People are only just realising why ice creams are called 99s… and it has NOTHING to do with price
PEOPLE are just realising why Flake ice creams are called 99s – and it’s got nothing to do with the price.
Inflation means you can no longer pick up a Flake 99 for 99p – leading many ice cream superfans to wonder where the name actually comes from.
Britain’s first ice cream parlours were opened in the 1920s and 1930s by Italian immigrants – many of whom had fought in the First World War before moving to Britain.
Among the earliest shops were Stefano Arcari’s on 99 Portobello High Street in Edinburgh and the Dunkerley family’s shop on 99 Wellington Street in Manchester.
Both of the historic parlours claim that they came up with the idea of snapping a Cadbury Flake in half and planting it in an ice cream – but Cadbury itself offers a different version of events.
The chocolate maker refuses to take an official stance on the origins of the Flake 99, saying that “the real reason for ’99’ Flake being so called has been lost in the mists of time”.
But a works paper in the company’s archive speculates that the name comes from an obscure piece of Italian history.
Although it is now a republic, Italy had a king between the country’s unification in 1861 and a referendum in 1946 abolishing the monarchy.
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The King of Italy was said to keep a specially chosen guard of 99 soldiers – with his subjects soon giving anything top-class the epithet ’99’.
Since there was no more ice-cream topping than a Cadbury Flake, Italian parlour owners in the UK started calling it a Flake 99.
An even more arcane explanation is that the number 99 is IC in Roman numerals – the initials of “ice cream”.
As with much in history, the only thing we know for sure is how little we know for sure.
What we can be certain of is that the name does not refer to the price of the ice cream – 99p in the 1920s was £66 in today’s money.
Flake 99 superfans were baffled by the obscure history of the ice cream.
Daisy said: “I’ve got 99 problems – and one of them is why it’s called a Flake 99 when it costs more than 99p!”
Laura said: “Well it’s not called a Flake Three Quid.”
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