I was sent several packets of Instafire to see what I thought of the product. The information said that it would even start and burn on snow, so I just had to try it. Below is a picture of the snow bank that was at the back of my house this spring Instafire burning away.
This is a granular product that says it will burn for 10 to 15 minutes so that you can catch your kindling on fire. My experience with it indicated less than 10 minutes, but plenty long enough to catch even damp kindling on fire.
You definitely want to use a BBQ lighter as opposed to a cigarette lighter.
All in all a good product. Having a few packages of this around to guarantee a fire would be a good preparedness plan.