99 Flake

A 99 Flake (now Flake99) can refer to an ice cream cone with a Cadbury Flake chocolate bar inserted in it; a specially produced Flake bar for this purpose; or a wrapped ice cream cone product marketed by Cadbury. It was originally designed to be a cuboid, and fit into a wafer. It was later adapted for a cone.

99 ice cream

A 99 Flake ice cream, or more commonly 99, is an ice cream cone, usually made with Soft serve ice cream, rather than scooped ice cream, into which a Flake bar has been inserted, typically at an acute angle to the cone. They are traditionally sold by ice cream vans and parlours and are a typical summer holiday memory for most British and Irish people. Variations include a 99 with two flakes - often referred to as a double 99 - and a 99 with strawberry or raspberry topping sauce.

There are many references to 99s in British pop culture. Notably, the pop-electronica duo The KLF used ice cream van iconography and included the phrase "Make mine a 99" in their 1991 single version of Justified and Ancient.

For a long period of time in the 1990s, many ice cream stands sold Flake 99s for the appropriate sum of 99 pence.

Cadbury 99 Flake bar

In 1930, Cadbury started producing a smaller version of the standard Flake bar especially for ice cream cones. These were marketed under the name 99 Flake and sold loose in boxes rather than individually wrapped like the traditional Flake.

Name

The origins of the name are uncertain. One claim is that the '99' was coined in Portobello, Scotland, in 1922, by the Arcari family, who owned a well known ice cream shop there. They sold ice-creams with half a large 'Flake' inserted in the top, and reputedly gave it the name simply because the shop was sited at 99 High Street. The idea spread locally, then further afield.

Another possibility is that it was named by Italian ice-cream sellers (many of whom hailed from mountainous areas in the Veneto, Trentino, Bellunese and Friuli) in honour of the final wave of conscripts from the First World War, born in 1899 and referred to as "i Ragazzi del 99" - the Boys of '99. They were held in such high esteem that some streets in Italy were named in honour of them. The chocolate flake may have reminded them of the Alpine Regiment's hat, with a long dark feather cocked at an angle.

Another suggestion is that the initials of "Ice Cream", IC, form the Roman numerals for 99 (being 100 - 1). In practice, the number 99 is not written like this but as XCIX. It could be that the name was coined by someone who either did not know this or ignored it.

One more explanation suggests that the original length of the flake chocolate bar was 99mm, but this is an unlikely explanation as the chocolate bar preceded the introduction of the metric system to the UK.

The ice cream manufacturer Askey's first established a cone called "99". As people ordered this, "99 with a flake" would have been shortened over the years to "99 flake".

It has also been suggested that a Chinese ice-cream seller in the 1920s was approached by a group of British Deaf, who asked for extra chocolate with a doubled sign of a hooked finger. The Chinese seller, not certain what to call the chocolate flake, interpreted this sign as the number 99.

The Cadbury's website says that the reason behind the Flake being called a 99 has been "lost in the mists of time".ref|cadbury

Cadbury started manufacturing chocolate and cocoa from its first factory in 1831. The invention of the 99 Flake was 99 years later in 1930, hence the name.

References

# [http://www.cadbury.co.uk/CTBDEV2003/templates/talktous-default.aspx?NRMODE=Published&NRORIGINALURL=%2fEN%2fCTB2003%2ftalk_to_us%2ffaq%2f&NRNODEGUID=%7b3035B6A1-9D3D-4824-AB92-918F28BAD0C7%7d&NRCACHEHINT=NoModifyGuest#product_names Cadbury FAQ on names of products]

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5223328.stm BBC News story about origin of the name]