Received the whole root today. Smelled great upon opening, not much difference though compared to their mahakea except for an incredibly strong piney woody smell. As for effects, well I did two things today so far. First, I soaked a handful of roots in water for 30 minutes before chewing them into a thick pulp (chewing them alone nearly got me kunked heh) which is now soaking in warm water until tonight when I strain it. I want to get the most out of these. I'll let ya know how that prep goes tonight.
Then out of anticipation to actually consume these whole roots, I used my big coffee grinder to grind the roots into a nice flaky powder which prepared normally.
I feel like there was a much fresher taste, that strong woody piney aroma is still pulsating through my taste buds and I didn't get that with the original powdered form of this strain from kona kava. Not much difference to explore other than that.
So far though, I'd recommend it to anyone who really likes the kava experience as it's pretty cool to get the pre-ground roots however, I'd much rather invest in Paradise Kava's frozen kava pulp.
Excited to try out my chewed up root pulp though.