Here's a funny story regarding the collection...
My best friend drove back to B'ham from SoCal for Christmas. This is that one friend that we all have that you would do anything, drive anywhere for. He and I are actually closer than I am with my brother.
He came over to the house and I was showing off my cigar collection and some of my more favorite sticks. I'd just gotten the Holiday Collection the night before and hadn't made place for it in the humi yet. So, I showed him how nice the presentation was. I opened the box and told him what each cigar was and explained the differences in each. Also gave him a rough price breakdown of each cigar, if purchased separately.
As I'm getting ready to close the lid on the box he reaches in and snags one of the Anejo's and one of the Opus and proudly exclaims, "I'll take those." Normally, I wouldn't have batted an eye. We have that sort of friendship - What's mine is yours and what's yours is mine. It's always been that way.
This time was a bit different, though. I gently relieved him of his ill-gotten gain and told him that next year at Christmas we would smoke these together. I needed to let them age a bit more. Well, he looked like a scolded puppy. So, I told him that I had some other cigars that are really good and we'd go out back and smoke them on the deck. He seemed OK with that and I pulled out two 5 Vegas Shorty's and we smoked those. (Hold on before you say what you are thinking... I know there's no comparing the Shorty to an Opus, but he doesn't smoke cigars normally and to him Macanudo is a super premium. Plus, he didn't have 2+ hours to sit down and really enjoy a good smoke.) He did say that the Shorty was one of the best cigars he's had. And by the time he left, he was looking forward to next year when we could sit down and have a couple of Fuente's and a good bourbon.
He even asked me where he could get some of those 5 Vegas when he got back to Cali.
The moral to the story is: It doesn't matter if you are smoking an Opus or a dog rocket, as long as you enjoy the company then all is good in the world. - OR - Keep your hand off the Rolls, son. You'll leave prints on it. :mrgreen:
