Sure, to you it may just be a cup of joe, or a half-caf soy latté with hazelnut. But for others — like Ryan Jensen — it’s much, much more. Jensen is a barista at Murky Coffee on Capitol Hill, and this Saturday Jensen gets to show off his barista skills as a competitor in the fourth annual United States Barista Championship. The competition, held in Seattle, will determine the U.S. competitor in the World Barista Championship, to be held in Seattle this April.

DCist was clued in to Jensen’s competition by an interesting story on last night’s All Things Considered. In the piece, Murky Coffee owner and self-described “coffee geek” Nick Cho refers to his stores as selling “third wave” coffee — one step beyond the coffee of Starbucks and Caribou and two steps past Maxwell House et. al. The beans at Murky come from Counter Culture Coffee, a roaster of sustainable organic coffee beans. Counter Culture equipped Jensen with a prototype blend of espresso for the U.S. Barista Championships; we hope the judges are duly impressed. The championships have been dominated by baristas from the Pacific Northwest — and we think it’s high time the East Coast got some coffee props.

If you’re interested in sampling the blends at Murky, you can find their stores in Clarendon (at the former location of Common Grounds) or at Eastern Market, next to Bread & Chocolate. And if you’re a coffee geek like Cho, Coffee Geekfest III (an “Espresso Tasting XXtravaganza”) will take place at Murky’s Arlington location on Sunday, March 20th at 7:30 p.m. No word yet if Counter Culture’s prototype blend will be available, but we hope so.

(Image of Murky’s Jensen practicing his skills on a Friday night, from the Murky Coffee website)