Lane Limited Holiday Excursion

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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!

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!