James Watt Asked for My Fool’s Fix Feedback. Here’s What I Told Him.
- 11 hours ago
- 5 min read
I originally wanted to talk to James Watt about beer. A few months later, I’ve tried his new recovery drink, become involved in its customer share scheme, and sent my first detailed feedback directly to him at his request.
That’s quite a journey from asking when the beers might be ready.
Fool’s Fix is the latest chapter in a story I’ve been following through The Hopper Reviews since June. There’s the Second Best beer venture, the customer ownership angle, and now a drink designed for when the beer drinking has finished.
But behind the launch claims is a fairly simple question: what’s it actually like, and can I honestly say it made a difference?
Disclosure: I’ve registered for the 100 ordinary shares offered through the Fool’s Fix Fellowship scheme. That’s a financial interest worth making clear. My feedback and conclusions remain my own.
This started with Second Best
On 3 June, I contacted the Second Best team after covering James Watt’s return to the beer industry. I wanted to follow the business, review the beers when available, and give my audience more than another recycled announcement.
The team replied on 12 June, thanking me for the coverage and saying they’d like to send samples when the time came.
I kept following up. By 21 August, I was asking for direct context about reports of possible brewery acquisitions and what those developments might mean for Second Best.
That distinction matters. I wasn’t suddenly appearing because a new can had landed. I’d already been following the wider story for months.
My early correspondence was with the Second Best team. More recently, the Fool’s Fix team directed me to James himself, and on 28 August he replied personally.
He addressed my questions about community ownership and expressed an interest in hearing what I thought of the product.
So I’ve now tried it and sent him a detailed account. Taste, next-morning observations, limitations, and a formulation question that matters to me personally. Being able to put those points directly to the founder adds something useful to the coverage.
What is Fool’s Fix supposed to do?
Fool’s Fix is a sparkling recovery drink intended to be your final drink of the evening. Its listed flavour is Citrus Salt + Pear, and its formula combines electrolytes, vitamins, minerals, glycine and prickly pear. The official product page also lists sugar and natural grapefruit, lime and yuzu flavours.
The company presents the formula around hydration, support for the body’s natural detoxification processes, restoration and recovery. Its science page groups sodium and magnesium ingredients with hydration, vitamin C, zinc and selenium with detoxification support, and B vitamins and glycine with restoration. Magnesium and glycine also feature in its recovery category.
In plain English, the pitch is to give your body fluid and a selection of nutrients after drinking, with the aim of helping you feel better the following day.
That’s the intended function. It isn’t something I can verify simply because I liked the drink.
The brand refers to research into its ingredients. Ingredient research and a clinical trial showing that the finished drink prevents hangovers are different things. The science page I reviewed didn't provide a finished-product trial that establishes that result.
The US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism says there’s no hangover cure other than time. This isn’t a licence to drink more, and feeling fresh isn’t proof that alcohol has left your system.
James Watt divides opinion. But where do you stand on the drink itself?
Would you give Fool’s Fix a fair try, would you need stronger evidence first, or does the person behind it already settle the question for you?
Would YOU try Fool’s Fix?
Yes, I’m curious whether it helps.
Maybe, but I’d want stronger evidence.
No, the product doesn’t interest me.
No, James Watt’s involvement puts me off.
My first can, with one fairly obvious mistake
I tried my first Fool’s Fix at around midnight, as my final drink after an evening of strong beer.
I hadn’t chilled it.
Months following the business. Emails to the founder. Then defeated by the basic concept of a fridge.
Even warm, I liked it. To my palate it was mainly lemony and refreshing, and it was easy to drink. I had no complaints about the taste, although I strongly suspected a cold can would be considerably nicer!
The next morning, I felt fine. More than that, I felt energised and eager to get on with video content and emails for the week ahead.
That’s encouraging, but there’s a fairly large qualification: I don’t generally suffer from horrible hangovers anyway. I can feel groggy and slow after drinking, but I’m hardly the ideal person to declare that something has cured a condition I rarely get.
Could Fool’s Fix have helped? Possibly. Could it have been coincidence? Absolutely.
One can and one morning can’t settle that. Even repeated personal use would still be anecdotal, rather than proof that it works for everybody.
I didn’t have another can that morning because I didn’t feel I needed one.
The question I sent directly to James
My feedback wasn’t just about whether it tasted nice.
I’m Type 1 diabetic, and I hadn’t properly considered the carbohydrate content before drinking it. Looking back at my pump history the following morning, I saw that my glucose had continued rising overnight, with an increased insulin requirement.
The figures I recorded from the can were 12.21g of carbohydrate, including 11.55g of sugar.
That observation doesn’t establish that Fool’s Fix alone caused the rise. It does make the carbohydrate content relevant to my own experience.
So, alongside the positive comments about flavour and how I felt, I asked James whether the sugar serves a functional purpose in the formula or is primarily there for taste. I also asked whether a sugar-free or substantially lower-sugar version had been considered.
That’s useful feedback from somebody who’s actually tried the drink and has a reason to look beyond the front of the can.
I’d be interested in a sugar-free version because I enjoyed this one. It’s a question about making the product more suitable for me, rather than demanding that everybody else’s drink be redesigned around my pancreas.
Where the 100 shares fit in
I’ve registered for the 100 ordinary shares offered through the Fool’s Fix Fellowship scheme.
The product page identifies those as shares in Fool’s Fix Fellowship Ltd and explains that registration is required. That detail matters when discussing what customers are being offered.
For me, it adds another dimension to following the business. It also creates an interest that readers deserve to know about.
It doesn’t buy the company a favourable verdict. If I like something, I’ll say so. If I have a question, I’ll ask it. My email to James contains both.
My verdict so far
I liked the taste. I woke up feeling good. I can’t honestly attribute that morning to Fool’s Fix after one attempt.
James personally invited my feedback, and I’ve now sent it directly to him, including the sugar question and the limitations of my first experience.
I’m still interested in the Second Best beers, and I’ll continue following that story alongside Fool’s Fix. For now, this is an early account of an ongoing conversation, rather than a final verdict dressed up as a scientific breakthrough.
The next can’s going in the fridge. Let’s establish that much progress before claiming anything more ambitious.
Hopper out!
Learn more about Fool’s Fix and Second Best
Want to explore the ingredients, read the company’s claims or follow what happens next? Here are the links:
These links let you explore the brands’ own information. My first impressions and unanswered questions are detailed above.
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