For any coffee lover brave enough to venture through the coffee saturated air and contact caffeine high in the D.C. Convention Center this past weekend, both the Mid-Atlantic Regional Barista Competition and Millrock Latte Art Championship proved to be a feast for the nose, as well as the eyes.

Saturday evening, baristas from near and far – one from as far as Vancouver – competed in the Latte Art competition. Eleven latte pourers, including Murky Coffee’s Katie Duris, made it to the finals, where a crowd gathered to watch and learn some of the intricacies of latte art. Although winning her “heat” the day, first time finalist Duris fell short of a prize-winning top three spot. The $5000 grand prize went to Ben Helfen from Octane Coffee in Atlanta.

Although the latte art was a visual crowd pleaser, much of the buzz was saved for Sunday morning, when the barista competition would take place. Unfortunately, no amount of coffee would have gotten me out of bed on a Sunday morning, but the entire event was semi-live-blogged by Octane’s baristas, accompanied by some mouth-watering pictures.

In the end, Murky’s Randy Kindle placed fifth in the finals, and teammate Anne Boatner took second. In addition to her fame and glory, Anne also won her very own karate trophy! Who knew baristas could be ironic and snarky?

Congrats guys, for the strong D.C. showing.

Photo by Arielinha