By Sacha Delfosse – editor bars&clubs
Industry veteran Jason Crawley is set to unveil his Imperial Shaker machine at the Top Shelf boutique drinks festival, which will be held in Melbourne on February 9 and 10.
Billed as the world's rarest and most expensive cocktail machine, and inspired by a 200-year-old line drawing, Crawley’s Imperial Shaker is a six foot tall, floor-mounted device made from powder coated cast iron, solid brass fittings and adorned with four bespoke silver-plated cocktail shakers.
The first 12 of his Imperial Shakers are already being pre-sold around the world, Crawley said, to "serious collectors and legitimate cocktail enthusiasts and people who like to drink in the fanciest way imaginable".
"Crawley’s Imperial Shaker represents the finest in elegant Victorian antiquity and craftsmanship," he said.
The machines are also subtly branded with a crowned pineapple, a symbol which Crawley said was used as "a cultural signifier of affluence and hospitality".
Crawley has also hinted that world-renowned bartending legend, Dale DeGroff, will be heading to Australia later this year to be one of the first people to "crank the handle" of an Imperial Shaker.
He said he plans on donating one of the machines to the Museum of the American Cocktail in New Orleans, USA.