Lane Limited Holiday Excursion

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.

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.

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.

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!