This one sounds interesting - did you enjoy it?
TwoDog: Agreed that the Purple Yiwu tends to pass away a bit fast - on the other hand, as you say, the several initial steeps can be very good. When I bought it, the retail was $15 per 250g.
Funny, I thought the Happy tuo to be quite distinctive among other Xiaguan tuos. I think I bought them in 2011 so they would be a bit more than a year in the Czech Republic, they were in Kunming before that. When young, they were less smoky, more longan-like. But if they follow the trend of other Xiaguan tuos I have for observation, the smoke will be gone in a couple of years and then it could be a good tea.
2006(?) Yunnan Tea Reasearch Institute mystery tuo. It was purchased in chinatown so I don't have a translation of the details... it appears that this was some special release, possibly harvested in 2005 and pressed in 2006. Very light vegetal/floral notes and some mouth-watering action. If steeped too hot or too long in early infusions the brew becomes undrinkably astringent and bitter.
Maybe I should have aged it instead of drinking? Almost done the whole tuo now.
Are these with "saturn logo" wrappers. If so, I know exactly this tea. Doesn't it brew up kind of like a lower end black tea - very astringent and bitter? I am not sure aging helps these, I had a few from around 2006 time, they all seem the same. How tippy was it?