Jay Caragay started out selling snowballs in Timonium in 1999.

But since that business was seasonal in spring and summer, he turned to the coffee business in winter to supplement his income.

The snowballs are long gone, and while his corporate name is still Jay's Shave Ice, it's for a different kind of business.

Caragay, 40, a Cockeysville resident, owns the espresso bar Spro, in the Towson Public Library, as well as the soon-to-open cafe of the same name at 851 W. 36th St., in Hampden.

Awaiting final Baltimore City approval before opening, Caragay gave coffee lovers a taste of things to come, when Spro hosted Baltimore's first "barista jam" on Feb. 13.

As a crowd of baristas milled around him, Caragay talked about "a vision of coffee that we want to present to the public."

Caragay's first retail store is central to that vision, he said, calling it "a chance to think out of the box and take new risks without alienating our original customers."

He said it's also an opportunity to train young "barista" coffee servers and "create a model where a barista can earn a living wage and raise a family."

His heroes in the specialty coffee industry are cafe operators and independent coffee suppliers such as Caffe d'Bolla owner John Piquet, in Salt Lake City, and Anthony Ruse of Volta Coffee and Tea, in Gainesville, Fla.

"These are people I've connected with over the years," Caragay said. "I've gone out to see their operations."

Young baristas are buying into Caragay's vision and making him something of a local hero.

"People know who he is," said Lindsay Wailes, a barista at Spro who describes herself as "really into the coffee community."

She met Caragay at a barista jam last summer in Easton, Pa., where she said, "I had a ridiculously good time."

Now, Wailes commutes from Westminster to work at Spro.

"I do have a long commute, but I want to work for a really great coffee shop.

"I am a barista here."

"Barista" an Italian word, roughly means a bartender of coffee. Although the event was designed to attract casual coffee drinkers as well as connoisseurs, it drew mostly young professional coffee servers, like Rice, of Spro, and Noble, of Town Hill Coffee in Philadelphia.

The barista jam was filled with workshops ranging from cupping to latte art, the texturing of milk to create patterns, like leaves or hearts.

While the competitions and workshops were meant to be educational and fun, they also had practical applications. The alternative brewing methods are important to baristas, Caragay said.

"Part of our job is to figure out which brewing method offers the optimum flavor for each coffee," he said.

Scott Conary, head judge for the World Barista Championship this June in England, is glad to have smaller specialty coffee businesses like Spro as alternatives to Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts and other chains.

"I think any time you change the scale of something, you potentially change it toward mediocrity," Conary said.

Caragay agrees, but still would like to expand his business by opening more Spros and training more baristas.

The weekend event begged one nagging question: Do casual coffee drinkers really care about the subtleties and details of making a good cup of Joe?

"It always surprises me how many people do care," Caragay said. "Sometimes, it's as simple as letting them taste it. Then, they care."

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