I'm not sure exactly what that stuff is, but I do know that one of the components of it that causes problems with the rest of our equipment is
resorcinol . That greasy sh!t can eat through some rubber seals.
When a curing press first opens there's a cloud of steam/smoke that comes off of the tires for a few minutes. For lack of a better way to explain it, when that steam/smoke condenses into a liquid it forms the greasy stuff you're asking about (I try my best not to breathe it in whenever avoidable). The "sheen" that most new tires have is pretty much a result of that gunk being on the tire.
Another possible cause for the lack of initial grip with tires is possibly just the way they're cooked. The molds are mostly aluminum, and are essentially completely surrounded by steam at a regulated temperature, which makes the molds nice and hot. Between the hot molds and pressurized steam inside a bladder that inflates on the inside of the tire, the raw (green) rubber gets cooked.
Depending mostly on the size of the tire, it gets cured in the machine for a certain amount of time with the molds at a certain temperature. The rubber is forced into the mold by the expanding bladder. The little wiskers you see on new tires are the result of vents in the mold that are there to let air escape from the area between the green tire and the mold.
Since the outer edge of the tire is pressed up against the metal mold, it is bound to get just a little bit more cooked than the innermost rubber. Kinda like the crust on bread or the outer edge of pancakes. That thin outer layer of the tread will be slightly harder than the rest of it, which could also cause the new tires to have less grip than what NASCAR fans would know as "scuffed" tires. Once you wear out the crust, you're down to the soft rubber that you're expecting and the grip gets better.
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