The Real Sweet Shop: Free Raspberries for Soho

We all know the feeling. It is somewhere around three in the afternoon, the morning's energy has long since evaporated, the inbox has stopped making sense, and the biscuit tin begins, quietly, to call. It is one of the small, universal defeats of British working life — and this September, Soho is being offered a better way through it.

From Tuesday 22 to Thursday 24 September, the berry company Driscoll's is opening 'The Real Sweet Shop': a three-day pop-up that looks like an old-fashioned sweetie shop but trades in something rather different. In place of the jars of boiled sweets and the slabs of fudge, the treats on the counter are naturally sweet, juicy raspberries — and, for three afternoons only, every single one of them is free.

There is a reason behind the sugar rush. New research commissioned by Driscoll's finds that one in four of us hit our lowest energy point between three and four o'clock, and that around half then reach straight for biscuits, cake or a packet of something processed. The pop-up's argument is that the 3pm treat needn't be a compromise: a handful of ripe raspberries scratches the same itch, with rather more to show for it. High in fibre, naturally low in sugar and carrying a proper hit of sweetness, they are, as the shop's billing has it, a real sweet worth swapping for.

It helps that Driscoll's knows its berries. The company has spent more than a century breeding for sweetness and flavour — only its finest fruit is allowed to carry the name — and 'The Real Sweet Shop' lands right at the peak of the September harvest, when the raspberries are at their absolute best. In other words, these are not merely free raspberries; they are some of the best raspberries you are likely to taste all year, arriving at the one moment they are truly worth crossing town for.

The health case is made, with a straight face, by consultant dietitian Sophie Medlin. Afternoon cravings, she points out, are completely natural — we simply tend to answer them out of habit with the nearest sugary thing. Fresh raspberries, high in fibre and low in sugar, offer that sweetness alongside genuine plant nutrients: 'a delicious daily swap,' as she puts it.

For all the good sense, though, it is meant to be fun. Each afternoon a clock counts down to 'Sweet Hour' at 3pm, when the doors swing open and the raspberries appear — served fresh by the punnet, or spooned over a naturally honey-sweetened frozen yoghurt made with Greek yoghurt and kefir. And because no self-respecting Soho pop-up is complete without a game of chance, visitors can spin the Raspberry Roulette wheel for the chance to win punnets of berries, a Le Creuset food flask or Morrisons vouchers.

At a shop where a punnet would normally set you back three pounds, "free" is a genuinely tempting word — and three days is not very long.

You will find The Real Sweet Shop at Chin Chin Ice Cream, 54 Greek Street, Soho, W1D 3DS, open from 3pm to 6pm, Tuesday 22 to Thursday 24 September.

Come hungry, come at three, and give the biscuit tin the afternoon off.