Why is Sesame Oil sold in hourglass shaped bottles?
November 26, 2013 5:58 PM   Subscribe

This is a typical bottle of sesame oil as sold in Japan. When I lived in the US there were also bottles with the same hourglass shape, usually with ridges, and only for sesame oil. Why are the bottles this shape?

I tried searching this but if there is anything it's hard to separate from people selling oil bottles. Here is a question on the Japanese Yahoo! Answers equivalent, but the one answer is just that it's to tell the bottles apart - there's no information about why that particular shape is used.
posted by 23 to Food & Drink (15 answers total)
 
hmm...I'd think the obvious answer is that the hourglass shape and ridges help you get a better grip on it when it gets greasy. Also, bottles with indentations (as in the 'waistline' here, or on the bottom, etc) allow the bottle to be taller and/or wider in other dimentions, making it appear larger and thus a better deal (ie it's a psychological trick). You see this a lot in products, like sesame oil, that are intrinsically expensive, or more expensive than similar products (like, say, vegetable oil).
posted by sexyrobot at 6:15 PM on November 26, 2013 [2 favorites]


It could be psychological marketing trickery; "Some of the major oil manufacturers have their oil packaged in hourglass-shaped bottles. This is to give the subtle suggestion of slenderness, to distract the consumer from the prevalent bias against fats or foods that might make people fat."
posted by redindiaink at 6:24 PM on November 26, 2013 [1 favorite]


Annectdotal evidence collected in my kitchen has the sesame oil bottle always getting slippery where as a lot of my other oil bottles don't. I always assumed it had to do with the viscosity of the oil or something and so the shape of bottle reflected it's tendancy to be slippery. I have no proof other than this is what I always assumed.
posted by wwax at 6:28 PM on November 26, 2013


It could just be the traditional shape that consumers have learned to associate with that food product.

This could be similar to the way generic health and beauty products mimic the brand name bottle designs, eg generic dandruff shampoo looks just like Head & Shoulders.
posted by alms at 7:41 PM on November 26, 2013


That bottle has considerably less volume than a cylindrical bottle of the same height would have, but it doesn't feel that way psychologically. It feels like you're buying more than you actually are -- which is helpful to the seller, because sesame oil is very expensive compared to other kinds of oil.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 7:44 PM on November 26, 2013 [1 favorite]


I have two bottles of sesame oil in my kitchen of different brands (one open, one not yet). Neither has the shape you describe.
posted by cecic at 7:51 PM on November 26, 2013 [1 favorite]


My sesame oil, packaged for the Canadian market, doesn't have the ridges. A Google image search suggests the ridges are not uncommon, but also not necessarily the norm.
posted by kmennie at 7:59 PM on November 26, 2013


Well, why would any bottle be any given shape, really? There are at least two important factors: visual appeal and ergonomic characteristics.

1. This shape is reminiscent of the proportions of a woman's body, and thus perhaps connotes subconsiously the same things that make people feel good about stereotypically attractive women's bodies. If you don't buy that explanation, though, it's still a visually pleasing shape whose existence suggests that some care was taken in making the bottle visually pleasing in the first place, making people feel that they're buying a quality item manufactured with attention to detail. Or, if that one doesn't seem plausible either, the shape is (at the very least) symmetrical enough to be pleasing but ever so slightly irregular enough to have some extra visual interest.

2. This shape is easier to hold than a cylinder or a sphere would be, especially when slick with oil, and unlike a cube, a rectangular prism or a pyramid, it has no corners that could easily break or pierce something. Most importantly, I think, if you grab it anywhere above the "waist," your fingers will slide toward the center of the item as you grip it, maximizing stability in the hand. And the jutting topology makes it resistant to shattering if it were to hit a surface, unlike the wall of a cylinder.
posted by clockzero at 8:11 PM on November 26, 2013


I don't think it has anything to do with sesame oil in particular.

Canola oil bottles are like that as well. Not the exact same shape, but have a narrower waist and ridges on the top for easier gripping. ie (plastic bottle)
posted by wongcorgi at 9:15 PM on November 26, 2013 [1 favorite]


My UK sesame oil is straight and squarish, but the Korean one I buy is very similar to your Japanese one. Hmmm.
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 4:20 AM on November 27, 2013


Inspired by the shape of the Coke bottle?
posted by Mister Bijou at 4:54 AM on November 27, 2013


Best answer: I'm not sure how well you can read Japanese, 23, but there's a passing explanation on Kadoya's website here about how the founding president of the company went to the States around 1965 on an inspection trip and saw something there which gave him a hint about that shape being "easier to hold and harder to drip."

I wonder what product he got the hint from? On preview, the Coke bottle seems likely!
posted by misozaki at 4:55 AM on November 27, 2013 [1 favorite]


That Yahoo Answers reply is wrong btw. I use 1 liter pet bottles of soy sauce, mirin, cooking sake and vinegar that are all basically the same shapes with lids that flip open. You can also buy big plastic bottles of sesame oil that are the same shape as a typical bottle of vegetable oil.
posted by misozaki at 5:01 AM on November 27, 2013


Response by poster: Thanks, misozaki! I had just found that and was about to post it - I guess everyone else just ripped Kadoya off. (I can read adequately but I'm still awful at Google.)
posted by 23 at 5:03 AM on November 27, 2013


I think wwax might be on to something re: viscosity and oily bottles...sesame oil might indeed take longer to dry than other oils...my vegetable oil bottles tend to get more 'sticky' than 'oily'...also, linseed oil (for oil painting, not cooking) tends to dry (mostly) in a day or two.
posted by sexyrobot at 8:22 PM on November 27, 2013


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