Whale Oil

Whale oil comes from the fat on whales. It's a highly prized commodity that comes at a steep cost. Whalers venture far out to sea in search of whales. While the entire animal is used and seen as valuable, oil is the easiest to store and lasts for years even in less than ideal conditions. It's primarily produced in northern Kos and then exported further south. Due to the region's near monopoly on whale oil, it's managed to maintain indepedence. Whale oil is first boiled down while at sea, and due to this, many contaminents from whale meat or seawater get into the initial barrels. There are two main kinds of oil that come from different species of whale. The first is liquid oil which is liquid at room temperature. It comes from Grey whales and Oikea whales. It's often golden in color and has a strong fishy smell until further processed. It's mostly used in lamps and as machine lubricant. It's graded based on purity with the highest grade having been refind five or six times to remove impurities. The second type of oil is block oil which is solid at room temperature. This primarily comes from Southern Crowned whales and Hummer's whales. This is mostly used in cooking, soap making, and for cheap candles. It can be sold in small blocks, and like liquid oil, and block oil can be refined for greater purity. Other whale species produce similar oil. Whale wax is a notable byproduct from Noto whales in refining liquid oil. It's commonly used in cosmetics notably lipstick. Some also try using the wax in ink production, but limited availability makes it unviable for full time production. On shore, oil is purified in large refineries set up along the wharfs. It's a hard and unpleasant job, and the oil is boiled to temperatures that cause it to burn skin on contact. Pay is often poor, and even though most of the oil makes it to the finished product, the cost of whale oil makes it an expensive business. Often times, in the process of filtering out impurities, some oil remains which is sold as the cheaper less refined oil where most of the profit is. It takes about a month to fully refine oil from start to finish from the whaling barrels.

Type

Organic