From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.

KLF Communications' advert for "Justified and Ancient", with a quote from the lyrics: "They travel the world in their ice cream van, they've voyaged to the bottom of time. They've been to the place where the Mu-Mu mate, and the children still cry 'Mine's a 99!'"

A 99 Flake ice cream, or more commonly just 99, is a standard ice cream cornet, usually made with soft, rather than scooped, ice cream, into which a Flake bar is inserted, typically at a 45-degree angle. They are traditionally sold by ice cream vans and parlours and are a typical holiday (summer vacation) memory for most British people. Variations include a 99 with two flakes 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 "Mine's 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.

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.

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 theory (put forward by a Cadbury's sales manager, but now proved to be unfounded) was that the name came from Italy: "In the days of the monarchy in Italy the King had a specially chosen guard consisting of 99 men (The Guard actually consisted of 110), and subsequently anything really special or first class was known as 99 — and that is how the 99 Flake came by its name". The Wordhunt initiative in 2005 found that the myth actually referred to the Vatican's Swiss Guard, which traditionally had 105 members, and now has 100.

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.

A Flake 99

Yet another ingenious 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, of course, 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.

And, finally, a company known as "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".

The Cadbury's website says that the reason behind the Flake being called a 99 has been "lost in the mists of time".^[1]

A one-man business, opened in 1824 by a young Quaker, John Cadbury, in Bull Street Birmingham, was to be the foundation of Cadbury Limited, now one of the world's largest chocolate producers. By 1831 the business had changed from a grocery shop and John Cadbury had become a manufacturer of drinking chocolate and cocoa, the start of the Cadbury manufacturing business as it is known today.

The ice cream in question has gone by that name since 1930, when Cadbury's launched a shorter version of its Flake bar - called a Flake 99 - for the ice cream trade.

A strawberry 99 Flake

Cadbury now also produce a ready made, wrapped ice cream cone, similar to a Cornetto, with a Flake already inserted. These products are also called 99 Flake, and come in a variety of flavours.

1. ↑  Cadbury FAQ on names of products

• BBC News story about origin of the name