{"id":44939,"date":"2018-12-02T14:59:13","date_gmt":"2018-12-02T14:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jomec.co.uk\/altcardiff\/?p=44939"},"modified":"2018-12-02T14:59:13","modified_gmt":"2018-12-02T14:59:13","slug":"cardiff-character-trevor-hyam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jomec.co.uk\/altcardiff\/food\/cardiff-character-trevor-hyam","title":{"rendered":"Cardiff Character: Trevor Hyam"},"content":{"rendered":"

He was one of the first to bring specialty coffee to Cardiff and a finalist in the UK Barista Championships: meet Trevor<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Trevor has been working at the plan for 11 years<\/p><\/div>\n

Starbucks\u2019 stock was down by 11.38%, according to a <\/span>statistic<\/a> released over the summer<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

The popular high-street coffee shop is facing \u201cmarket saturation,\u201d said <\/span>Fforbes<\/span><\/a>, as competition from both chains and independents is on the rise.<\/span><\/p>\n

One man who isn\u2019t struggling with the competition is Cardiff\u2019s Trevor Hyam, head barista at The Plan cafe in Morgan Arcade. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just as busy as ever,\u201d he said. <\/span><\/p>\n

Trevor has been working at independent cafe The Plan since 2007, when he moved to Cardiff with his wife to be nearer family. <\/span><\/p>\n

They attended university together in the midlands, where Trevor studied Fine Art, but it wasn\u2019t until after he graduated that he began to develop a love of coffee.<\/span><\/p>\n

What was the plan? <\/b><\/p>\n

It was Trevor who brought specialty coffee, also known as third wave, to The Plan. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He explained: \u201cPreviously the cafe served coffee but it was never done with any particular degree of skill, the beans weren\u2019t high quality beans, that\u2019s more of a desire that I brought with me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Since Trevor has been working there, The Plan has been featured in lists of top UK coffee shops for a number of newspaper titles, including The Independent<\/em> and The Daily Telegraph<\/em>. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve also competed in the UK Barista Championships,\u201d he said. <\/span><\/p>\n

Trevor was the third runner-up in the 2010 competition.<\/span><\/p>\n

He described the intensive processes of each heat and how the baristas fine tune routines with their coffees for weeks and months beforehand. <\/span><\/p>\n

There are only six people in the final.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trevor said: \u201cI<\/span>f you get through to the finals, it\u2019s almost like a chef getting a Michelin star.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a great achievement, he added, explaining how nobody in Wales has progressed as far as him since.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the plan?<\/b><\/p>\n

At The Plan it can take a year for the baristas that Trevor trains to hone their coffee skills. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s literally so much to learn with coffee,\u201d he said, \u201cI\u2019m still learning things all the time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI love what I do so that makes me want to work hard\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

He described the science involved with getting certain flavours into a cup.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Trevor is still looking to improve his technique<\/p><\/div>\n

Trevor believes there\u2019s much more to coffee than people generally realise.<\/span><\/p>\n

When asked about the hardest part, he detailed how fast-paced working in the cafe 45 hours a week can be. <\/span><\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThat\u2019s kind of the difficult aspect of the job but I love what I do so that makes me want to work hard.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Maintaining The Plan\u2019s great reputation is a full time endeavor, he said, and so there\u2019s no talk of opening any further branches. <\/span><\/p>\n

Trevor thinks that opening more cafes is the mistake that lots of places make. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMaintaining the quality between multiple cafes becomes very difficult,\u201d he said. <\/span><\/p>\n

At The Plan, Trevor describes the coffee as more specialised and crafted than in the chain<\/a> coffee shops. <\/span><\/p>\n

Though the coffee market in Cardiff has grown significantly since he arrived in 2007, Trevor said that The Plan hasn\u2019t at all been affected by the new competition.<\/span><\/p>\n

The key? He said: \u201cI have a genuine care and a passion for what I do, you need to have that to do well in coffee.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n