The Snoop by Maximilien Jean of Bar Le Royal

For our fourth article in our “Behind the Bar” series, the third being Jennings by Bastien Rémillieux from El Pequeño, we present you The Snoop by Maximilien Jean of Bar Le Royal a legacy he left before opening his own project, Le Flamant. This series will introduce you to cocktails that you can enjoy in the best cocktail bars in Canada.

The story behind The Snoop by Maximilien Jean of Bar Le Royal

Where does your inspiration come from behind the Snoop?

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The inspiration comes from my first visit to Bar Goto in New York, it’s been open for months and was not yet well known. The year I went there, he won the “Best New Cocktail Bar in New York” and a first place at Tales of The Cocktails. There is a small menu, extraordinarily tasty cocktails, but very discreet, in a Japanese style. Clear cocktails with a beautiful but very thoughtful and sober garnish that fueled the idea behind the Snoop. That is to say, to make a cocktail that is an explosion of flavors, but that looks like a glass of water.

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And what was the main challenge when one makes a clear cocktail like the Snoop?

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It’s about keeping the fruit and fresh side intact. Working with white spirits is fine, it’s easy to keep the side transparent by working “juices,” as with the Granny Smith apple in this case that we go to the juice extractor where we have the clarification step that becomes necessary and as the majority of the taste of the green apple is in the peel, one picks up with a juice that is green flash, so it must be clarified with enzymes to arrive with something transparent. Everything is raw in this mix, so this is the second challenge to lengthen the life of the “juice” without corrupting the taste, without giving it a taste of cooked apple, because we really want the cool side in the cocktail. So that’s why I started working with white balsamic vinegar and mirin sauce that will give it just enough acid and sugar to stabilize it.

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And the name?

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Snoop is because it’s the ultimate Gin & Juice, named after Snoop Dogg’s song, so it was a wink to this famous song.

The recipe of The Snoop by Maximilien Jean of Bar Le Royal

Ingredients:

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• 1 ½ oz of Star of Bombay
• ¾ oz Vermouth Dry Lacuesta
  • This Spanish vermouth is really interesting with its spices that are designated to go with apples such as cinnamon, nutmeg, clove.
• ¼ oz Liquore Bergamotto (privately imported from G à La Deux)
• 1 oz clarified Granny Smith apple juice
  • Method for clarified Granny Smith juice
    • I pass my apples to the extractor at juice and I let everything sit for a dozen hours with a little bit of enzymes (Pectinex Ultra) and the juice will clarify and then you separate the opaque from transparency.

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The Method

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In a mixing glass, not to have the cloudy side precisely, it pours all the ingredients (you can see the video with Manu Ruiz, the manager of Bar Le Royal). Simply then pour on a large clear glass in an old-fashioned glass, to support the glass side of water. For the decoration, it is of the lotus root that I make poach in syrup with the iris and with the flower of mallow that I dehydrate then. It’s a cocktail that is my legacy for Le Royal, because at the Flamant, it’s completely different like atmosphere and type of cuisine that is more of an Italian inspiration.

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Address:

Le Royal
1232, Avenue Mont-Royal Est
Montréal, QC
H2J 1Y1
Canada

Le Flamant
4043, Ontario Est
Montréal, QC
H1W 1T3
Canada

Goto Bar
245, Eldridge St.
New York, NY
10002
USA