I have never eaten it straight, but I think one issue with that is the body's ability to digest the cactus. It can be very hard. I can't imagine powdered cactus would taste much better than tea. I pushed through the snot tea a few times with decent success. But the flavor...... oh god the awful flavor...... The last time I did the tea, I hit a very well defined point where I no longer could get any more in me. It was excruciating, but turned out to be a very good trip.
The latest go involved dehydrating the tea down to a resin goo, and gel capping it. It was a very intense, mind melting, hyperspace traveling experience. One of the most intense trips of my life, but keep in mind I still have not done a full on aya trip.
I ended up with a lot of caps to swallow, and it took a good bit of work to dehydrate all the tea. But it was well worth it. That cactus is certainly a divine thing.
If you do gelcap the sticky resin like I did, it works really well to roll the resin in flour into long wires or rods or whatever you want to call them. If you roll them to a similar diameter of the cap they will slide right in. If you strain out as much plant matter before hand, you will end up with less caps (something I didn't do). One big plus, if you do end up with lots of caps, you will hydrate yourself before hand. You will want to hydrate yourself anyways, for sure.
Most importantly:
This cactus absolutely loves weed. It is the definition of synergy. If you feel like you're almost where you want to be, but not quite, do a couple tokes. Trust me, you will not regret it.
Be an adult only when necessary.