, which was at breakfast and made from whatever coffee was on sale — it was simply fuel,” said Peter Giuliano, chief research officer at the Specialty Coffee Association. More than half the adult coffee drinkers in America reported drinking a specialty coffee daily, according to the National Coffee Association, or roughly twice as many as in 2010. “They’re willing to pay for something unusual.” 
 
 A pound of dried green specialty coffee beans can sell for as much as $120 in today’s market, according to Andy Mullins, a retired technology executive who has planted coffee on his property east of Santa Barbara. “We probably roast more coffee at Peet’s in one day than is being produced on all the farms growing coffee here, but I’m looking at this as a cup half full,” Mr. Welsh said. Mr. Ruskey has grown coffee on his farm for more than a decade, but it is only over the last three or four years, as his coffee started winning high scores in taste tests, that other farmers have begun to try their hands at growing it.
– Things aren't so easy for avocado growers in California these days. There's more competition from Mexico and less water. And the old trees just don't bear fruit like they used to. But the New York Times reports that's giving rise to a surprising new California crop: coffee. The dense foliage of old avocado trees provides perfect shade for coffee bushes, and suddenly two-dozen avocado farms between San Diego and Santa Barbara are turning to coffee crops. There are now about 14,000 coffee plants in California—about 30 times the amount there were 13 years ago. The Times reports California appears set for the first serious American attempt at homegrown coffee outside of Hawaii. There is, of course, skepticism that California can produce coffee as tasty as that from the tropical highlands of Brazil and Indonesia. But Jason Mraz points out people didn't use to think you could grow wine grapes in California either. Yes, the Grammy-winning singer is one of those farmers jumping on the coffee train. San Diego reports Mraz has been growing avocados for years and is now making the switch. Growing coffee can be labor intensive and expensive, but one expert says California growers are targeting coffee lovers "willing to pay for something unusual." The kind of people who don't blanch at paying up to $12 for a specialty cup of coffee could provide California growers with sizable profit margins. (Coffee too weak? You can now try the "world's strongest.")