well, my final verdict is..... the instant is fine. Not a single thing wrong with it. I don't really see the point of instant since it takes me just as long to make instant kava as it does for me to shake up an AluBall, but I could see where this was very useful for travelling or shitty faculty meetings or other forms of torture where other preps aren't possible. There was absolutely nothing objectionable about this and it tastes like grog. You have to keep stirring it because it settles very quickly
OTOH, at $23 for 2 oz, that makes it roughly double the price of comparable products from BKH and KWK but a tad cheaper than GHK.
I don't really know enough about instants to determine if this is a good purchase or not in terms of monetary value. Certainly the product itself is fine.
but btw, subsequent experience with their Solomon Gold, which is not gold, btw, just as the Vanuatu green is not green, was even more favourable than my first impression. This is a heavy kava which is surprisingly mild to drink, quite pleasant, with long-lasting pain killing effects. Which is a good thing because I have so far ordered 4 lbs of t, so it's nice to discover I like it more than I originally thought, and I liked it just fine before.