Tobaccos Lane Limited - Holiday Excursion

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	JimInks (3025)	2015-04-20		Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

The cube cut burley is nutty sweet, and is the major component. The Virginia is grassy and lightly sweet in a supporting role. The black cavendish has a very mild vanilla note, a little less so than normal, and is a minor player. The raisin and spice from the perique is very barely noticeable. The Cyprian latakia is smoky, woody sweet and once in a while, will fight for some attention with the burley. Even when it doesn’t, you still taste it. I don’t know what the topping is, but it’s sweet and a little fruity. Has a very mild nic-hit. Burns fairly cool at a moderate pace with a fairly consistent flavor. Needs few relights, and leaves very little moisture at the finish. Has a nice after taste, and can be an all day smoke.

-JimInks

8 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	SteelCowboy (685)	2012-10-17		Mild to Medium	Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

This old OTC blend pleasantly surprised me, especially given the poor reviews. Holiday is an aromatic that still held some decent tobacco flavor and an aromatic component that is sweet but not cloying. I found Holiday to be one of the better OTC aro's for my taste. BUT, then after taking a closer look at the generous size sample I was gifted I realized that I was in fact smoking the original version of this blend prior to its current manufacture by Lane Limited. I decided to write a review anyway only because if you happen to enjoy OTC's and come upon an older tin of Holiday, it's worth a try.

7 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2010-07-03		Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

I agree with Pipestud with one codicil; it does not take 50g of a pipe tobacco to provide a subjective review, if the tobacco is as meritless as this one. I smoked 5 bowls of it over a few months (when I was feeling brave!) and I find little to recommend it.

But first the good news! This is essentially an aromatic but it leaves no goo in the pipe. Further, as an aromatic, it is light in the room - far from an overpowering aroma. And the tin art is cool! Ok, that's it for the good news.

This is a broadcut blend rather than a cube cut - or at least, my 8 0z can was. The colors run the spectrum from blonde to black. Tin aroma was predominately burley with a hint of cocoa. This blend tries very hard to bite at first light and only very gentle puffing held it at bay. The flavor was uninvolving, as OTC's sometimes are, and just plain weird, which OTC's rarely are. The taste was reversed from the tin aroma - mostly some aromatic agent with burley in the background. It was a rather hot smoke, even as I was puffing gently. Why Sutliffe picked this blend up rather than a very popular OTC in a blue can is beyond me. Not recommended, unless you have some emotional tie to it from your past. I'm donating the rest of it but keeping the cool looking can. :)

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Pipestud (1829)	2005-10-16		Mild	Medium	Mild	Pleasant

I was recently told by a fellow reviewer here that one cannot truly offer a subjective review of a blend until at least 50g of said weed was consumed. I beg to differ. So, one bowl was all I needed to determine that Lane's Holiday was not for me. It's a cool, dry smoking blend that is also bland as the dickens. I think I was smoking hot air.

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	mnadz (69)	2012-07-22		Mild	Mild	Very Mild	Pleasant

This reminded me of Sir Walter Raleigh just in differant package. The only thing it has going for it is my wife liked the smell (not as much as CB White). Again, when it comes to aromatics, I want to taste the flavoring, otherwise I would rather smoke a full english blend. Now I am stuck with an 8oz can of the stuff. Don't bother...if you want a aromatic that is mild in flavoring, go buy Carter Hall. At least the tobacco of Carter Hall is good. If you want an aromatic that smokes mild and taste good, buy Captain Black White.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2013-04-24		Mild	Mild	Mild	Pleasant

As I have commented on these pages in earlier reviews, I have never met a tobacco I didn't like. Holiday match is an excellent light blend, milder than Half and Half, and a little more fragrant than Prince Albert. A little bit like Stokkebye Cube Cut, one of my favourites.

There is some casing there, but I am not sure what it is. Never having tasted the original, and warned off Holiday Excursion, I can't compare this blend to its ancestor. Good codger tobacco, I would call it, and well worth the price.

It burns a little hot when drawn too fast through the pipe, but burns consistently and gives off a good steady smoke.

The Latakia is far in the background, so don't expect something like Morley's Best or Junkyard Dog from this one. I prefer Holiday as an alternative, when other burley-latakia blends are just a little too heavy.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	hockey01 (29)	2010-10-21		Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Very Mild	Pleasant

I'm looking at the cannister pictured above and a few things stand out in comparison to the one I have: (1) the blend pictured on the tub above is called "Holiday Excursion Pipe Tobacco"; mine reads, "Holiday Pipe Mixture." (2) The slogan on the tub pictured above reads, "Aromatic Crowd Pleaser"; mine reads,"Aromatic in the pack/Aromatic in the pipe." (3) The cruise ship pictured on the tub above appears to be sailing right into the viewer; on my cannister, the cruise liner looks entirely different, more in profile, and has two small sail boats in the foreground. (4) My cannister clearly reads that the tobacco is made under the authority of Lane, Ltd., Tucker, Georgia.

Hey, I don't know if all that really matters but it looks as though the Holiday tobacco pictured on the cannister above is some sort of a knock-off of the Lane Ltd. blend. I've seen knock-off watches, perfumes, and ladies handbags, but I didn't think anyone would do the same with pipe tobacco!

Even though I believe I have the 'real' blend, it's nothing to write home about. Kind of a musty, very subtle English-like aroma in the cannister which does not translate at all to the room note. A slight bit of tongue bite adds to the "blah" of the whole experience. One of the old-timey 'drugstore' blends, decent, but not one of the best in my opinion.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	chetking (54)	2010-08-21		Mild to Medium	Mild	Mild	Pleasant

UPDATE: 08/19/2011 - If tobaccoreviews.com had half-star ratings I would adjust my 3 star rating UP to 3 1/2 stars! This blend is perfect for we sweet aromatic tobacco lovers who find it hard to get into the English blends, many spiked with Latakia and other exotic spicey leaf. I'd call this an English Blend Lite and an excellent "bridge" or "crossover" mixture.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: Just delighted to see some version of the iconic Holiday pipe tobacco of yore still afloat. Holiday, before the "Excursion" qualifier was added, was a supermarket and drug store staple. In the 50s and 60s it was right up there with the likes of Kentucky Club, Mixture 79, Revelation, Union Leader et. al.

My 8 oz. tin says it is manufactured by Sutliff, Richmond, VA. But at the moment I'm a little confused as to who is really on "first," i.e. the blender, manufacturer, marketer, etc. as I've seen the names of several tobac houses tossed around in various capacities in the reviews. My Holiday Excursion version is a tad less sweet than how I remember it to be, and I detect a slight trace of Latakia, both in the aroma at opening and while smoking.

The leaf appears to be a broken flake and cube cut combo, with a healthy, brown hue appearance throughout. It smokes cool, stays lit in the pipe, a sort of subdued, restrained sweetness with no after taste. As I get into this tin I will probably grow to like it more and more... For the memories and present company I give it three * stars. Recommended. Keep the classy old Holiday cruise liner sailing!

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Percy Dovetussel (7)	2009-07-01		Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant

I too as a small lad was required to fill the pipe of an old gentlemen who roomed at a place that I waited in the afternoons after school for my parents to return from work.

As I went into the dining room there was always 3 canisters of Tobacco. One was Half and Half, another carried the familiar spirit of Prince Albert and the third I found very interesting because it bore an illustration of a Cruise Liner seemingly arriving at an exotic location. "Holiday" with it's green label seemed to be refreshing in a romantic sort of way.

I would then enjoy the smell as curls of smoke wafted up into the air and tingled my senses with aroma! This indeed was a "Holiday" from the world of reality as I pondered what it would be like to smoke that brand some day in a pipe of my own choosing.

Well, as time went by I lost the memory of the fond hours as I sat among the adults who smoked their blends, and when I came into my own in the late 1960s, the local tobacco seller drifted to brands such as Flying Dutchman and Borkum Riff, Sail and other Theodorus N. opportunities.

Then in the age of sparse tobacco, what do I see available? Holiday Excursion, not quite the same label but recognized by the island situation. I must say the blend serves an unusual smoke to this now adult palate. I found it rather average but the scent that it produces is still memory lane magic!

Would I recommend it? I believe it is reserved for the souls of the youngsters who remember the past as prelude. The memory of which still lingers in the heart.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	periqueguy (43)	2009-02-14		Medium	Medium	Medium	Very Pleasant

This was the first tobacco I ever experienced as my grandfather smoked it and as a little boy I became addicted to the aroma. At 14 years old I would take one of his pipes and sneak a smoke when no one was looking every time we visited my grandparents. Although I am now exclusively an English smoker, I keep a can of Holiday around for the rare times that I have the urge to flash back and remember good ole grandpop! Of all the old time aromatic drug store blends, this is the best in my opinion.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2008-08-26		Mild	Mild	Medium	Pleasant

For those who criticize this blend for not measuring up to their "upscale" blends, I think you are missing the point. This light mild tobacco is best enjoyed with friends and family (especially those who do not smoke). It is first and foremost unoffensive. It does lack in the flavor department in comparison to BCA and others, but it does not have a lingering strong smell that also accompanies them. Something else that this blend also is lacking, the sticky stuff that trashes your pipe like other aromatics. The taste is light with burly and some vanilla, and other "holiday" spices. It really makes me feel the Christmas spirit, but not as much as Christmas Cheer, but the family hates the smell of that one. So for what it is it is not a bad smoke, it is at its best when you can not have your best, like at a family get together at a non smokers house.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2001-04-05		Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Tolerable

Trying to establish the designation as the "Duke of the Drug Store Tobaccos", a title to which not many would aspire, I tried this old Larus Bros aromatic blend, hoping that the past nagging memories were just not so. HOLIDAY: great graphics and logo of an ocean liner. Companion to my revered and esteemed Rdgeworth Readyrubbed. Icon to the past glory of 1950s smoking. Right? Wrong. This is just not a very good blend. It may have been at one time, when I had more hair and less weight. But, my memory doesn't fade that quickly. I smoked an entire pouch of HOLIDAY, a fresh pouch, and there really is nothing redeemable about it today, no more than there was years ago.

Granted, HOLIDAY packs right and springy, great unusual pouch aroma of five or six tobaccos. The first lights give a sharp, bitter taste which doesn't leave. A pale blue-gray smoke that smells refreshing. It stings the tongue at first, through the 1/3, then the second 1/3, and right through to the end. Great room aroma, lousy taste and it bites!

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Corncob3 (77)	2017-07-07		Mild	Mild	Mild	Pleasant

Just received my P&C package today, which included SuperValue Mellow, Wessex Brigade Original and this match version of Holiday. Five or six years ago, when I lived out West, I would purchase Holiday Excursion, thinking it was an old codger still in production. Only recently did I discover HE was a remake of the Holiday brand no longer in production. What P&C has done here is create a remake from the remake. Now to clear up the confusion over tin design. If by chance you have an old can of the H lying around it should show a side profile of a cruise ship with sailboats in front of it, the word Holiday at the top and the slogan Aromatic in the Pouch-Aromatic in the Pipe at the bottom. That's the original. Answering a fellow reviewer's question on who was the first to produce Holiday, that would be Larus &Brothers. Lane bought the recipe and thus a replica was born. Their tin should read Holiday Excursion-Aromatic Crowd Pleaser. Of course for legal reasons once a brand has been put to rest it cannot be re-used. Although a variation of its name and slogan can duplicate it. That being said, it's on to my review. This is a dead ringer of HE. Because I have not tried the original I cannot assess which is better. But from what I remember, this is as close as you will probably get. And it's a damn good one. Think pineapple-apple like sweetness (but not overly so) with a faint hint of spice and slight smokiness. Mild on the tongue. Burns cool but should be taken a slow pace. Glad to have found this one again which is only available in bulk. Four stars.

Pipe Used: Corncob

Similar Blends: The Lane Holiday remake.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	strongirish (249)	2009-12-28		Mild to Medium	Very Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant

I remember this green tub from when I was a youth. I love the sea so was always drawn to the tin art with it's cruise ship. I have done about 20 cruises so far in my life, but I never ran across this until recently when a fellow forum member sent me as shole tub of it. It is a cube cut burley blend with a mild aromatic casing that I beleive to be a chocolate. It has a burley cocoa taste to it but subtle, and it has a great, rich and smokey room note. It is is brown to light khaki in color and smells very similiar to SWR in the tub. It is typical of cube cuts, takes quite a few lights to get lit. It emits a thick, creamy, flavorable smoke, that has plenty of burley flavor. It does burn slow and must be smoked with the gravity fill method or it packs way too tight. It smoked down quite nicely to a dark grey ash, no dottle or just a little and no moisure. It is a pleasant smoke, but it will nip your tongue if puffed anywhere near normal frequency. It must be puffed nice and slow, more of a sip if you are to enjoy it. It is a flash back to the past, has a unique aroma, and is a great example of the old OTC blends. Because of the biting nature, I recommend it but only somewhat as novices will have severe tongue bite.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2009-07-02		Mild to Medium	Very Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

Ah, Holiday pipe tobacco, how I remember buying a 1.5 oz. box in a Thrift Drug in Pittsburgh, PA in the 1960's. As a young man, I thought of someday taking an ocean cruise to an exotic destination, just like the package portrayed. I still haven't taken that voyage, but I did like that tobacco. I have not seen it in a long time, but I'm going to try to find it online.

Objectively, I remember Holiday to be spicier than my usual Half & Half or Prince Albert. Will try to find it again.

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	periqueguy (43)	2009-02-16		Mild	Mild to Medium	Medium	Very Pleasant

This was the first tobacco I smelled and was exposed to as my grandfather smoked it. When I was 14 and we visited my grandparents, I would sneak one of his pipes and smoked some Hoilday. I became addicted to the aroma and to this day enjoy a pipeful every month or so as it brings back pleasant memories.

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	CornCob (94)	2009-02-01		Extremely Mild	None Detected	Very Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable

I was a little disappointed with this one, i thought there would be more flavour, seeing its supposed to be aromatic. I didnt particularly like the cut, and i found I was lighting it often just to keep it smoking.I couldnt detect any casing and the mixture was rather bland.I gave away the rest of the tub.

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	oldmanpipe (62)	2009-01-13		Mild to Medium	Very Mild	Medium	Pleasant

I doubt seriously this tobacco will be anyone's "ne plus ultra." It is simply an emasculated relic of better days gone by. I don't even know if it is still produced by Lane, Ltd.

In olden days, Holiday was essentially Edgeworth Ready-Rubbed with other tobacos (yes, even Latakia!) added. In certain respects, it is like Middleton's Walnut...though much better. There is simply nothing quite like it. I can't say I have a regular craving for this concoction (just as I have only intermident cravings for Chinese food) but when I do..."'tis very heaven!"

If one is after the unique Burley in Edgeworth, but wants a few riffs on the melody line, then GO FOR IT!! If you are looking for a classic American English...this blend is not for you. In fact, treasures of that genre are no-longer to be had in tin or foil-pack. Brush Creek will forever stay in my mind as the best in show for that category. Someone told me it is still produced in Mexico.

But if one is looking for an all-day smoke, this well-worth a try. It is a bit bitter; but, as Hart Crane wrote: "I like it because it is bitter, and because it is my heart."

Poetry aside, Holiday IS bitter. But if you like German food and Salt N' Vinegar chips...plus the sweetness of a Black Forest torte...there is NOTHING that can match this blend.

Treat it right, it won't bite; treat it wrong...and may the gods help you!

I like it...What else can I say?

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2006-03-19		Mild	Mild	Extremely Mild (Flat)	Pleasant

If you want to smoke something with guests or in someone else's house this is good for that. It's aroma is quite pleasing. In the taste department however there is little to be desired. It's like smoking holly leaves. YUCK!

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2005-11-26		Medium to Strong	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant

This was one of those blends that snuck up on me -- although not in a pleasant way. Of all the so called 'drugstore blends,' this was one of my top four ( along with Revelation, Country Doctor and Barking Dog).

But, one day, I was puffing away and detected a sour note I hadn't noticed before. I tend to smoke several different tobaccos, and thought perhaps this was due to that -- every so often, I have to restrict myself to 2010 and 965 (depending on the pipe) with no experiments with other blends, to get my pipes back to ground zero. But it didn't help.

And I have three large tins of the stuff! And I'm distrustful of the new Sonotube type container in terms of storage.

I decided to blend it with something else, something that wasn't up to my normal tobac demands, and I realized that it was an ideal use of the Frog Morton blends, which tend to be too light to my taste. And it worked!

It softens up with the Frog Morton (on the town, on the bayou, on the make, whatever the closing phrase might be) but retains a bit of the kick-your-aficianado-behind quality of Holiday. So now I buy the FM blends just to mix with this. Expensive, yes, but not so much as smoking the frog mixtures straight! So, I guess my recommendation should be, "Recommended with monkeying with the mix," but that's not one of the choices. Enjoy!

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2005-06-30		Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant

A well-known "drug store" blend, but at the high end of that range -- a mixture of five tobaccos. This, along with Field & Stream, is one of my regular smokes. There's no explaining how a pipe tobacco will please one smoker and try the patience of another. I have long enjoyed what strikes me as a spicy sweetness of this blend, both in the tin and in the bowl. Give it a try.

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