i love the stuff but its a little pricey. i highly recommend using an instant kava for a week before you use any paste if you have never tried kava before. if you don't there's a very good chance you won't feel anything at all, unless you go nuts and eat at least a quarter of the whole container in one go (and likely using it all up within a matter of hours).
to avoid basically wasting your money, for a week or even better, two weeks, you need to drink kava. every night. three to five shells. when the two weeks are up, when you try the paste - you WILL feel it. there's a good chance you'll be happily amazed. if you don't want to drink kava root water (which, is probably why you want the paste in the first place) use yogi kava extract tea (it has 30% extract in it), or kaviar 30% kavalactone extract in gelcaps with the cap off (it's super slow absorbing if you have the capsules closed), or an instant kava like nakamal@home shaman instant, or vanuatu quick kava premium (mix half a tablespoon of instant kava powder with 8oz juice in a blender - drink in one go. it's palatable).
another tip is, it's best if you drink something beforehand (and maybe after if you don't like the aftertaste) that has a good amount of fat in it , like whole milk. when i first tried out the stuff, i'd mix a wad of the kava paste in a doubleshot glass of coconut milk, cause cocomilk has a lot of fat in it compared to almost every liquid (after all, it's designed for cooking not drinking)! it worked like a charm, but these days i prefer to just take the paste under my tongue and hold it for ~10 minutes til it's dissolved).
and the paste is indeed more effective when used alongside any variety of drinkable kava, as the 84% golden paste is only 1 (kavain) of the ~20 kavalactones in kava which complement and increase the effects of each other. but it's true, kavain is widely regarded as the absolute BEST kavalactone, but still
