Carmel Valley Coffee Roasting Co. puts the jolt in your morning cuppa.

It was first considered good for what ailed you, hailed for its medicinal value whether you were suffering from dropsy, gout, scurvy, or just a bad case of the King''s evil. "It quickens the spirit and maketh the heart lightsome," attests one of the first testimonials for the drink known as coffee, "having many excellent virtues."

Coffee is not really prescribed much for gout anymore, but it continues to be the preferred wake-up prescription for millions of folks all over the world. It''s the caffeine we may thank for that quickening of the spirit; one good cup o'' joe will get your heart beating 15 percent faster and kick up your metabolism by 25 percent, just the jump start a lot of us need for an early reveille.

Coffee has long been the favorite brew of Dick and Barbara Ely. It was a hobby that they spent a couple of years traveling around to research back in the early ''90s. Since then it''s become a thriving commercial pursuit for the couple, with four coffeehouses all over the Peninsula pumping out twenty-something varieties of hot coffee drinks and almost as many cold coffee concoctions. Since America discovered that a cup of coffee made the right way shares many of the same virtues as a glass of fine wine, coffee has become big business, but one that ultimately is only as good as the beans from which it begins.

The Elys opened Carmel Valley Coffee Roasting Company in 1994 at the Mid-Valley Shopping Center. That''s where their American-made San Franciscan coffee roaster does its magic, emanating the arousing scent of roasting beans throughout the neighborhood each day. Tina Muia holds the position of roastmaster, working closely with managers April Allard and Penny Rueckl. Tina and Dick select from some two dozen varieties of beans to arrive at around 15 basic blends. The beans are roasted at the Carmel Valley site before being sent to stores at the Barnyard, on Ocean Avenue in Carmel, and most recently, to the concession at Bay Books in downtown Monterey, where they''ll be freshly ground just prior to brewing.

"Dick will come in and say, ''Hey, let''s try this,'' and we''ll come up with a new blend," says Tina. "That usually means choosing two to three beans that complement each other, some being acidic and others having a smooth flavor."

After growing up in Seattle, starting as a barrista at an early age and spending 18 years in the coffee business, Muia knows her beans. "The best beans are arabica, and that''s the only kind we buy. Robustas are the other kind, and they''re mainly used for canned ground coffee. The general rule is the higher the elevation the beans come from, the better the flavor."

Again, just as with wine, the beans are given the name of their place of origin, mostly from equatorial regions around the world. But don''t confuse the name with the type of roast it''s given. A French or Italian roast doesn''t mean your beans came from Europe. "That actually refers to the length of time the beans are roasted," Muia explains. So the Sumatran coffee you''re drinking was given a longer turn over the flame if it''s a French roast than if it was destined to become a Fog Lifter.

Don''t, however, assume that you get more jolt from your juice if it''s a dark roast. Coffee beans may all be green when they begin, but the shinier and darker they become over a long roasting period, the less acid and caffeine they contain. And something else that may come as a surprise—the espresso you''re slugging back for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up actually contains less caffeine than a cup of regular java. It''s the bigger slug of lighter-roasted coffee that''ll put more spring in your step.

More coffee FYI: The best espresso is a blend of three beans, and the formula is one ounce of grounds per two ounces of water. A latte is a one-ounce espresso met with a 10-ounce shot of milk. And a cappuccino is equal parts espresso, steamed milk, and froth. If you order your froth "wet," you like it milkier; "dry" and you like it frothier.

Non-fat milk makes the best froth, according to Muia, but what''s the real trick to getting it just right? "It has to be ice-cold," asserts Muia, "no matter what kind of milk you use." Armed with this knowledge, you may now order well.