The Bean Vagrant

Who am I?

For a more concise page about what I do with coffee, there’s also my mini-website: The Bean Vagrant.co.uk.

I’m Trevor Hyam, a self-trained, full-time barista working in the UK. I am Head Barista and trainer at the plan Cafe in Cardiff.

In 2010 I came 4th in the UK Final of the official UK Barista Championships.

For me, this was the culmination of several years of learning as a barista up to that point, and a huge achievement. Equally though, it was also just one part of an ever deeper journey into the craft, that has continued and progressed ever since. I’ve learned so much since then, and there’s always (a lot) more still to learn. Sadly not all baristas who do well in competitions are actually available for the humble act of making coffee day-in-day-out for the public, as there are many areas within speciality coffee where we can contribute and move things forward. But, as a barista, what I love is the hands-on craft of actually preparing and serving coffee, so you can come and get a coffee from me, at least 5 days out of 7, and on my days off, someone I’ve trained will be on hand, using the set-up I’ve put in place.

Coffee is what I do. It’s my profession, and my obsession! If I’m not making it, drinking it, or training our staff, I’m probably researching it, and thinking *How can I make it better next time?* Every day, at work and at home, I’m looking to understand and prepare the coffees I’m working with better; searching for each great bean’s sweet spot, and trying to understand how to deliver it more consistently.

I studied Fine Art at university, graduating in 2000. I continued painting for a while in my spare time, but meanwhile I discovered a keen interest for what I was doing with coffee in the cafe where I was working, which has since developed into a passion, and for me, the world of great coffee is easily as challenging and inspiring as what I used to do with painting.

There are many parallels that can be drawn between coffee and art, and some people say that preparing great coffee is an art. I’d describe my role more as a sort of craftsman though. As a barista you develop an intimate feel for the materials you work with, the process, and the end product in the cup. All your senses become tuned to the subtleties of the espresso and the milk, in an attempt to understand their variables and create something great.

As mentioned, in 2010, I came 4th in the Final of the UK Barista Championships in London, after competing against many of the UK’s finest baristas in a regional heat, semi finals, and then the top 6 baristas in the final. The espresso blend I created for the finals was roasted by the awesome James’s Gourmet Coffee Roasters, and was composed of washed coffees from Finca El Carmen in El Salvador (an Orange Bourbon varietal), The Shoye Cooperative in Sidamo, Ethiopia, and two separate varietals (a Typica and a Bourbon) from Finca Santuario in Colombia. After preparing espressos and cappuccinos for the judges, I used my blend to create a Signature Drink which was based around the dessert of Key Lime Pie, which complemented the clean and citrusy flavours that were natural characteristics of the coffee I used.

I also competed in 2009, where I won my regional heat (the South West and Wales), and then ranked 12th in the UK in the semifinals. But, clearly, I improved on this further in my 2nd year competing in 2010, above, by getting through the semifinals to the final, and ranking 4th in the UK!

What’s The Point?

…in terms of this site, there are several main aims:

> To convey my passion and enthusiasm for coffee.

> To share ideas, techniques and achievements with like-minded people who sincerely care about coffee as a drink, and as a craft, rather than just a commodity.

> To promote awareness, appreciation and respect for coffee and espresso as a speciality cuisine in its own right, which, at its best, parallels the worlds of wine, or fine food made by the best chefs in terms of complexity of taste, quality, and the skill, passion and dedication needed to perfect it.

> This site acts as a sort of coffee-journal for me too, enabling me to keep a log of my coffee experiences and opinions over time, in the hope it may aid my ongoing learning process.

Where on Earth am I?

I can currently be found making coffee at the plan cafe, in Cardiff city center (9-5 Monday to Friday, usually), and have been there since March 2007. The plan is a lovely little independent cafe with a nice atmosphere, that’s been going since about 2002. It’s situated in one of Cardiff’s beautiful and unique Victorian arcades, which are packed with original features and house many small businesses. The cafe serves simple but tasty home-cooked food, prepared with ingredients which are often organic and locally sourced, and there are lots of vegetarian and vegan options. We serve an extensive range of speciality coffees (and teas) – from a house filter and seasonal cafetières through to espresso, cappuccino (which we serve in a proper, traditional, small 6oz cup!), and flat whites (a drink that can indicate and communicate great coffee, when made properly!).

I serve an ‘espresso of the day’. This forms the basis for all our espresso drinks on that day. What coffee this is will often change, so that I can offer you a varying range of exciting flavours and origins, that are the freshest seasonal crops from around the world. Sometimes it will be an in-season blend from a mixture of farms and countries, sometimes a single country, or even a Single Origin from just one part of one single estate – check the blackboard to see exactly what’s in your coffee today!!!

The plan is a sizeable, predominantly food-focussed cafe, and is therefore NOT a small ’boutique’ style espresso bar that can concentrate primarily on the coffee, as such. The desire to produce truly great coffee is neither the original nor the main focus of the cafe – it’s more an aspiration that I’ve brought with me, and which I have strived to gradually nurture, and constantly progress, since arriving in 2007.

Naturally this makes for lots of challenges when attempting to develop, produce, and sustain wonderful, artisan-style coffee amongst everything else we do, especially with a high turnover of very young, part-time staff and students, who have varying levels of interest and appreciation for good coffee, and for the craft of the barista. It is not my cafe, and therefore, I have developed what we do with the coffee within certain constraints, and there are lots of additional things I would ideally like to do with the coffee, to take it to an even higher level, but am not able to. But, through a genuine passion for what I do, and a lot of dedication to developing and maintaining standards and training staff, we have gradually earned a great reputation for the coffee side of things in particular. There are lots of things that make the cafe great, but the most notable publicity we have received throughout the UK has been generated more specifically from what I have done with coffee, both in the UK Barista Championships, and also at the cafe itself (such as our inclusion in the Independent’s 50 Best UK Coffee Shops).

As head barista and trainer, I’m able to provide constant and continuous in-house training and quality control, to an exacting standard, full-time. I also look after all the little subtleties like most of the constant grinder adjustments, adjustment of espresso brew water temperatures, diligent machine cleanliness, and careful management of the varying selections, and the freshness, of the coffees we use for espresso from our top microroasters. This all helps to support our baristas’ skills at varying levels, accelerate their learning of techniques, and enable them to attempt to achieve good coffee more easily and consistently. And so, hopefully we can offer something really special to those seeking us out, and to our regulars who already love what they find here.

But, truly great espresso (even good espresso) is an elusive and mysterious entity, that varies from barista to barista, bean to bean, hour to hour, and shot to shot. It’s not something, even now, that I can claim to have fully mastered – quite the opposite even. The wide-ranging degree of knowledge, and the minutely fine control over every subtle detail, that some TOP baristas successfully utilise within their craft, can still make my efforts and understanding feel totally basic in comparison, which is a valuable thing to accept, and which comes only with experience. A good barista comes to understand that it’s an ongoing learning process, and that there is always more still to learn. Anyone who tells you otherwise probably knows a lot less than they think they do! With coffee, the more you learn, the less you feel you know for sure …and the more complex and fascinating the craft becomes.

From when I first arrived at the plan, I implemented a wide-ranging set of simple yet crucial standards for the espresso preparation and milk texturing at the plan, which are now second nature to everyone working with the coffee at the cafe, which are trained and constantly monitored by myself, and which exceed what many other cafes have in place. Everyone grinds fresh for each shot, steams fresh for every drink, and watches and times their shots manually, rather than relying on buttons to do the job! It seems there are now always a few more experienced members of the team who will have gradually made fantastic progress in mastering even advanced techniques, and who will be flourishing – pouring some really good shots and some great latte art too! We continue to use amazing, fresh, craft-roasted, traceable coffees for both the espresso, and our cafetières as well. The cafe has invested in a great, state of the art espresso machine, and also a similarly fantastic grinder, which are impeccably maintained by myself, and which help us to get the best from the wonderful coffees we use. All of these things in combination are often still relatively rare in the world of coffee.

My efforts with our coffee at the plan sometimes feel pretty embryonic compared to some top boutique places that are built from the ground up with great coffee in mind. Therefore it’s not always perfect, and the quest is to always try to learn more and aim higher. I think it is fair to say however, that the standard of our espresso drinks, at their best, is at a level that is currently not often found in the UK outside the London artisan coffee scene. And so, all in all, the cafe is a great place to have a coffee, watch the world go by …and plan!